Amazon Seller Copyright Infringement
Amazon Seller Copyright Infringement cases can happen even by accident. An Amazon Seller must be extremely diligent in ensuring his/her products are not violating the IP rights of brands or other rights owners. In this posting, we explain more about Seller IP Infringements at large, but below we wanted to provide more direction if you find yourself dealing with 1 of the 3 main types of IP violations in particular: A Copyright Infringement.
When beginning to sell a new product on Amazon it is critically important to verify your eligibility to sell that product. Before even listing the ASIN, it’s imperative to verify with the USPTO that you are indeed not violating any existing copyrights or trademarks.
If you missed this step in the process due to oversight, we understand. Moving forward, be sure to incorporate it into your ASIN listing process. If you’re now facing a suspension and have a suspicion it was due to a copyright infringement, be sure to double check by reading the exact email from Amazon and by checking your Amazon Account Health, which will provide a detailed account of all ASIN suspensions. You will most always see the exact word ‘copyright’ in at least 1 of these 2 places.
If you can confirm your ASIN was suspended due to a copyright violation you will be required to contact Amazon to receive the name and email address of the rights owner, if you do not have this information already. Regardless, you will need to obtain a letter of authorization from the rights owner so remain persistent in this pursuit.
In addition, you will also be required to present documentation from your supplier explicitly showing they are indeed authorized to sell these products as well. Amazon Seller Central requires a clear chain of invoices demonstrating that you have purchased your products from an authorized seller and have obtained the proper permissions required to sell your listing on Amazon.
Once you have successfully received this information and implemented it into a professional appeal with a thoughtful plan of action, you’ll be back on your way to selling. Once this ASIN is activated, Amazon will provide an email through your Case Log so be sure to monitor this channel post appeal submission. This will allow you to relist your ASIN immediately and resume sales.
Amazon Seller Copyright Infringement can be a difficult issue to address, and ASINs suspended due to copyright infringements are difficult to reinstate but not impossible. If you find yourself suspended due to a copyright infringement, reach out to us and we can help you get reinstated.
One Response
We have been suspended since October 2020 and they are holding $1875 of ours and do not seem inclined to send it to us. We have appealed to everyone from Messrs Bezos, Clark & Helbling on down for help in reactivating our account. We heard nothing after multiple emails and postal submission of documents to those men explaining our position.
We were banned because of Amazon robots detecting trademark and copyright infringements, all of which were legitimate use of such marks. We sell old paper items and to identify them properly we use, for example, Boston Red Sox for a ticket stub or game program. But that apparently is unacceptable to Amazon robots.
Further, we have been flagged for using certain words in our titles, like “opium”, which is the subject of a magazine article. We are NOT selling opium. We are selling a periodical, a magazine, from the 1930s with an article ABOUT opium. The same thing happens with other words we use correctly and according to Amazon rules to identify our merchandise.
Since we were banned, I have continued to get messages about the sins in my listings from Amazon even though NONE of my listings has been active since 2020.