So, how can Amazon sellers avoid infringement?

On the Amazon platform, infringement is a very serious violation. Amazon generally takes strict measures against infringement, ranging from removing products from the shelves to shutting down the business directly.

Some of these infringements come from self-inspections on the Amazon platform, some come from complaints from sellers, and some come from professional anti-counterfeiting law firms.

As long as your product is suspected of infringement, it will be difficult to survive on the platform. There is always a way to make your infringing product disappear.

Therefore, it is very important for sellers to conduct preliminary infringement prevention operations before launching their products online.

The following takes Amazon US as an example to talk about how sellers can avoid infringement.

There are two main categories of infringement on US sites: trademark infringement and patent infringement.

Among them, patent infringement is divided into invention patent infringement and design patent infringement.

1. Trademark infringement

As long as it is a U.S.-registered trademark, any use of the trademark without the permission of the right owner is considered trademark infringement.

Trademark infringement mainly comes from mindless follow-up sales.

We know that copycat selling is an operating model allowed by the Amazon platform, but copycat selling of brands is not allowed.

As long as the brand sellers who are being followed by others complain in the background, the success rate is still very high.

So, as a seller, how do you check whether a trademark is a registered trademark?

First, open the official website of the US Trademark Office and select ‘Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)’.

Then, enter the trademark name you want to query in the search term.

Click submit Query to see all registered trademarks under the search criteria.

Click on any trademark, and you can see a series of information such as the trademark's registered category, rights holder information, and registered address.

2. Invention patents

The search for invention patents is similar to that of trademarks. You can also log on to the website of the US Trademark Office.

After logging in to the official website, select Patents, select "search for patents" in the drop-down box

Then select "Quick search".

Enter the product keyword you want to query in the quick search, and you can get the product search results under that keyword.

The keyword we entered is "massage gun". Click on any search result to see the details and design drawings of the patent.

3. Design patents

Design patents can also be searched according to the method of invention patents.

Just like this monkey toy, the design drawings of the monkey can also be found through the above method.

So, for this kind of appearance patent, what is the basis for determining whether it is infringed?

Amazon’s criterion for judgment is the “perspective of ordinary consumers.”

In other words, when a product is compared with another patented product, it is difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish the difference between the two, and the similar behavior will affect the consumer's choice. Appearance infringement will be determined.

Actually, this criterion is more straightforward, it is “observation with the naked eye”.

If you think two products look very similar, there is a high probability that they will be judged as infringing.

Most of the popular products that sell well on the Amazon platform but have few sellers have design patents.

That’s it for today’s article.

(Source: cross-border veteran Mike)