A patent was applied for a common product, and the sellers of big movies were affected

A patent was applied for a common product , and the sellers of big movies were affected

The infringement warning came late but it arrived. The first wave of products with infringement risks in 2023 has arrived.

After the beginning of the year, sellers entered an intensive period of new product development. During this period, sellers must pay attention to infringement issues. Otherwise, after a lot of effort to put a product on the shelves, they finally received an infringement complaint. The feeling is enough to make people collapse.

A few days ago, a seller revealed that a product that was very popular on the street was patented by someone not long ago, and a large number of sellers are facing the risk of infringement complaints.

Adhesive hook patent application in the US, sellers panic

Adhesive hooks are often used in domestic households and can be seen everywhere in life, so they are called common products. However, even with such a product, some people have their eyes on it.

According to the seller, he accidentally discovered that this product had been patented not long ago when he was looking for patents. They sell decorative products, which are sometimes equipped with adhesive hooks, so they are very worried that they will be complained about infringement by the other party.

A query at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) shows that the product has applied for a design patent in the United States. The application was filed not long ago, on October 26 last year, and the registration date was January 10 this year. The patent is valid for 15 years.

From its design drawing, we can see that the design style of this product is relatively simple: a square adhesive board with rounded corners, a round fixed board in the middle, and the hook is split into two parts from the middle. As shown in the figure below:

This appearance is very similar to the single-stock hooks on the market. Not only that, the above patent documents show that the patent applicant and the inventor are the same person, and their names are in Chinese pinyin. Judging from the many precedents of Chinese people registering trademarks or applying for patents before and then filing large-scale complaints on the platform, the seller's concerns are not unreasonable.

After this incident was exposed, it caused heated discussion among sellers.

One seller said that he found out two years ago that someone had applied for a patent for the sticky hook. At that time, they also had a product with a sticky hook, so they quickly changed the main picture to deal with it. However, this method only makes the infringement less obvious. If the other party insists on complaining, they still can't escape, so they quickly removed the product from the shelves after the inventory was sold out.

However, some experienced sellers comforted that if the listing was created before the patent application was approved, sellers can file a counterclaim if complained about, so they don’t need to panic too much. But if it was created afterwards, they need to be careful.

There are also professionals familiar with intellectual property rights who said that the appearance patent only protects the appearance of the product. (And this product) has not been separately registered for similar parts. There is an intuitive difference between the two and it cannot directly constitute infringement. As long as this single type of product does not have an invention patent, the appearance can be changed .

However, many sellers are still very worried about infringement, because once they are complained, even if they can deal with it later, it will still affect their sales, and similar situations in the past have also left a deep shadow on them, such as the self-adhesive mosquito-proof door patent incident. Once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of the rope for ten years.

After all, sellers also know that Amazon has always been very severe in cracking down on infringing products.

Internationally renowned brands defend their rights , Amazon removes 1,200 listings

In addition to removing sellers' products from the shelves after receiving complaints from patent/trademark/copyright owners, Amazon also proactively cooperates with some well-known brands to crack down on infringing sellers on the platform.

A few days ago, Canon announced that in the fourth quarter of last year alone, it successfully removed 1,202 listings from Amazon in Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands using Amazon reporting tools, inquiries, and information letters .

Specifically, the German Amazon site had the largest number of removed items, at 234, followed by the French site at 233, and the Dutch site had the least, at 77.

Canon has always attached great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. It is understood that since June 2018, he has deleted a total of 30,263 listings from Amazon in Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands .

These listings are all because of infringement of its laser toner cartridges. Canon believes that these sellers have infringed one or more of its European patent numbers 2 087 407, 2 137 577, 1 977 289, 3 470 931 and 3 270 230.

In addition to Europe, Amazon has also been aggressive in the Americas. According to Canon statistics, it has removed as many as 3,310 infringing toner cartridge listings from Amazon in the United States, Canada, and Mexico since June 2018 .

Canon believes that these sellers have infringed one or more of its U.S. patent numbers 8280278, 8630564, 8682215, 8688008, 8676090, 8588646, 9581958. Canadian patent numbers 2635791, 2910527, and Mexican patent numbers 308881 and 317598.

Just last September, Canon also issued an announcement that some infringing toner cartridges had appeared on Amazon again and asked it to remove them. These products infringed Canon's U.S. Patent No. 11,169,483. In the first and second quarters of last year, it had removed nearly 100 listings from the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

People who are keen on photography will definitely be familiar with Canon. This Japanese conglomerate that produces imaging and information products has expanded its products to include broadcasting equipment, medical equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, in addition to digital cameras.

In order to strengthen the protection of the intellectual property rights of these products, it has applied for a large number of patents and trademarks in the countries where it does business. For example, it has more than 80,000 patents, nearly 160 trademarks, and nearly 100 copyrights in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

It is not uncommon for Amazon to join forces with brands to crack down on infringing sellers. In recent years, in order to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, it has also cooperated with domestic law enforcement agencies to crack down on counterfeiting at the source.

Amazon cooperates with law enforcement, 84 Chinese sellers detained

At the end of last year, Amazon announced that with the help of intelligence provided by CCU (Amazon Counterfeit Crime Unit) and the assistance of local public security bureaus, they discovered and smashed three counterfeiting activities in Guangdong and Jiangxi, and seized more than 240,000 counterfeit goods including luxury goods, sportswear and auto parts .

These counterfeit products infringed the intellectual property rights of many brands and were originally intended to be sold in North America and Europe. After the incident, the main suspect was detained by the public security authorities, and the infringing products related to the case were quickly removed from Amazon.

Such anti-counterfeiting actions are not only carried out in China, but also in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries. In 2021, Amazon discovered, seized and properly handled more than 3 million counterfeit products, including counterfeit products sent to Amazon fulfillment centers and attempted to be sold to Amazon customers but failed. At the same time, more than 600 criminals in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), China and other countries were prosecuted or investigated.

In fact, Amazon’s cooperation with Chinese law enforcement agencies is not only about cracking down on counterfeiting dens.

It is reported that Amazon also cooperated with local public security bureaus in China to crack down on bad actors who illegally purchased ID cards and business licenses and attempted to register fake Amazon seller accounts. As a result, 84 people were detained. In 2021 , Amazon blocked more than 2.5 million bad actors' attempts to create new sales accounts worldwide, denying them the opportunity to sell products on the platform .