Trademark infringement account suspension
Hi All
really need some help
background to suspension, we have for years listed on another owners listing without any issue.We have now been sent a trademark infringement notice.Now here is where it becomes very dirty.The company that owns the EAN’s and registered the listing did not have a trademark.Now another company has registered the trademark, then made an violation against all the vendors that were selling the product including the owner of the listing !! I have spoken with the listing owner who as you can imagine is terribly upset. Any help to as to how I try to appeal this would be very much appreciated
Dave H
0 replies
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
@Annie_C has experience of this. I think she went after the trademark registration as it shouldn’t have been granted.
If as you say, the newly trademarked term has been in use for a long time commercially before the application it may be possible to invalidate the trademark.
Seller_sxu7tg1ecQ5ps
Regrettably it is easy to register a mark that someone else is using but not registered. The only real option is for the owner to apply for the trademark to be revoked based on their existing use. The trouble will be providing enough evidence that the name had already been established before it was registered.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
In order to get reinstated you will need:
-valid proof of authenticity of the products (invoices from the manufacturer)
-retraction notice sent by the rights owner or a successful dispute against the trademark infringement complaint (achieved by e-mailing notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk)
-plan of action (this is the easiest step)
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
Appeal the trademark with the IPO.
Sadly the IPO does not check into the validity of any trademark terms. It is the responsibility of the applicant to undertake due diligence and ensure they have a right to apply for the trademark.
Clearly the applicant has failed to undertake due diligence and as such the trademark can be revoked. any users of the term has I believe 3 years to appeal after they become aware of the trademark.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-marks-invalidation/trade-marks-invalidation
Seller_RQcNb76zbuSdV
We recently reported a trademark infringement against another seller selling the product we list and that contains our trademark, only to find out later that Amazon Infringement team blocked us from our own product containing our trademark! Still waiting the product to be unblocked after 2 weeks.
Seller_aQgP317Lr7RCQ
Well we’ve had a similar trademark dispute with a seller in Germany who actually raised a trademark complaint for a product that was retail packaged for another manufacturer. Their other items are all generic and deemed as Generic using Amaxon’s own product listing guides ‘no perminant fixed trademark and no trademark packaging’ and the other seller has broken product listing guidelines by placing their trademark in the product title.
The worst case is that Amazon have actually removed us from the marketplace in all 5 euro zones, where the seller has blatently lied about tm ownership, and actually deleted the listing after we challenged the complaint.
The other seller has refused to remove the complaint whilst the product doesnt even exist on the marketplace any longer.
What I do not understand is why clearly giving Amazon the evidence and quoting their own policy the seller performance team ignore the ‘plan of action’ and evidence and let rogue sellers operate on the marketplace in this way.
I understand the hands off approach to possible legal challenges but when the evidence is clear this seller is manipulating the marketplace why dont they actually act on the info.
It actually works both ways because not policing these fraudulent claims properly only results in companies taking others to court and Amazon losing commission.
