When you launch an ecommerce business, there are many things to consider. One of the most important is protecting your IP, or intellectual property. Whether it’s combatting infringing content on your product detail pages, or removing suspected counterfeit products from a listing, protecting your IP can be a key part of running a successful online business. It’s also important to report abuse to Amazon to help safeguard customers from counterfeit products and inaccurate product listings.
But how do you report an IP violation to Amazon and get the support you need? What counts as IP infringement, and what violations does Amazon enforce? Read on to learn more about intellectual property, what constitutes a violation, and how to report IP infringement in the Amazon store.
What is intellectual property (IP)?
Intellectual property refers to the intangible assets you create related to your business. This can include product names, images, and designs, as well as the creative work you put in to make those product names, images, and designs, and the processes you use to run your business. Even though it’s intangible, intellectual property has financial value and can be protected by copyrights, patents, and trademarks.
What is IP infringement?
IP infringement means your intellectual property has been violated in some way. There are a number of ways that IP infringement can take place. It often depends on what kind of intellectual property you have and how it’s protected. Some examples of IP infringement include:
- Someone creating or manufacturing products using a patent you own without your permission
- Someone using a copywritten photograph on their website without consent of the copyright owner
- Someone counterfeiting your products, where a company or seller creates a product that’s meant to look like yours, with the intent to deceive customers into buying their product instead
- Someone plagiarizing your written work to falsely claim it as their own
It’s important to claim your intellectual property rights through trademarks, copyrights, or patents to help ensure that customers get the best experience possible with your products.
What types of suspected IP violations can be reported to Amazon?
Before we dive into what kinds of IP violations can be reported to Amazon, it helps to know the three main types of IP and what they protect:
- Copyrights legally protect original works of authorship.
- Trademarks legally protect words, symbols, designs, or any combination of those that are used to identify a company.
- Patents legally protect inventions.
Amazon’s IP enforcement focuses on these three categories. But what’s a violation that should be reported to Amazon, and when should you report a bad actor?
- If someone is using something you have designed, drawn or written to sell a product without your permission, this is a copyright violation.
- If someone is selling a product that includes branding that could be confused with your product or your product’s branding, this is a trademark violation. You can also report counterfeiting to Amazon.
- If someone makes a copy or replication of something you’ve patented without your expressed permission, this is a patent violation.
Review Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy for Sellers
Who can report suspected IP violations to Amazon?
Any IP rights owner or agent can notify Amazon of suspected infringement using our Public Notice Form.
Brands enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry have access to a separate tool for IP infringement, Report a Violation. To access Report a Violation, you need a Brand Registry account that is assigned either the Rights Owner or Registered Agent role for the brand.
Learn more about Rights Owners and Registered Agents
Note: If you’ve enrolled your brand in Amazon Brand Registry with a pending trademark, you won’t be able to use Report a Violation until your trademark is fully registered. But you can access other benefits of Brand Registry while you wait for your trademark to be registered. You can also use Report a Violation to report infringements for patents or copyrights you’ve already secured.
How do registered brands report suspected IP violations to Amazon?
Amazon Brand Registry is a program that helps brands protect their IP and grow their business in and beyond the Amazon store. Once your brand is enrolled in the program, you can start to access a variety tools to enhance your listing content, generate product reviews, and verify the authenticity of your products. One of those tools is Report a Violation, which allows you to report suspected copyright, trademark, and patent infringement. The Report a Violation tool lets Rights Owners or Registered Agents search Amazon’s entire catalog for potential IP violations using ASINs, offers, and images.
To report IP infringement to Amazon using Report a Violation tool, log into Brand Registry as a Registered Agent or Rights Owner, then select Report a Violation on the homepage. Follow the prompts to conduct your search using text like product names or ASINs, or using order numbers or images.
If you have more than one suspected violation to report, you may want to search for ASINs in bulk. The Report a Violation tool allows you to search for up to 50 ASINs, Amazon product detail page URLs, or both. To search for ASINs in bulk, create a list of ASINs separated by commas, then enter your list into the search field and follow the prompts to search.
Be prepared to share information like what kind of violation it is, which Amazon store it appears in, and other pertinent details that can help Amazon address the violation. Don’t forget to be specific about whether the violation is based on a copyright, patent, or trademark. Once you’ve submitted your information, Amazon will thoroughly review the complaint.
Watch: Report an IP violation (login required)
If you’re reporting a patent violation, check out Amazon Patent Evaluation Express. If you’re a Rights Owner or Registered Agent with concerns about IP infringements of your utility patents, you can apply for the program using the Report a Violation tool. When you use Amazon Patent Evaluation Express to report a violation, the program brings in neutral third-party evaluators skilled in patent analysis to decide whether an asserted utility patent is infringed. It’s faster than going to court, easier to navigate, and it’s free for the party that the evaluator determines is correct.
Learn more about Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (login required)
Keeping track of your Report a Violation submissions
Whether you’re reporting multiple violations or you just want to know how your report is progressing, you can track your submission history through the Report a Violation tool. Just log in to Brand Registry and you’ll see your submission history on your homepage.
If you want to review information from any of the reports you’ve submitted, select Open details next to the complaint you want to review.
If you want to retract a report you submitted, you can also select Open details on the complaint you want to rescind, then scroll down and select Retract a complaint above the status column.
View your Report a Violation submission history
Ready to protect your IP and Report a Violation?
Protecting your IP doesn’t have to be a challenging process—especially with Amazon. Knowing how important it is for brands to protect their intellectual property is what inspired us to create valuable tools like Report a Violation. And when you sign up for Brand Registry, those protections are even more robust than what are offered through our Public Notice Form.
The easier it is for you to report IP infringements, the quicker you can get back to focusing your efforts on making your ecommerce business a success. Start protecting your IP today by signing up for a Professional selling plan.
*A Professional selling plan is $39.99 a month + selling fees. Learn more
12023 Amazon Brand Protection Report
