If you’re serious about selling on Amazon and building your brand reputation, you really should protect your brand.
An Amazon seller asking, “Do I need a trademark?” is like a brick and mortar retailer asking, “Does my shop need locks on the doors?”
While having a trademark registration is not strictly required to sell products on Amazon, anyone who is intentional about building a business and a reputable brand name in today’s competitive economy should view a trademark as essential.
Why you should trademark your brand if you sell on Amazon
Imagine, you go to great efforts to grow your brand and establish a niche in the market and then suddenly find someone else trading under a similar name and piggybacking on your success.
Worse still, picture being handed a letter to cease and desist trading under your brand name or face consequences in court because someone else has registered your trademark!
Complacency about brand protection is not worth the risk! A registered trademark protects your brand.
Online predators make the Amazon platform a dangerous jungle too! And you need to have a trademark application or registration if you want Amazon’s help.
Hijacked listings are a growing problem on the online marketplace. Hijacking happens when someone takes over a listing for a top-selling private label product and uses it for their own benefit. Like counterfeiting and passing off, hijackers mislead consumers to believe that their fake listing is authentic and sell them a knock-off product instead.
Hijacked listings, along with fraud and counterfeits make up a huge problem that is increasing on a global scale. Amazon reports that they have blocked over 10 billion bad listings and seized over 2 million counterfeit products before they could be shipped to unsuspecting customers.
To help combat this operational nightmare, sellers can use Amazon’s Brand Registry programme to verify authentic brands and eliminate counterfeits from the online marketplace. However, to be eligible for this programme you must apply for a registered trademark for your brand.
So in a nutshell, while the answer to the question, “Do I need a trademark to sell on Amazon?” is, “No, it’s not a prerequisite, if you haven’t already, you should apply for a trademark as soon as possible.”
Your brand’s survival could depend on it.
Trademarks Online can help you get a trademark
Trademarks Online is here to help you to take the first and most important step to protect your brand. You can apply for a trademark online yourself in about 5 minutes using our 3-step process.
We offer competitive, flat rates with no hidden fees and no surprises.
The sooner you apply, the closer you’ll be to ensuring that your brand has legal “teeth”. A trademark registration increases the level of protection and safety for both buyers and sellers:
- A registered trademark reduces the risk of consumer confusion. Because the only entity entitled to use the trademark is the trademark owner, your customers can be confident they are buying your brand.
- With a registered trademark, you can use the tools offered by the Amazon Brand Registry to protect your brand, to build trust and to create a safer buying experience for your customers.
- A registered trademark also suggests quality – it’s a sign that you believe in your brand and view it as a valuable asset that’s worth protecting.
- A registered trademark in your home country is a good first step for international expansion. Amazon could potentially help your business to scale globally very fast!
- Registered trademarks are effective tools to defend your trademark against unscrupulous competitors and copycats.
- Trademarks are relatively inexpensive to obtain, compared to the massive cost of having to rebrand.