The quick answer is:
“Technically no, but it’s risky if you don’t! Amazon rewards those who do.”
Trademarks are a critical part of any brand protection strategy. To maintain their credibility with both buyers and sellers, Amazon needs to ensure its platform offers only genuine products.
The company website states that “Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company” offering “the widest possible selection of authentic goods.”1 However, their online marketplace has from time to time been accused of offering problematic and even counterfeit goods. This has resulted in negative publicity and even court action: For example,
- The global tech company, Apple, provided evidence in a court case in October 2019, that counterfeit Apple products were being sold on Amazon, where they were advertised as genuine.2
- Various media reports published by Forbes, Buzzfeed and The Wallstreet Journal have highlighted unscrupulous vendors selling unsound, dangerous and even banned products on the Amazon marketing platform.
- In August 2020, an appeals court in California ruled that Amazon can be held liable for defective or unsafe products sold on its website.3
Amazon has stepped up their efforts to ensure that only legitimate traders offer products on their platform.
What does this mean for the business owner selling on Amazon?
To avoid being a victim of counterfeiting and to access the tools to protect your brand on Amazon, the first step is to apply for a registered trademark so that firstly, you can enjoy exclusive rights to use your brand and secondly, you are eligible to join the Amazon Brand Registry programme.
To be eligible for the Amazon Brand Registry, brands must have “a registered and active text (word mark) or image-based trademark (design mark)” or to put that in plain English, a trademark registration for either a brand name or a logo. This trademark must also appear on your products or packaging.
Amazon Brand Registry for brand protection
Amazon established the Amazon Brand Registry programme in 2017 and then ramped up their strategy even more in 2019 to guard against counterfeits and unsound products.
Why should you join the Amazon Brand Registry?
1. Members of the brand registry enjoy greater control over their brand’s product listings on Amazon.
2. You can search various Amazon stores and report suspected violations of your trademark.
3. You can enjoy proactive brand protection via Amazon’s Project Zero and ensure that suspected infringing products are removed.
In 2019, Amazon took steps to show that they take brand protection seriously. The company launched a 3-pronged strategy to escalate building trust and credibility and to eradicate counterfeits from their stores:
- Project Zero uses product serialization powered by machine learning to scan stores, confirm the authenticity of each product and remove counterfeits. It also enables registered brands to remove fakes using a self-service tool.
- Transparency is a product serialization service that helps authenticate every unit before shipping. In 2019, this service was expanded to 7 additional countries, besides the US.
- IP Accelerator is a programme that connects brand owners with a network of trusted IP law firms to help them secure their IP rights. Since government IP offices are notoriously slow to process trademark applications, brands that use these trusted service providers can fast-track their access to Amazon’s brand protection registry and grow their brands, long before their trademark is registered.
You can only access the next level of protection offered by Amazon’s Project Zero, the product serialization, automated protections and self-service removal tool, if you are:
- enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry with a government-registered trademark and
- you are the rights owner of the trademark, and you have submitted reports of potential infringements with an acceptance rate of at least 90% in the last six months.
Protect your brand with a registered trademark
Applying for a trademark can be a complex task, especially if you try doing it via the government IP Office website. It can also be costly, especially if you employ the services of an IP lawyer. To help businesses overcome these problems, we created this Trademarks Online platform to assist you with your trademark application online in 4 easy steps.
For the average person, not trained in trademark law, understanding the requirements for getting trademarks and the classes (or categories) they fall into, can be perplexing, but our AI-powered software delivers the information you need to your fingertips in seconds.