Potential Trademark Text Misuse - My account have been deactivate. Please help me with POA
My account was disabled due to a violation of the intellectual property policy. I received 01 Complaint Potential Trademark Text Misuse and I did not respond, so my account was disabled. I tried to find information on the forum, seller university, and write a detailed POA, but it was not enough to convince the performance team to reactivate my account.
Here is the POA I prepared; I’d want to obtain some feedback from the community so that I may write a better POA that is convincing enough so that I can recover my account and prepare the products for the year-end sale.
This is my POA:
Dear Seller Performance Team,
After our seller account was deactivated, we immediately prepared an action plan to make
changes to our workflow.
After gathering all the information, we have worked hard and found the exact root cause, the
actions we have taken to resolve the issue, and the preventive actions that will help us to
avoid such mistakes in the future. Now we would like to submit our specific plan of action:
Why is this happening?
• We understand that Amazon has deactivated our Amazon seller account due to intellectual
property infringement. The information below applies to the specific and root cause of the
issue.
Asin: B08MZF2MHS
Reason: Potential Trademark Text Misuse
– The root cause(s) of each of the Intellectual Property policy violations listed above.
• After thorough research, we identified a violation of intellectual property when we used the
Trademarks EEVEE on our detail page.
• We are unaware that EEVEE is trademarked, and we can’t use it without the permission of
the owner ( Nintendo of America Inc.)
• The use of the trademark EEVEE in the detail page is likely to confuse the source,
endorsement, or affiliation of the goods for buyers
• We didn’t know we had the option to modify the ASINs to remove the trademarked
terms. Once the trademarked terms are removed on the detail page, the listings should
automatically reinstate within 24 hours.
• We recognize we are without knowledge of the Intellectual Property Policy. We don’t
have any responses to an Intellectual Property infringement notice that led to the seller
account deactivated
• We will not evade our responsibility, and as the owner of this account, we have taken the
steps below to avoid infringement and prevent the same issue.
– The actions you have taken to resolve each of the Intellectual Property policy
violations listed above.
• We responded to the infringement notice with asin: B08MZF2MHS and approved by
Amazon removed policy violation from the Account Health Page.
• We Learn how to comply with and enforce intellectual property rights by reading and
understanding the intellectual property policy for merchants at: Specifically, section "Intellectual
Property Policy for Sellers" and section “Amazon’s intellectual property enforcement”
We understood that we must comply with all federal, state. Local laws and Amazon policies
are applicable to our products and product listings, and we may not violate the intellectual
property rights of brands or other rights owners. Amazon takes claims of intellectual property
infringement seriously. Even if a seller infringes intellectual property without knowledge,
Amazon will still take action, and the seller’s account might receive a warning or be
suspended.
We can respond to intellectual property infringement notices. Suppose we receive a caution
or warning for infringement and believe the rights owner or Amazon made an error. In that
case, we may appeal or dispute the claim specifically, we can modify the product detail page
or pages to ensure they do not infringe the trademark and then submit our appeal by going
to the Account Health page or if we believe your listing was removed in error, we may submit
our appeal by going to the Account Health page. We must provide supporting documentation
(e.g., letter of authorization, licensing agreement). Amazon will then re-evaluate the notice,
and our content may be reinstated.
• We also review Trademark FAQs to make sure our listing title abides by the product. Specifically, the unauthorized use of a trademark in creating a
detail page is infringing if it is likely to confuse the goods’ source, endorsement, or affiliation.
We understood that we need the rights owner’s permission to use a trademark on the detail
page
We may use trademarked words when the trademarked word has an ordinary dictionary
meaning.
We also know how to title compatible branded products:
[Your Product’s Brand Name] + [Product Name] + "for"/”compatible with”/”fits”/”intended for”
- [Brand of Main Product] + [Main Product Name] + (other product title elements, if
applicable)
• We have carefully reviewed our entire Amazon account and inventory to ensure that all
our listings comply with the Amazon policies and guidelines, especially the ones regarding
Intellectual Property Violations. We can compare our products to existing trademarks and
patents on the local authority’s website USPTP to guarantee compliance
with intellectual property rights.
