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With some unscrupulous service providers taking advantage of the situation, trademark compliance issues seem to have become a time bomb. Recently, a document from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has once again pushed tens of thousands of US dollars to the brink of bankruptcy. [ How can the auto parts category achieve a curve overtaking in 2025? High potential and scarce categories are explored! 2.27 Shenzhen came to the scene to gather experts to answer the full link! Click here to get it ] It is learned that according to industry insiders, on February 24, 2025 local time in the United States, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a 531-page "Supplementary Explanation of Reasons Order and Notice of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Intent to Reconsider its Registration Decision" . The notice shows that due to the suspected violation of relevant management regulations by a Shenzhen intellectual property service provider, about 42,000 US trademarks registered by it will face re-examination and revocation by the US Patent and Trademark Office. If there is any objection to the notice, the relevant service provider must submit a response document before March 26, 2025. During this period, the US Patent and Trademark Office will not take any action. According to the notification documents disclosed by the sellers, the USPTO lists about 42,000 US trademarks registered by the service providers involved from 2016 to 2023. In other words, if the relevant service providers still fail to submit a response before March 26 or the response fails to satisfy the USPTO, tens of thousands of trademarks are likely to be sanctioned or forcibly invalidated, which will in turn affect the relevant cross-border sellers. It is understood that as cross-border e-commerce enters the era of brand expansion, trademarks are extremely important for Amazon sellers. According to past experience, if a trademark expires, Amazon will also revoke the relevant brand registration, causing the seller's store to be judged as brand abuse. At present, many sellers have said that they have received notification emails from the USPTO. Some sellers are beginning to worry that related accounts may be marked by Amazon, which will lead to a series of problems such as difficulty in brand registration; some sellers believe that as long as the trademark compliance issue is properly handled, it will not have much impact on the store in the future. In fact, this incident was not a sudden one, but a follow-up to the trademark sanctions in 2022 and 2023. [ How can the auto parts category achieve a curve overtaking in 2025? High potential and scarce categories are explored! 2.27 Shenzhen came to the scene to gather experts to answer the full link! Click here to get it ] In September 2022, the USPTO issued a "Show Cause Order" for the first time, stating that the service provider involved violated the USPTO's rules and was suspected of providing false trademarks, with about 13,000 trademarks listed. At that time, the service provider made a statement, saying that it was accepting inquiries from the USPTO normally, not being sanctioned, and would not affect customers. However, in November 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office once again issued an "Order to Supplement Explanation", requiring the service provider to send an email to re-explanate before December 11, 2023, otherwise it will face penalties. As the investigation escalated, the scope of the incident expanded further. The number of trademarks listed in the document increased by 40,000, and a total of nearly 53,000 trademarks were at risk of bankruptcy , which caused an uproar in the industry. If we look into the cause, the core of this financial crisis, which has lasted for three years and has not yet ended, is mainly due to the fact that a Shenzhen intellectual property service provider has violated the regulations in registering trademarks by forging lawyers' signatures, providing false information, and abusing accounts. According to documents disclosed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, if the service provider involved still cannot give a satisfactory response within this month, tens of thousands of trademarks registered by it will enter a "death countdown", and the seller may go through the following three stages: Stage 1: The trademark is directly invalidated; Phase 2: The registered trademark is retroactively invalidated, and Amazon removes the registration record simultaneously; The third stage: Due to "brand abuse", the related stores were closed and the funds were frozen.
In order to avoid trademark explosions that may affect stores, the following emergency response plans have been summarized based on industry discussions:1. Self-check trademark status Relevant sellers can log on to the USPTO official website or entrust a lawyer to check whether the trademark is on the list of trademark infringement. If the trademark has been registered with Amazon, the registration must be withdrawn in advance to avoid triggering platform penalties. You can also use the trademark search tool to quickly check whether there are any abnormalities in the trademark. Copy the link to your browser and open it: https://www..com/tools-baolei 2. Resubmit compliance application The USPTO allows sellers to re-apply for trademarks with the same name and similarity. Relevant sellers can provide real evidence of use now, re-register a trademark with the same name, and then cancel the registration of the old trademark when the time is right to make a parallel replacement. Note: When applying for a trademark, you must choose a USPTO-certified U.S. attorney to ensure that the attorney is directly involved in the application process rather than just a "figurehead." As of press time, the service provider involved has not responded, and Amazon has not yet synchronized with the US Trademark Office to deal with the relevant trademarks involved. But what is certain is that in the long history of industry development, only compliance can protect the foundation of the brand. ▲ Scan the QR code and reply [Trademark Thunder] to join the group discussion
We will continue to follow up on the subsequent progress of this incident. Is your trademark on the list of trademarks that have been affected? Please leave a message to share your experience.
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