Rebranded Brands / "Trademarked" Brands. Piggybacking or not?
Hi,
I have noticed on popular branded items sellers register a trademark and then put the brand as a different brand to what the actual product is.
Is this allowed? I have been kicked off multiple listings for selling the exact same branded product. Because a seller has registered a trademark and called it something else without rebranding the packaging. E.g Brand Joe Bloggs - Brand on Packaging 151, Logo on Listing 151. Kicked off the listing for not selling a genuine Joe Bloggs product.
I am not talking about generic products, I am talking about mainstream brands a seller creating their own listing and just calling it their brand without doing anything else.
From my experience this is a very common practice and I have seen lots of people doing this.
It is definitely not to advantage of a customer.
When I first started selling I quickly learnt that you cannot sell an identical generic product on someone elses listing, unless the brand says “Generic” as this is called “piggybacking”.
I thought this applied to branded products to where the brand has not been changed or the product at all, the person who created the listing has simply put their own brand.
So I created my own listing after the main listing was sabotaged (keywords removed, description removed, brand changed, title changed so undiscoverable, browse node removed).
But today a competing seller challenged me on this and wanted to sell on my listing (without permission or notice).
Amazon policies change all the time!
Which is correct?
A. If someone sells a tin of Heinz Beans (example) does not change the logo or anything on the heinz beans or change the product at all and calls it Joe Bloggs Heinz Beans and the Brand on the listing is Joe Bloggs. Then I cannot sell the same Heinz Beans as Joe Bloggs Heinz Beans without the Joe Bloggs trademark sellers permission?
(from a legal perspective it would be illegal to use Joe Bloggs trademark without permission) but often Amazons policies and UK Law are different crazily!
B. I can sell my identical Heinz Beans on the Joe Bloggs Brand listing as Joe Bloggs Heinz Beans without permission?
A few examples…
ASIN B076JB9552 Brand is “Katix” on the listing but it is actually Tidyz
ASIN B076JB9552 Brand is “DPNY” but is actually Paint Factory
ASIN B07CTHG1C4 Brand is “DPNY” but it is actually Petshield
ASIN B06WWKHPWR Brand is “DPNY” but is actually CarPride.
(PS Sorry DPNY you just have really good examples 
)
0 replies
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
It basically boils down to, the brand itself needs to do something about it.
And just because Amazon’s rules state one thing, and the law states something else, the law always overrides Amazon’s rules.
The problem is, that this kind of thing just isn’t policed effectively.
But at the end of the day, I’d avoid these kind of listings like the plague. I see it fairly regularly myself, with some of the brands I sell. Eventually, they will get caught up, but who knows how long that will actually take.
