Hello, I hope everything goes well with invalidating the fraud's design. I have followed the design invalidation process which has so far taken nearly 4 months. Hopefully, the process will be concluded sometime in August. Following that, I will take the tribunal's decision to report the bad actor to Amazon for damaging my business, I will see what kind of decision will be taken against them.
I think the issue has its roots in the UK's legal system. In my case, the bad actor is a Chinese national who does not have a physical presence in the UK. The bad actor registered a Limited Company through the UK Companies House online with a fake address and fake financial accounts. As for the address, I investigated courier databases like Royal Mail, which showed no presence of this bad actor in the address they claim.
Similar to your case, I found out that this bad actor registered hundreds of generic products through the UK IPO, using the Limited Company they registered online. What's ridiculous is that you can have any design registered in your name within a few days by the IPO, while invalidating it takes nearly half a year! The UK IPO carries no checks of originality, and will register any design in your name as long as you fill the form and pay the fee.
Since this bad actor is a Chinese national not a resident in the UK, I won't even be able to reach them to claim damages after my invalidation is successful.
I shared my concerns with the UK Companies House and the UK IPO, both decided to do nothing.
Amazon will only listen once I send over the tribunal's decision to invalidate. I am not sure whether Amazon will take measures to shut down the bad actor's Seller Account for intentionally damaging my business and undermining free competition within the marketplace.
P.s. I recommend you pursue the design invalidation process as this is the only way to have your listing reinstated by Amazon. Reaching out to media outlets sounds like an excellent idea since this issue is a big scandal. Perhaps Action Fraud could also be a good point of contact.
Feel free to share any information from my reply.
Wishing you all the best!