[sabalaba]

Since you work on the web services side it's forgivable that you would think that link to reporting infringement is an effective solution / something that Amazon pays close attention to. We've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product on Amazon, found a company selling a counterfeit version of our product, and submitted a complaint to that URL. That was on 4/5/2016. We have yet to receive a response. The only solution we had was to call up the infringer and tell them to stop, which they luckily did.

But, as I said, from the outside, that report link does seem like a viable "option to fight back"; in reality, it's a customer support black hole.

[NathanKP]

Gotcha. Yeah I don't sell on Amazon myself or work on the retail side so I can't speak to the effectiveness on that side. It sounds like something they need to improve upon.

Have you looked up Brand Gating too? My (admittedly limited) understanding is that Brand Registry is step #1 and Brand Gating is the next level beyond that: https://www.helium10.com/blog/selling-on-amazon/brand-gating...

[sabalaba]

Yes, we looked into Brand Registry -- this is my first time seeing the Brand Gating, which looks like it would solve this problem. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

In general, I think there's frustration for smaller companies and brands that Amazon (understandably) doesn't retain resources to support individually.

[cepth]

From my own experiences, and the various answers available on Amazon forums, Brand Gating is a black box. There is no one you can talk to in order to request it, and for now it seems to be an invite-only program.

Somewhat perversely, someone claimed on the forums (I’ll try to add the link if I find the topic), that one way to get brand gated is to buy up the counterfeit products being sold under your listing/ASIN, and document and/or send them into Amazon. It seems that until you’re being widely counterfeited, there really is nothing you can do proactively.

Amazon has been an overall net positive for our company, but the difficulties of trying to get a knowledgeable person to answer pressing questions usually create headaches for me at least once a month. Even as a large volume seller through Amazon Vendor Central, we’ve been given boilerplate legalese about needing to provide photocopies of the certificate of our trademarks in order to initiate DMCA takedowns of stolen or copied images and text. As great as Amazon is for consumers, the vendor support can often make you feel like you’re howling at the wind.

[bryanrasmussen]

why do you need to provide photocopies to initiate DMCA takedowns? I thought one of the complaints about DMCA was that it was ridiculously easy to do to someone, but Amazon has made it difficult for you? I wonder if it would be easier for someone not selling through Amazon and thus not dependent on them.

[cepth]

You'd think this would be an unnecessary step, since we provided a link to the USPTO filing, and we provided our incorporation documents when becoming a vendor.

The issue with the Amazon case management system is if you encounter a customer service rep who has no idea who you're talking about, there's no way to escalate the support case at all. There's no live person to talk to. So, you end up playing roulette, often having to submit the same case multiple times until you get a rep who is able to help.

[8note]

I recently got reorged into brand protection.

you can probably get somewhere by messaging [e-mail]

[asdfasdf1233]

There are tons of new tools for brands that were launched in 2017 to help brands proactively prevent this sort of behavior.

Apply to the brand registry with your trademark info and you’ll have access to tools to proactively protect your brand.

Amazon is taking this sort of behavior very seriously and has added systems in place to help prevent this.

In addition to the brand registry you might also want to check out their transparency program.

https://digiday.com/marketing/amazon-grows-transparency-prog...

[masonic]

Is anyone else disturbed that somebody would create a throwaway account just to defend Amazon practices in this submittal's comments?

[mackey]

No. Despite it being a defense, sometimes its not worth shining a light on yourself or maybe they just don't feel comfortable speaking out.

[amluto]

I wonder what would have happened if you filed a lawsuit against Amazon?

[double0jimb0]

Great question! Answer is, you have to have a legal team the size of Mercedes Benz:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/05/amazon-g...