Brand registration was rejected, and the lawyer took Amazon to court!

Brand registration has always been a headache for Amazon sellers. Some sellers have submitted it several times, but were rejected by the platform after several months of trouble.

Based on the situations of sellers, the editor found that the main reasons for sellers’ brand registration being rejected are as follows:

Amazon believes that the brand submitted by the seller is not eligible for Brand Registry because the trademark (TM) registration was submitted by a problematic attorney who was previously associated with a TM that was sanctioned/declared invalid by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for violating its terms and conditions.

Many sellers said they were powerless in the face of Amazon’s reasons for rejection, but finally someone chose to confront Amazon and took it to court.

After the brand registration was rejected, the lawyer sued Amazon directly!

Recently, an American lawyer named Bayramoglu represented a seller in a series of applications for trademark registration and brand filing. After the TM was approved, the brand filing was submitted to Amazon backend. However, the filing was directly rejected by Amazon, and the reason for the rejection was the same as that encountered by many sellers.

Amazon platform suggested that the seller change lawyers to apply for trademarks again, and then proceed with normal brand registration on the platform.

The American lawyer chose to fight back against Amazon and filed a lawsuit directly in court. She believed that Amazon's move was a typical act of "inaction" and "defamation."

Fortunately, the lawsuit ended with Amazon taking the initiative to request a settlement. The two parties reached a settlement out of court, and Amazon finally made a sincere apology to the lawyer.

Many sellers reported that their brand registration was rejected many times. What went wrong?

Recently, many sellers have reported that it is becoming increasingly difficult to register a brand on Amazon, especially for new accounts. Some sellers have even failed after submitting more than 10 times.

Some sellers originally thought that the repeated failures in filing were due to the lawyers’ problems, but after verification, they found that there was no problem with the lawyers. Therefore, some sellers speculated that the reason for this problem might be a “misjudgment” by some Amazon reviewers or systems.

If Amazon indicates that the filing rejection is due to the lawyer’s fault, the seller should first prove that there is no problem with the lawyer, re-file, send an email in the filing case, and upload a screenshot showing that the lawyer has not been sanctioned by the USPTO and the lawyer’s qualifications.

Some sellers also suggest that when filing a brand, they can directly contact a US lawyer to complete the trademark application instead of going through other trademark agencies. Because if the seller registers a US trademark or brand through a trademark agency, the trademark filing application may be subject to additional review by Amazon and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the filing may not be easy to pass.

In addition, trademark agency companies in the cross-border circle often fail, and each failure will lead to the cancellation of a large number of trademarks, affecting a large number of sellers and causing serious losses. Therefore, sellers should pay attention to choosing formal channels when registering trademarks.

In addition to lawyers’ reasons, there are three other reasons why brand registration is rejected:

First of all, the trademark status shows abnormality .

Secondly, the filing information is incorrect .

The third aspect is that Amazon’s machine review is likely to reject the registration request.

If the trademark status is displayed abnormally, it means that the trademark is not compliant.

Sellers must ensure that their trademarks have not been punished by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and review the trademark information. To confirm whether the brand already has an R mark or a pending trademark in the country of registration application, ensure that the submitted trademark number must be consistent with the registration information of the local trademark office. It is also very important to ensure that the type of trademark is filled in correctly, and the uploaded trademark image must be completely consistent with the record of the local trademark office's official website. Also, ensure that the trademark contact information is up to date and valid in all public resources.

Many sellers’ brand registrations are rejected due to incorrect registration information , which usually involves incomplete or unprofessional submission of information.

1. When filing, the submitted materials are incomplete:

If the store registration company = trademark registration company

① Trademark Certificate - If you have an R mark, please provide an R mark certificate; if you do not have an R mark, please submit a trademark receipt (trademark receipt = registration receipt = TM mark receipt) - If you submit a TM mark receipt, please first check whether there is lawyer information on the receipt. There is lawyer information on the TM mark receipt, but there is no lawyer information on the R mark certificate.

②Purchase contracts & invoices must be issued within the past 6 months and must include the brand name.

③Product photos must be clear and include trademarks and brands. Labels are not accepted and must be printed.

④Require sellers to submit brand pictures.

Sellers are advised to submit photos of the physical brand; photos of the 6 sides of the outer box packaging, with the brand information clearly marked on the packaging. Brand stickers are not accepted, and all brand images must be printed on the packaging. If the store registration company is not a trademark registration company, please follow the above requirements and attach a letter of authorization.

⑤ Submit a letter of authorization or transfer certificate. The letter of authorization should preferably be in English with official seals of both companies. If the trademark is owned by an individual, please sign, stamp with handprint, and submit the front and back of your ID card.

2. The filing materials are not professional:

① Do not submit product photos that are not related to the brand category. For example, if you are a sofa seller, it is inappropriate to submit a brand photo of a clothes hanger for filing.

② When some sellers submitted photos of brand packaging, they added some patterns themselves. For example, the brand is Nike without any graphics, and when printed on the packaging, Nike is surrounded by a triangular pattern.

Why is it so difficult to register a brand on Amazon? According to feedback from many sellers whose registrations were rejected, repeated failures may be due to the probability that Amazon's machine review will reject the registration request or it may be due to a system bug in Amazon.

According to the feedback from sellers, the main reason for the failure of registration is the US site. Sellers can try to change the site registration first or wait for a while.

For sellers who have already registered their trademarks, as long as they follow the above steps to ensure that there are no problems with their trademarks and lawyers, the filing will be approved sooner or later. Sellers can self-check the above aspects one by one to improve your brand filing success rate.

For sellers who have not yet registered a trademark, they can register the trademark first, and then file it after successfully obtaining the acceptance receipt.

Sellers should also note that if Amazon directly rejects the brand registration application without explaining the reason, do not submit the application again directly. You should first understand the reason for the rejection of the brand registration. You can directly open a case to ask Amazon customer service and take appropriate measures based on the specific reason for the rejection.

Have you encountered brand registration rejection recently? Welcome to discuss in the comment area.

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