• We also searched on the amazon seller forum about Potential Trademark Text Misuse, and we got
advice that we need to create a process to check our listings regularly, so we can prevent
this issue from occurring in the future
– The steps you have taken to prevent each of the Intellectual Property policy
violations listed above going forward
We spent a large amount of time examining the document carefully:
• Address an Intellectual Property Policy violation:
• Address Account Deactivation and Listing Level violation issues:
• Respond to a variation performance notification
Now, we already know how to handle an Intellectual Property Policy infringement, respond to
a performance notification at the listing level, and understand how to create processes in
place to avoid violation of intellectual property rights:
• Never resell branded merchandise again.
• We always review existing intellectual property before creating or selling a new product.
• We dedicated a team member to specialize in policy and compliance specifically for the
Amazon platform.
• Before listing any new products on Amazon, we will use the website
uspto or to make sure they don’t violate anyone’s intellectual property, trademark, copyright, or patent.
• We carefully name our items in a way that does not copy or mimic other product titles,
trademarked brands, detail pages, or any brand names in the item title. In the future, if
we sell compatible branded products, we guarantee to use the correct format: Title format for
branded compatible products
[Your Product’s Brand Name] + [Product Name] + "for"/”compatible with”/”fits”/”intended for”
- [Brand of Main Product] + [Main Product Name] + (other product title elements, if
applicable)
• We do not upload a trademark image or text on product detail pages without prior
authorization from the Right Owner to prevent the issue of Trademark infringement. We
would use the information only for those brands for which we have a letter of approval.
• We only use our images and designs to list products or images and designs that we have
authorized by the creator
•Now, we have two checkpoints before making the listing live. A team member would
complete each listing ( who specializes in policy and compliance specifically for the Amazon
platform) and check by another person when listing in status incomplete (who would be from
the quality department team). That would lead to the minimization of errors in listings.
• We regularly review our account health dashboard for any risks to our account
• We check all reports, notifications, emails, complaints, feedback, and reviews daily to
identify and eliminate problematic ASINs or handle complaints before they cause issues. We
must respond to any violation with a "listing level notice" to prevent further action against
the account.
• We review and update our listings monthly based on policies, agreements, and
guidelines to ensure warnings and details are to prevent complaints. Check complete
inventory regularly to ensure no intellectual property rights infringement or other issues.
• We only conduct business with suppliers who have valid rights or authorizations.
• To ensure future listings comply with policies, We will record-keeping and related
documentation, including invoices, letters of authorization, licensing agreements, and
other supply chain documents.
• We spend one hour daily educating our employees based on lessons on seller university to guarantee that our product listings are reviewed
regularly and, more importantly, that they follow policies, agreements, and guidelines. We
would ensure the listing we are creating is lawful to Amazon and does not violate the
copyright, trademark, or counterfeit of others. (We also updated the employee training plan
in the attached file)
• If we are not sure if our product is infringing, we will consult a lawyer for help to ensure we
have the right processes in place to avoid infringement of intellectual property rights
• We will hold a monthly review of intellectual property policy for sellers at ….We will monitor all policies and
applicable law changes …., which could
affect our selling account and react proactively.
We made the above-mentioned essential changes to our workflow to ensure compliance
with Amazon’s intellectual property policy and the preventive actions that will help us avoid
future mistakes. We guarantee that all the information we provide is accurate. Please
understand the case and help us have a further opportunity to continue sales on Amazon.
Best regards,
I removed the link because Amazon doesn’t allow newbies to submit more than 2 links in the article
4 replies
Seller_77IcbQKVGdZo0
Firstly the POA is far too long, I only skim read it to be honest. It needs to be shorter and more concise.
You need to drop the bit about how to list brand compatible products. This wasn’t a brand compatible issue it was a use of trademark you were not allowed to use.
I would change this bit as there is no problem listing branded merchandise. You used a trademark without permission which is totally different. Are you sure you will never list any branded merchandise again as this is a big commitment to keep to?
Are you really going to do this. Yet again this is a big commitment. Don’t say something which looks like it is untrue. You could rephrase this to say that you will spend one hour a month.
Ash_Amazon
Hello @LaPomme,
This is Ash from Amazon and would help you with your questions.
I understand that you need help to reactivate your account.
In order to help you better, kindly share with us the initial notification you received on the Performance notification at the time of the account enforcement.
You can find this on the performance notification section of the seller central page.
The forums community and I, are here to assist you with your concerns.
Regards,
Ash.