False Infringement Claims Are Harming Amazon Businesses

What is Amazon Brand Registry? It is implausible Amazon could have conceived of a product line with nearly identical product designs which feature product names containing the very same non-descriptive terms WSI uses in connection with those products, other than by intentionally undertaking to copy WSI's West Elm product line and appropriate the trademarks WSI uses in connection with that line,” the complaint reads.
Further, in a passing off action it is necessary to prove that the use of the trademark by the defendant is likely to cause injury or damage to the plaintiff's goodwill, whereas in an infringement suit, the use of the mark by the defendant need not cause any injury to the plaintiff.



Some of these sellers come up with original products and resemble traditional businesses, albeit based almost wholly on Amazon, but many simply slap a logo Todd Snively on a mix of trending goods sourced from China, creating eclectic catalogs of fidget spinners and cowboy boots, adult coloring books and survival gear.
In many situations such as when the seller is knowingly breaking a distribution contract to sell the product on Amazon and does not want to reveal that fact to the rights owner, it can be more challenging to address such complaints because the supply documentation also reveals that the Amazon seller broke their contracts.

Part of the frustration with receiving a claim of this sort stems from having inventory at the FBA warehouse that you could theoretically no longer sell on Amazon if the brand owner prohibits it. If you only have one or two items in stock, it might not even be worth your time and hassle to deal with trying to sell it on Amazon.
If there is any overlap, you should be very cautious, as you are risking potential legal action, and devoting a lot of money, time and effort to building a brand, only to risk being sued and having to rebuild your business by starting all over again with a new name.
It says, we received a report of trademark infringement from the rights owner listed below…….”. It then states that if we receive more complaints about your listings, we may not allow you to sell on ”. It states an ASIN (example XXXXXXXXX) that does not belong to me. I called Seller Support and spoke to the Captive team, he checked every single one of my listing submissions since I started selling with Amazon and he confirmed that even historically I never listed the this ASIN (example XXXXXXXXX).

Reaching out to the complainant personally (or via an attorney) is always the best way to approach an inauthentic product complaint and it is typically what Amazon instructs sellers to do. Your goal should be to try to appease the complainant in any way that you can, so that they retract their complaint with Amazon.
We always, always, always recommend that you contact the sellers through the messaging system, you know we can do it, you can use our letterhead that we send to you and you send it if you have 2.0 it's much more efficient for the sellers to do it themselves.