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Membership Day is around the corner, but Amazon sellers who are preparing for the big sale are still facing numerous obstacles. In addition to the account verification turmoil some time ago, the frequent rejection of brand registration has caused great trouble for sellers.
It has been observed that the difficulty of brand registration for Amazon sellers has doubled in recent times , and the most common reason for rejection mentioned by Amazon is that there are "problems" with the lawyer who registered the trademark. Recently, a lawyer who wanted to prove his innocence took Amazon to court over this matter. It is learned that Amazon's brand registration requires sellers to successfully register their trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) before they can apply, and the USPTO requires applicants or registrants who reside in foreign countries to register trademarks on behalf of a US licensed attorney . Therefore, most sellers can only find US lawyers through service providers to complete trademark registration.
Amazon said in its response to the seller's rejection reason that "the trademark registration was submitted by an attorney who was previously associated with a trademark that was invalidated for violating the terms and conditions of the USPTO." "In order to continue with brand registration, you need to apply for a new trademark from an attorney who has no record of bad behavior in the past ." The seller paid the service provider, but in the end, it was all in vain due to the lawyer's problem. However, many sellers reported that their lawyers had no problems and all the documents were complete, but they were still rejected many times. Therefore, some sellers suspected that Amazon was doing something secretly. ▲ The picture comes from Zhiwubuyan If the registration is not approved due to lawyers’ reasons, the seller seems to have no better solution except to bypass the service provider and directly contact a US licensed lawyer, or re-register the trademark and then register it. This tortuous road to brand registration has accumulated a lot of anger in the seller’s heart. Faced with Amazon's frequent rejection of sellers' brand registrations due to lawyer issues, a lawyer chose to confront Amazon head-on. It is learned that on May 31 this year, trademark lawyer Nazly Aileen Bayramoglu sued Amazon for "assault and defamation" , accusing Amazon of defaming her in its reply to sellers' emails. Recently, Amazon has taken the initiative to reach an off-site settlement with Bayramoglu, and the lawsuit was officially closed on June 20. In its apology to Bayramoglu, Amazon said the email sent to Bayramoglu's customers was an error and that Amazon had no reason to believe that Ms. Bayramoglu had engaged in any professional misconduct before the USPTO. Amazon's apology letter ▲ Image from casetext This case also reflects that there are indeed some problems with Amazon’s brand registration review process . At the same time, according to foreign media reports, Amazon promised to re-review the brand registrations that were previously rejected . This can be regarded as exciting good news for sellers who are currently worried about the Prime Day. In addition to brand registration review, Amazon has also been criticized for handling patent complaints . Recently, a seller reported that his European site received a patent complaint of design infringement. After comparison, it was found that not only did he apply for the patent earlier, but even the link opened on Amazon was earlier than the time when the complainant applied for the patent. In this case, it was also removed from Amazon. When the seller appealed, he explained the product listing time and provided documents such as patent certificates and purchase contracts, but still failed to appeal. It is understood that this case is just a microcosm of such incidents. Similar situations have occurred many times, but Amazon has not provided a reasonable appeal channel.
Although many sellers are troubled by issues such as brand registration and patent appeals, Amazon is not completely indifferent to the platform ecosystem. Recently, Amazon released a news report on "promoting government-enterprise cooperation to combat fake reviews" regarding the phenomenon of fake reviews on the platform . Amazon severely punishes fake review service providers For a long time, in order to profit from the platform, fake reviews on Amazon's website have been rampant, and Amazon has been actively rectifying this phenomenon and has invested a lot of resources in it .
Recently, Amazon said it is using AI to detect fake reviews. By using advanced fraud detection tools, it analyzes and prevents fake reviews from appearing on the Amazon platform , such as links to other accounts, login activity, review history, and other signs of abnormal behavior pointing to fake reviews.
Officials said that in 2022, Amazon has blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews . Not only that, in the future, Amazon will further develop more complex detection tools to combat fake reviews. In addition to using AI to identify and combat false reviews, Amazon is also actively using legal means to crack down on such behavior, holding service providers who facilitate reviews accountable. It also calls for greater cooperation between the private sector, consumer groups, and governments to jointly combat false reviews.
As of the end of May 2023, Amazon had taken legal action against 94 bad actors from the United States, China, and Europe . In addition, according to the latest news from foreign media, Amazon filed lawsuits against four companies, Reddit Marketing Pro, Mango City, Littlesmm and Nice Discount this week , accusing these companies of misleading Amazon customers and harming their sales partners by selling fake reviews. It is understood that these companies providing fake reviews approach customers on their own websites, video chat software, social media platforms and emails, soliciting them to write five-star reviews for products on Amazon in exchange for money, free products or other rewards.
In response to the above phenomenon, Amazon stated that it will continue to take legal action against fake review service providers, and continue to innovate tools to monitor, identify and prevent false reviews from influencing consumers' purchasing decisions , and protect the Amazon mall from false reviews. It is undeniable that Amazon has worked hard to maintain the platform ecology, but some mechanisms and review processes on the platform are still not friendly enough to sellers. If the review procedures for brand registration, patent appeals, etc. can be optimized, the platform's e-commerce ecology will be further improved.
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