Chanel and 3doodler sued sellers for infringement and were sued for tens of millions: Do you have trademark and patent protection when you are an Amazon seller? !

What is the happiest thing in 2021?

They must be making US dollars on Amazon . It is said that many cross-border sellers in Shenzhen have already bought houses in "Shenzhen Bay No. 1" where every inch of land is valuable.

What is the most painful thing in 2021?

I guess they still have to work on Amazon. Many Chinese sellers have been complained of infringement, their products have been removed from the shelves, their listings have been cleared overnight, their stores have been banned, and then they have been sued for tens of millions of yuan. Several years of wealth accumulation have been destroyed!

Compared with China, intellectual property rights are taken very seriously abroad, especially when doing business and making money on the global e-commerce platform - Amazon. Everyone must abide by Amazon's strict rules of the game for trademark, patent and copyright protection.

If domestic sellers still hold the idea of ​​"selling products without trademarks and patents", then at the very least, the products will be removed from the shelves and the listings will be cleared, and at worst, the funds will be frozen and the account will be banned. Here, Mingtu Intellectual Property advises Chinese sellers: quickly create your own brand and protect your intellectual property rights!

Many domestic Amazon sellers think that infringing on internationally renowned brands is a small matter, and that they will not spend manpower and material resources to fight with small sellers for such a small amount of money . In fact, you are wrong. The more well-known a brand is, the more keen it is to protect its brand intellectual property rights.

Take Chanel as an example. Chanel even hired private investigators to keep an eye on every move of sellers on Amazon. If your T-shirts, shoes, hats, backpacks, handbags, mobile phone cases and other products bear Chanel's brand trademark, then you are in trouble. Chanel is preparing to collect information and file an infringement lawsuit against you.

Just now, a new Amazon seller was targeted by Chanel because he mistakenly uploaded a picture with the Chanel trademark to his store and made only $48 by selling Chanel imitations. Mingtu Intellectual Property believes that the reason why Chanel did not even let go of small sellers is because Chanel is not trying to get compensation, but to protect its own brand and control its own product sales channels, and trademark patents are the best weapon.

In addition to this poor little seller, more than 30 other Amazon sellers were sued by Chanel in the California Federal Court. Initially, Chanel demanded 12 million yuan in compensation from each Amazon seller whose rights were infringed. Finally, after negotiations among the court, sellers, Amazon and Chanel, the following four parties agreed: Amazon sellers must close these stores and remove all illegal images. The compensation amount for each seller was reduced to 600,000 yuan, and Chanel received 18 million yuan in compensation, with Amazon Payments being transferred from the seller's frozen account to Chanel.

From Chanel’s complaint against sellers for infringement, to sellers of all sizes having their accounts frozen and banned and being sued for 18 million, it can be seen that Chinese sellers must plan ahead to build their own brands and protect relevant trademarks, patents and copyrights in advance . This is the correct way to do business on Amazon!

Many people are complaining that Amazon’s rules are becoming more and more difficult, from video verification, FBA policy adjustments, free exchange plans, new Amazon clothing image rules, to direct account suspension for fake orders, mandatory insurance purchases, and listings that do not meet requirements will be blocked...

▲ The picture comes from the seller’s screenshot

Perhaps the pitfall of product infringement complaints is undoubtedly the heaviest blow to Amazon sellers! Take third-party Amazon 3D printing sellers as an example. These sellers have been selling 3D printing pens well, but they encountered infringement complaints from 3doodler. Third-party Amazon 3D printing pen sellers were collectively removed from the shelves, with losses of more than 30 million.

The "3D printing pen incident" that is still fresh in the memory of many Amazon Chinese sellers caused the products of many Chinese sellers in this category to be removed from the shelves and the listings to be cleared out overnight. It is said that 99% of the Chinese sellers in the entire small category were cleared out.

The key point is that the initiator of the infringement complaint about this 3D printing pen was Amazon and 3doodler, the inventor of the 3D printing pen.

