Risks to avoid when selecting products: brand infringement, patent infringement, safety certification

Every year, many sellers have their stores closed and money deducted due to infringement, resulting in huge losses. Most of these sellers are unintentional - either due to lack of relevant knowledge or being targeted by rogue overseas law firms. How to avoid infringement and protect your intellectual property rights from being violated? When selecting products, sellers must consider how to avoid the following three risks: brand infringement, patent infringement, and safety certification.

1. Brand infringement issues

Regarding the issue of brand infringement. Here is an example. There was an Amazon seller who could have made millions with a product, but ended up with a large inventory backlog and ended up in court. The reason was that the keywords of his product were registered by someone else, and the other party directly hired a lawyer in the United States to sue him for infringement. Amazon is the platform that is most afraid of lawsuits. No matter whose fault it is, it will first remove your product, and then both parties will negotiate to resolve the issue.

Therefore, we recommend that sellers check the core keywords on the brand website before listing products to see if they have been registered. If they have been registered, they can change some keywords. Some sellers do not pay attention to these details, and sometimes even "borrow" the advertising words written by the other party. They know how to copy and paste, but do not check. In case the copy contains the brand name or logo of the other party, similar situations are very common. Therefore, whether it is a novice seller or an experienced operator, you must pay serious attention to this issue when writing product marketing copy.

2. Patent Infringement Issues

Patent rights are the exclusive rights of patent holders to use their inventions. Patent infringement refers to the illegal act of implementing a valid patent protected by law for the purpose of production and operation without the permission of the patent holder. Types of patent infringement include: the act of manufacturing patented products without permission; the act of intentionally using invention or utility model patent products; the act of selling or promising to sell patented products without permission; the act of using patented methods and using, selling, or promising to sell products directly obtained according to patented methods; the act of importing patented products or importing products directly obtained according to patented methods; counterfeiting other people's patents; and the act of impersonating patents.

On the Amazon platform, it is the seller's responsibility to ensure that the products sold are legal and authorized by the property owner. If this is not done, the account will be suspended. Amazon sellers need to maintain four types of intellectual property rights: copyright, trademark, utility patent and design patent. In other words, if you don't want your Amazon account to be suspended, sellers need to avoid illegal manufacturing, plagiarism, and selling imitations and fakes. In theory, Amazon and sellers need to bear joint responsibility for selling these products on the platform. However, considering the platform's business model, the court ruled that Amazon does not need to be held responsible for this. This means that sellers need to bear the consequences of infringement independently.

The consequence of infringement is that the property owner or legal agent may file a lawsuit against Amazon. Amazon policy also stipulates that the sale of counterfeit, pirated and unauthorized products is not allowed. Infringement of intellectual property rights will result in the seller's Amazon account being blocked and funds being frozen.

During the product selection stage, sellers can find some patent registration institutions and ask whether the target market of the product has been registered for patents. It should be noted that the time period for patent application is very long, more than 3 months or 5 months in the United States, and more than a year in Europe. In addition, the cost of patent registration is not only very high, but it is not certain that it can be registered. But it is precisely because of such a high threshold that not many people register patents. But once someone registers it, other sellers cannot sell the same product. Sellers can weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their actual situation whether to apply for a patent. If not, sellers must give up all products that may cause infringement.

3. Security certification issues

Amazon platform has required category certification qualifications. Each country has its own relevant certification system, which varies from country to country. You can always pay attention to platform announcements and make preparations in advance.

When we are unsure about security certification, we should first consult the platform customer service and seek their advice. For Amazon sellers, if it is a last resort and the product is removed from the shelves and cannot be restored, the seller can submit evidence to Amazon to prove that they did not intentionally infringe.

For the Amazon platform, if the seller deliberately fakes orders or deliberately infringes on the rights, Amazon will definitely not give them another chance. However, if there is evidence that the seller is indeed unaware of the situation and the seller has a correct attitude, Amazon may deal with the seller at its discretion. However, if the seller is complained about, the platform will remove your product first, regardless of whether the seller is wrong or not, in order to avoid getting into trouble. Therefore, it is very important to know whether the seller did it intentionally. In order to avoid having the store suspended or even closed, sellers must be prepared to avoid Amazon's infringement and certification risks during the product selection stage.