The 15,000 yuan trademark was revoked, and the seller finally succeeded in his appeal!

Cross-border trademark agency companies often go bankrupt, and many sellers have suffered greatly from them.

I believe everyone still remembers the " Huan Yi bankruptcy incident" that shook the cross-border circle in 2021 .

In December 2021 , Shenzhen Huanyi Intellectual Property Co., Ltd. was pointed out by the USPTO for illegal agency, proxy application, providing false addresses, sharing application accounts and other improper behaviors, so more than 15,000 US standards it represented were invalidated. At that time, a large number of sellers were implicated and their business was affected.

Therefore, many sellers have taken the path of appeal.

The biggest headache for these affected sellers is that after their trademarks are revoked, Amazon determines that they are abusing their brand, and new brands cannot be registered , which seriously affects the normal operation of their stores.

Sellers whose trademarks were rejected continued to appeal. Although they had comprehensive information to prove that they were the brand owners , their appeals failed time and again , and many sellers had no choice but to accept the defeat .

Now, more than two years have passed, and the sellers affected by the Huanyi trademark explosion incident have finally received good news.

1. After the trademark was revoked , it was judged to be brand abuse . The seller finally succeeded after many appeals!

Recently, a seller posted on an industry forum that his trademark, which was revoked by Huanyi, was finally successfully appealed after being rejected six times for brand abuse during re-registration .

In February 2022, the seller posted that his trademark had been sanctioned. Later, when he re-registered and filed, brand abuse occurred and the problem has not been resolved.

However, recently some sellers in industry groups and forums have reported that their brand abuse complaints were successful, so the seller decided to try again a few times.

The seller revealed that he was complaining about a newly registered trademark of the same name and type for an old store . Except for the font, the other information of the new trademark was the same as the original trademark. The trademark store is held by a legal person.

The appeal materials he prepared include:

1. Legal person ID card (trademark holder ID card)
2. Business license
3. R ​​mark certificate
4. Re-application of contract and payment receipt
5. Account performance health screenshots
6. Product photos and six-sided pictures of the packaging
7. Official version of the brand registration authorization letter, with the legal representative’s fingerprint and company seal
8. Create invoices
9. The so-called production license (replaced by a test report with the store company's name on it)
10. POA

However, the seller mentioned that the materials prepared for this successful appeal are somewhat different from the previous materials, specifically the following differences:  

( 1) Complaint as a manufacturer

( 2 ) This time the registration was filed with the R mark
( 3 ) Failure to write reference ASIN in the registration
( 4 ) Xinbiao lawyer was on the blacklist circulated on the Internet, but the lawyer withdrew the agency for no reason before his own filing
( 5 ) Add a commitment in the POA to use the IP accelerator to register the trademark in the future

Therefore, sellers must check when filing an appeal. If the trademark is on the online blacklist, they should first refer it to a lawyer before taking any action. Based on the experience of sellers who have successfully filed appeals in WeChat groups , it is still an abuse for lawyers to file appeals on the list .

It should be noted that this is the first time that the seller has triggered video verification after submitting this appeal . Previous appeals have not reached this step. The email specified that an ASIN needs to bring 50 physical items with the logo to participate in the video.

Regarding video verification, in principle, the brand owner is required to appear in the video , but in reality, it is sufficient as long as the relationship with the brand owner is proved in the video. Because the seller is a legal person who holds the trademark and has registered the store with a legal person company, he participated in the video certification as an employee of the legal person company.

In the video, he prepared the following materials:

1. Business license of the store
2. His personal ID card
3. Trademark Authorization
4. At least 50 designated products with logo

There are three important issues regarding video verification.

The first question is whether this brand has been registered before. When answering this question, you must say yes, and then explain the incident of Huanyi clearly, saying that you are also a victim. Finally, the customer service will make a summary of the materials. Be sure to remind the customer service to include this part of the content in the summary.

The second question is the difference between the new trademark and the previously cancelled trademark. The seller pointed out the difference in fonts, and it is also necessary that the new trademark is different from the previous trademark.

The third question is, there is no brand logo on the packaging shown in the main picture of the listing , but there is one on the packaging brought on site. Why is that? When answering this question, the seller needs to think about the relevant reasons.

According to the seller, the entire video verification took about 20 minutes, and the seller received an email the next day stating that the claim was not abused. The seller then sent a verification code and the record was successfully filed .

Sellers affected by the Huanyi bankruptcy incident can file a complaint according to the above instructions.

2. If a trademark fails, how should sellers respond?

Whether it is a trademark explosion or a brand removal, the ultimate victims are cross-border sellers.

If a trademark fails, the seller still has the opportunity to file a complaint or defense with the Trademark Office through a licensed US attorney.

The seller's registered trademark is still valid. Even if the trademark registration is eventually ruled invalid by the USPTO, the seller's trademark is still protected by US law and cannot be easily infringed by others. The USPTO will also give the trademark owner some time to contact a suitable US lawyer. The seller can provide evidence of trademark use and request a reexamination by the USPTO. The key to whether the trademark can be re-validated, or even whether the Amazon store can be restarted, lies in whether the seller can provide a solid "first use date" and "continuous use" evidence.

In the meantime, buyers can also take the following measures to minimize losses .

After being sanctioned by the Trademark Office, sellers can take the initiative to withdraw their registration before the Amazon registration system is updated, so as not to affect the abuse of the store. Then the seller must immediately apply for registration of the same-name but different-type trademark.

Compared with other countries, trademark requirements in the United States are very strict and maintenance costs are very high.

It is understood that US trademark registration needs to be submitted by a US lawyer, which leads many sellers to look for agency companies because they do not have the relevant resources.

In order to attract customers, many intellectual property companies adopt free or even ultra-low-cost trademark models, but they are unaware of the huge risks hidden behind them.

If there is a problem with the seller's trademark, the store will inevitably be affected. It is understood that the US Trademark Office's system and Amazon's brand registration are instantly connected. Once the Trademark Office determines that the trademark is invalid, Amazon will cancel the registration, and both the trademark and the store will be blacklisted by Amazon.

The registration time for an American standard takes about 8-12 months , which is a relatively long time span. Sellers should keep their eyes open when applying for trademarks and never blindly pursue low prices. They must choose a compliant and formal agency to avoid losses due to problems with the trademark agency .

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