Amazon and 3doodler used the so-called "patent infringement of Chinese sellers" to clear out Chinese sellers, and after receiving huge compensation, they went back to operating their own businesses, leaving hundreds of thousands of units in Amazon FBA and domestic warehouses abandoned and not allowed to be put on the shelves for sale. Alas, Chinese sellers have suffered heavy losses!

From 3doodler and Amazon jointly launching an infringement lawsuit to all 3D printing pen categories being removed from the shelves and banned, in order to obtain an entry ticket, each seller has to pay 30 million in compensation. How can ordinary sellers afford it?

Therefore, from the "3D printing pen incident", we can see that on the Amazon platform, once a brand seller files a complaint about product infringement and it is verified by Amazon, there is no amnesty for the lawsuit once it is discovered! This may be related to the Amazon platform's desire to maintain its own reputation. Sellers who follow or do not build their own brands on Amazon should be especially careful!

Especially as the epidemic continues, the foreign market has a huge demand for all kinds of daily necessities. Many people earned as much money in 2020 as they did in the past few years. It is said that an average of 155 sellers enter Amazon every hour, which is proof of the popularity of cross-border e-commerce.

But because of this, many sellers flocked to Amazon without being fully prepared, hoping to get a piece of the pie. As a result, many of them were hit hard because of their low sensitivity to intellectual property rights.

Developed capitalist countries such as Europe and the United States are quite sensitive about the protection of intellectual property rights. Once a Chinese seller triggers an infringement warning, they can either settle the compensation to unblock the store, or their funds can only be frozen permanently. If you are a novice seller, how can you close these pits?

According to Mingtu Intellectual Property’s investigation, infringement complaints on Amazon mainly occur in three aspects, namely: trademark infringement, patent infringement and copyright infringement.

3.1. How to avoid trademark infringement?

First of all, on Amazon, complaints of infringement due to follow-selling are the most frequent, so sellers should try not to follow-sell other people’s products unless they have obtained the corresponding authorization.

Secondly, in your own store’s listings, keywords, descriptions, pictures and videos , do not include trademark names that have already been registered by others to avoid being tracked down and sued by the brand.

Finally, you should quickly come to Mingtu Intellectual Property to register the trademark of the corresponding Amazon site and protect the trademark rights of your products in advance. Mingtu Intellectual Property provides trademark registration services in most countries at present, and has its own law firm abroad. The US trademark package includes proof of use and reply to the examination opinion.

3.2. How to avoid patent infringement?

Currently, the most common patent infringement on Amazon is the infringement of appearance patents . Patents are generally related to appearance designs, that is, product style design patents. How to avoid appearance patent infringement?

Sellers can determine the risk of copying hot products based on whether the brand owner has applied for relevant patents. However, for safety reasons, it is recommended that you do not copy and apply for your own international patents in advance at Mingtu Intellectual Property. Building your own brand is the hard truth . Mingtu Intellectual Property currently supports patent applications in most countries around the world. For example, the US design patent can be issued in as fast as 4 months.

3.3. How to avoid copyright infringement?

Copyright mainly refers to the copyright of text, pictures and patterns. If you want to print patterns on various products, it is recommended that you must protect the relevant copyrights.

So how can we improve our awareness of intellectual property rights? We can do two things well. First, try not to copy other people’s listings or pictures. Finally, we should build our own brand as soon as possible and apply for relevant trademarks, patents and copyrights in advance.

MingTu IP has its own intellectual property law firm (MingTu IP PC.) in New York, USA. It has successively become a member unit of the International Intellectual Property Association (AIPPI) and the International Trademark Association (INTA) , a director unit of the Shenzhen Cross-border E-commerce Association, a director unit of the Xiamen Cross-border E-commerce Association, and the 2018 Hugo.com National Best Cross-border Intellectual Property Service Agency, and the 2020 Hugo.com National Best Cross-border Intellectual Property Service Agency!

As a reliable old brand with 9 years of experience in overseas trademark registration and patent application , Mingtu Intellectual Property has established its own overseas self-operated law firm , which is not an intermediary, making it safer and more reliable for everyone to register international trademarks and apply for global patents and copyrights!

Welcome to scan the QR code for consultation↑↑↑