On the Amazon platform, infringement is a very serious violation. Amazon's handling of infringement is generally strict, from product removal to direct closure.
Some of these infringements come from the self-examination of Amazon platform, some from the complaints of sellers, and some from the crackdown of professional anti-counterfeiting law firms.
As long as your product is suspected of infringement, it is difficult to survive on the platform. There is always a way to make your infringing products disappear.
Therefore, it is very important for the seller to carry out the early anti-infringement operation before the product goes online.
Let's take Amazon America as an example to talk about how sellers can avoid infringement.
There are two main types of infringement in American stations: trademark infringement and patent infringement.
Among them, patent infringement is divided into invention patent infringement and design patent infringement.
1, trademark infringement
As long as it is a trademark registered in the United States, it is trademark infringement to use the trademark without the permission of the obligee.
Trademark infringement mainly comes from brainless sales.
We know that follow-up selling is an operation mode allowed by Amazon platform, but brand follow-up selling is not allowed.
As long as the concerned brand sellers complain in the background, the success rate is still very high.
Then, as a seller, how to inquire whether a trademark is a registered trademark?
First, open the official website of the US Trademark Office and select "TESS".
Then, enter the brand name you want to query in the search term.
Click Submit Query to see all registered trademarks under this search condition.
Click on any trademark, you can see a series of information such as the registered category, the information of the obligee and the registered address of the trademark.
2. Invention patents
The inquiry of invention patents is similar to trademarks, and it is also on the website of the US Trademark Office.
Select a patent after landing in official website, and select "Search for a patent" in the drop-down box.
Then select Quick Search.
Enter the product keyword you want to query in quick retrieval, and you can get the product search results under this keyword.
The key word we entered was "massage gun". Click on any search result, and you can see the details and design drawings of the patent.
3. Design patents
The design patent can also be inquired according to the method of invention patent.
Just like this monkey toy, the design of the monkey can also be found by the above method.
So for this kind of appearance patent, what is the basis for judging whether it is infringing?
Amazon's criterion is "the perspective of ordinary consumers".
That is to say, when a product is compared with another patented product, it is difficult for ordinary consumers to tell the difference between them, and this similar behavior will affect consumers' choice, and they will judge appearance infringement.
In fact, to put it bluntly, this criterion is "naked eye observation."
If you think that two products look very similar, then there is a high probability that they will be judged as infringement.
On the Amazon platform, most of the explosive products that sell well and have few sellers have design patents.
So much for today's article.
(Source: Cross-border Old Bird Mike)