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It is learned that on November 27, a Shenzhen intellectual property service provider received an "Order to Show Cause" issued by the United States Trademark Office for suspected violation of relevant management regulations of the United States Trademark Office. The provider was required to explain its actions again, otherwise it would face penalties such as the cancellation of more than 53,000 registered US trademarks . Due to its wide impact and the immeasurable business losses it may cause, this incident has triggered heated discussions in the cross-border circle several times. A few days ago, a seller revealed that there seemed to be new progress in the incident. It was learned that on the morning of December 7, a seller in the "Trademark Protection Discussion Group" broke the news that the United States Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a new document on December 6 for the trademark that was previously rumored to have failed. ▲ The picture comes from the "Trademark Protection Discussion Group" The document mentioned that after investigation, the USPTO preliminarily determined that one or more submissions violated the USPTO's trademark practice rules. Based on this, the USPTO has issued a show cause order to the entities and individuals who submitted improper submissions, listing the USPTO's preliminary decision and proposing sanctions. ▲ The picture comes from the "Trademark Protection Discussion Group" Subsequently, some sellers whose trademarks were on the "explosion list" discovered that their trademarks had been marked as abused by the Trademark Office. ▲ The picture comes from the "Trademark Protection Discussion Group" According to relevant sellers, most of the marks marked as abused by the Trademark Office are TM marks, while some TM marks and all R marks have not been affected for the time being. But it is worth noting that shortly after the news came out, some sellers revealed that some of their big-selling peers on Amazon cancelled their brand registrations and were then split up by Amazon. There are also sellers who are worried that trademark scandals may affect their operations. After proactively consulting Amazon on the question of "whether the brand is being abused", they said that they received a reply email stating that the brand no longer meets Amazon's qualification requirements. ▲ The picture comes from the "Trademark Protection Discussion Group" Based on this, many sellers speculate that Amazon has begun to synchronize with the U.S. Trademark Office to mark related brand trademarks as abuse. However, it is worth mentioning that the seller mentioned that although he received an email stating that his brand did not meet Amazon's requirements, all permissions of his Amazon store were still there, and he could place orders normally, without affecting operations. From this, it can be seen that Amazon still gave the sellers some time to deal with the problem. In this regard, some sellers also put forward relevant suggestions: 1. If the brand trademark has been determined to be abused, you can prepare relevant evidence and appeal to Amazon that you have encountered an unscrupulous lawyer, requesting that the abuse should not be marked and the brand should be removed; 2. If the brand trademark has not been determined to be abused, you can consider the importance of the trademark to yourself and choose to try to reapply for the same name and similar trademark or abandon the trademark, and protect your rights or launch a new brand as needed. Note: The practical results of the above plan may vary from one account to another, and each seller needs to conduct their own practice to determine whether it is effective.Not long after the news of the sudden collapse was reported, some sellers were worried that trademark abuse was only the first step, and that subsequent related accounts and stores might also be marked by e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, thus causing a series of problems such as difficulty in brand registration. But at present, the incident is far from the end, and we will continue to pay attention to subsequent developments. If sellers have the latest news or effective solutions for the above incident, they can communicate in the comment area or join the group discussion. ▲ Scan the QR code and reply [Trademark Protection] to join the group discussion As the Christmas season approaches, Amazon sellers have been walking on thin ice recently. Not only do they have to be vigilant about Amazon's audit raids, but they also have to face Amazon's sudden system problems from time to time. It is learned that since December 5, sellers have reported that in the account operation status of Amazon's backend, red reminders of "poor operation" appeared in multiple site stores. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan It is understood that, generally speaking, the main reasons why the Amazon store backend displays "poor operation" are: poor store performance evaluation, products that violate Amazon policies, and security risks in the store account. However, according to sellers’ feedback, most of the sites judged as “poorly functioning” are sites that the sellers have not opened or have not operated for a long time: “Only three North American sites were opened, but it indicated that the European sites were not functioning properly.” "I also had this problem. My prompt said Japan site, but my Japan site was not opened at all." "The account is only operating in North America. Today, Japan and Australia both show malfunctions. Is Amazon acting up again?" Some sellers opened a case for consultation and received different responses: some customer service staff claimed that the seller had linked himself to the account and needed to make an appointment for video verification; other customer service staff mentioned that there was no problem with the account status after checking it, and that the current situation might be caused by a system bug, and the relevant sellers needed to wait patiently for the fix. It is worth noting that it has been observed that some sellers have reported that they have encountered cross-site associations. The Japanese site, which has never been in operation, has been deactivated, and the normally operating US site has also received an association warning. Therefore, many sellers took this emergency situation seriously and began to take measures to "save themselves". A seller contacted the Amazon Account Status Protection Program team by phone and received the solution that "if the relevant site is not activated or there is no operation after activation and abnormalities occur, the seller needs to close the abnormal account by himself or contact customer service ." In order to avoid causing association after logging into the relevant account, the seller suggested that the relevant sellers find customer service to feedback the problem and let Amazon help close the account. As of press time, Amazon has not responded to this. The reason why a large number of stores on the platform suddenly showed "malfunctioning" is still unclear, but most sellers speculate that there is a problem with the system. We will continue to pay attention to subsequent progress, and also remind all sellers to check the backend account status in a timely manner to avoid affecting the normal operation of the store. I wonder if you sellers have also encountered the above situation? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~ |
