Many common words were trademarked, and a group of sellers were swept

In the past week, Amazon launched an infringement review and many sellers received trademark abuse notices. Surprisingly, many of the words involved in the infringement are commonly used words in listing writing, including operation, material, durable, etc.

Although they are indignant, a large number of sellers are urgently changing their words to avoid triggering landmines in order to maintain links. If an infringement occurs, not only will the account and balance be in danger, but more seriously, the seller in question may not be able to simply abandon the account and get away with it. Industry feedback shows that some sellers have received notices from domestic courts for their passive handling of infringement cases.

Common words such as Operation are registered as trademarks

The "infringement" pitfall is the key point to avoid for cross-border sellers, but even if they actively avoid it, they may still "passively infringe", especially when it comes to common vocabulary.

It is the peak season for common word trademark infringement. A seller said that Amazon’s system has captured a lot of infringements recently, including pictures and trademarks, and sent performance requests for rectification after the capture. So what are the common words involved this time?

Operation

In this round of cleanup, Amazon notified some stores of abusing the trademark " OPERATION ", which the sellers said was unexpected.

This word is a must-have word in operating games, board games and toy products. It is also a high-frequency word in categories such as home, kitchen, and machinery. Sellers will use operation to describe household appliances such as fans that can run with low noise, tools or kitchen utensils that can be operated with one hand, touch-operated equipment, cleaning products, etc. This word also often appears in titles.

However, information from the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) shows that as early as 1966, the American toy giant HASBRO, INC. (Hasbro) registered the "OPERATION" trademark for electronic game equipment; in October 2011, Hasbro registered "OPERATION" again, and the trademark category was expanded to 022, 023, 038, etc.

Now, Amazon uses "operation" as a trademark to review whether the platform products infringe the law, and many sellers have been caught. After hearing the news, other sellers also began to delete this word in the links.

Material

During the shopping process, product material is an important factor that consumers care about, and sellers also hope to highlight the quality of their products through production materials. Therefore, material has become an ultra-high-frequency word that cannot be avoided in all categories. Categories such as home furnishings, kitchen supplies, maternal and child supplies, clothing, shoes and bags, jewelry, toys and equipment have a higher usage rate.

But now, some sellers have sadly discovered that this word has also become a trademark. "It's incredible that the word Material can be registered as a trademark in the United States," complained one seller.

Currently, there are multiple "material" related trademarks on the USPTO, covering categories including household utensils, kitchen knives, cooking utensils (pans, cooking spoons, etc.), computer services, etc. In March this year, a company successfully registered material as a trademark in the clothing category, but this trademark comes with a disclaimer, which means that the registrant does not have exclusive rights to the term, so sellers do not have to worry too much.

In 2023, companies have successively applied to register the "MATERIAL" trademark for tableware (bowls, plates, kitchen spoons), wine vessels (wine glasses, cocktail shakers, blenders), cooking strainers, oven gloves, tablecloths, kitchen towels, etc. It can be seen that kitchen supplies are the key area for trademark registration of this term.

Durable

When describing product quality, sellers often emphasize that the product is durable, and " durable " is the preferred word; in some categories, durable is also a drop-down option . But in recent days, Amazon has sent trademark abuse warnings to sellers who use Durable in their links , setting off alarm bells in the industry.

The query results of the United States Patent and Trademark Office show that " durable " has been registered for multiple trademarks, covering many categories such as office supplies, daily necessities, beauty and skin care, furniture, sanitary ware, lighting equipment, jewelry, scientific instruments, etc., and the trademark is in a valid status.

On the Amazon website, there are more than 200,000 search results related to durable. After confirming that it was a registered trademark, sellers began to conduct a comprehensive inspection and delete this word. Some people conducted a thorough investigation from the title description A+ to the words used in the pictures to eliminate risks, and replaced it with words such as long -lasting and sturdy .

However, according to analysis by intellectual property experts, some trademark registrants have given up their exclusive rights to the word durable and cannot file infringement complaints against all sellers using the word durable. However, to avoid potential infringement, sellers are advised to use the word with caution in office chair products and avoid using it directly in the cosmetics field.

Common words are frequently registered as trademarks, which makes sellers very tired. According to statistics from En.com, common words currently registered as trademarks include 100%, one, Tetris, yoyo, Organic, Frisbee, airbag, Generic, Brandless, Nologo, N/A, N/B, nobrand, Apple, Chapstick, Band-Aid, polo, Hula Hoop, VELCRO, PINK, VR BOX, Pandora, etc.

After cross-border infringement, some sellers received notices from domestic courts

There are many cases of sellers suffering losses due to infringement of common word trademarks, and sellers should not take it lightly.

For example, the sports toy hula hoop, its English "HULA   "HOOP" was registered as a trademark by wham-0, which continuously initiated trademark lawsuits from 2021 to 2023. Thousands of stores were sued for infringement, and some sellers were fined $250,000. In the lighting category , "XM-L", which is often used to indicate size and model, is also a trademark. The trademark holding company has started to file lawsuits in the past two years, and some sellers have been sued for millions of dollars.

The most surprising thing is that numerals can also be registered. Many Amazon sellers have received performance warnings for infringing "ONE" and had their product links removed. Perhaps Amazon noticed that the word was widely involved and restored the relevant links a few days later.

The consequences of infringement are serious, so even if dissatisfied, sellers can only delete the relevant words in the category to which the trademark belongs. However, since trademarks registered for common words often cover multiple categories, some sellers directly stop using them for safety reasons, which greatly restricts the product titles and descriptions.

In the past, if a cross-border seller was found to have infringed copyright, he or she would face penalties such as account closure and fund freezing in serious cases, but this was limited to the platform account. But now, sellers may not be able to get away with it by simply abandoning their accounts.

A Shenzhen seller reported that after his product was sued for infringement in the United States, he did not deal with it in a timely manner but directly abandoned his store. Later, he received a notice from the Longgang District People's Court. The notice stated that the court was entrusted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to serve legal documents related to a "intellectual property rights and infringement dispute case."

Coincidentally, a seller in Guangzhou also received a notice from the local court, stating that it was assisting a foreign country in serving judicial documents /judicial document transfer letters in civil and commercial cases.

Professionals said that through the Hague Convention, different countries can provide judicial assistance, including in the field of cross-border intellectual property rights. New feedback from the industry means that TRO cases may be handled cross-border, and the impact on sellers may be further expanded. Sellers should be more cautious in preventing infringement.