Amazon has established itself as the largest online selling platform. However, the more it expands its services and its seller community, the higher the instances of third-party sellers counterfeiting others’ product listings.
Imagine your Amazon brand getting a whole lot of positive attention from potential customers, and then turning those potential customers to actual buyers. Now, try to picture out your listed products being counterfeited by other sellers without your knowledge. This scenario should make you worried.
If you are making large sales on Amazon and afraid of having your products and listings counterfeited, worry no more because you can now gate your Amazon brand for its security and protection.
What steps do I have to take to protect my Amazon brand?
Brand Registry
You need to enroll your brand in Amazon’s Brand Registry service. This is the first step in ensuring the protection of your brand against counterfeiting.
Trademark
One of the requirements to be eligible for enrolment in Amazon Brand Registry is having a registered and active text or image-based trademark. There are country-specific requirements that you need to follow to make sure that your trademark is up to par with Amazon’s standards. Here’s a sample list of requirements needed by sellers who are based in the US:
- Trademark organization: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
- Statutes: Trademark must have a live registration issued and active in the principal register
- Text-based marks: 1 – Typeset Word(s)/ Letter(s)/ Number(s); 4 – Standard Character Mark
- Image-based marks: 3 – An Illustration Drawing which includes Word(s)/Letter(s)/ Number(s); 5 – Words, Letters, or Numbers in a Stylized Form
ASINs
After signing up to Amazon’s Brand Registry program and establishing your trademark, you now need to create the list of ASINs you want to protect. This is to specify which among your products would you like to prioritize in brand gating.
Counterfeits
Issues with counterfeit products are the main reason that prompted third-party sellers to take advantage of the shopping site’s Brand Registry service. Always make sure that you do not sell counterfeit items as doing so may affect your chances of enrolment in Amazon’s Brand Registry. If you do have them, explain in detail your reason for having such items for your case to be considered by the Amazon Brand registry team.
Seller ID
All necessary information should be well-noted and accounted for. It is necessary to remember all the details you provided during enrolment. By doing so, any possible delays during the Amazon Brand Gating process can be minimized or prevented altogether.
The Amazon Brand Gating Policy
Amazon has imposed a brand gating policy to fight off counterfeiters and protect its customers and legitimate sellers. The said policy requires brand-carrying resellers to do the following:
- Pay as much as $1500 per brand
- Provide invoices from manufacturers showing purchase of 30 items within the last three months
- Show written permission from the brand to sell their products
With this amount of money required just to resell products from one particular brand, it is possible to reduce instances of counterfeit products. However, this is just another step. You still have to make sure to follow the steps listed here to successfully protect your account against third-party vendors.
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