[敏感词]infringement

In cases of minor infringement, Amazon or the complainant may issue an infringement warning email, and e-commerce companies should actively respond by immediately deleting the product and making corrections.

1. Amazon Warning Response

If you only receive a warning from the Amazon platform and confirm your infringement, immediately delete the product and develop a corrective action plan. Submit an explanation and corrective action plan to the Amazon platform to lift the account ban. The appeal process is as follows:

① Appeal Step 1

The seller has read the Amazon email, acknowledged the revocation of their product, acknowledged the infringement, and explained the reasons for the infringement.

② Appeal Step 2

Describe the seller's account's past performance, customer satisfaction, positive reviews of products, and other positive aspects.

③ Appeal Step Three

Develop an action plan to address infringement vulnerabilities, including listing current issues, corrective action plans, and content. For example, employee intellectual property training, product intellectual property risk warning, and controlling the intellectual property qualifications of partners. The level of detail and feasibility of the plan will directly affect the likelihood of the seller's rights being restored.

④ Appeal Step Four

Send the above appeal content to Amazon through the following methods.

a) Log in to the seller's seller account;

b) Click on the performance notifications on the page link;

c) Find the notification about the revocation of the seller's seller rights and click on the Appeal button;

d) Click the Appeal decision button;

e) Fill in the seller's specific action plan in the file column;

f) Click on 'Submit appeal' to send the seller's appeal to Seller Performance.

⑤ Appeal Step Five

Follow the seller's email to view Amazon replies. After receiving the seller's action plan, Amazon will notify the seller of their decision via email within 48 hours, and Amazon will carefully review each appeal.

If the appeal is unsuccessful once, you can modify and improve the appeal content and try several times.

2. Complainant warns to respond

If a warning email is received from the complainant and the account has been closed. It is recommended that the seller consider comprehensively the account amount, value, and other factors before deciding whether to entrust a lawyer or settlement institution to contact the complainant, especially if the complainant entrusts a lawyer to intervene.

In this case, if the seller's account needs to be unblocked, the complainant first needs to withdraw the complaint on the Amazon platform. Secondly, the seller should explain to Amazon that similar situations will not occur again in the future.

3. Reconciliation

If the nature of the infringement is relatively serious, the complainant may seek to protect their rights through the following ways: ① Entrusting a lawyer to sue the seller; ② Apply for Amazon's neutral evaluation program; ③ Entrusting a lawyer to send an infringement notification email, but the opposing lawyer or complainant does not respond to the seller's email.

In the above situations, the seller may not be able to solve the problem themselves and needs to hire a lawyer or settlement agency to negotiate with the complainant.

NO.2Appeal channels for each site

If the seller believes that the complainant's complaint is incorrect, they can file an appeal through the following channels:

1. Appeal entrance

Generally, Amazon infringement notices or emails will inform sellers of the appeal process or contact information, and follow the notification or

The email prompts to submit the materials. Generally speaking, the appeal process can be carried out through the following methods:

Log in to the seller account, follow Amazon's appeal guidelines, and submit a counter notification.

Appeal through Amazon seller performance or seller center assistance consultation.

If the seller cannot log in to the seller center, the seller can send the appeal content to the following email:

US Station:

seller-performance@amazon.com ；

UK Station:

seller-performance@amazon.co.uk ；

perhaps

cn-seller-verification-enquiry@amazon.co.uk ；

France Station:

performance-vendeur@amazon.fr ；

Germany Station:

verkaeufer-performance@amazon.de ；

Italy Station:

performance-venditore@amazon.it ；

Spain Station:

performance-vendedor@amazon.es ；

Canada Station:

seller-performance@amazon.ca ；

Japan Station:

alliance@amazon.co.jp .

Or go to the seller centers on various Amazon sites to help consult and file an appeal:

US Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/contact.html ；

UK Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/contact.html ；

France Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.fr/gp/help/contact.html ；

Germany Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.de/gp/help/contact.html ；

Italy Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.it/gp/help/contact.html ；

Spain Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.es/gp/help/contact.html ；

Canada Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.es/ca/help/contact.html ；

Japan Station:

https://sellercentral.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/contact.html .

2. Appeal process and key points of content

① Log in to your account and submit a counter notification

Perform the following steps: 1) Go to [Account Status]>[Policy Compliance]>[Intellectual Property Complaints Received]; 2) Find the suspension record of the product that the seller wants to appeal, and then click on 'Appeal' next to the record.

The counter notification must include the following information:

a， The materials that have been removed or disabled, as well as the location where the materials were located before removal or disabling;

b， A statement indicating that the seller is confident that the materials reported in the complaint were misidentified or mistakenly removed, and if the statement is untrue, they are willing to be punished for perjury;

c， The seller's name, address, and phone number;

d， A statement indicating that the seller agrees to accept the jurisdiction of the federal district court in the jurisdiction where the address is located, and to receive legal process documents sent to the seller by the complainant (if the seller is outside the United States, they must declare their agreement to accept the jurisdiction of any designated U.S. federal district court);

e， Seller's handwritten or electronic signature; Please note that if the statement in the written counter notice is false, it may result in the seller being subject to civil or criminal penalties.

After receiving a valid counter notification, Amazon's copyright agency will forward the information to the party submitting the complaint ("complainant"). If the complainant fails to file a lawsuit regarding the content within 10 days, Amazon will restore the corresponding content.

② Log in to the account and receive performance reminders for appeal

Perform the following steps: 1) Log in to the seller's seller account; 2) Click on the performance notifications on the page link; 3) Find the notification about the revocation of the seller's seller rights and click on the Appeal button; 4) Click the Appeal decision button; 5) Fill in the seller's specific action plan in the file column; 6) Click on 'Submit appeal' to send the seller's appeal to Seller Performance.

Follow the seller's email and check Amazon's response. After receiving the seller's appeal, Amazon will notify the seller of their decision via email within 48 hours. Submitting the appeal does not mean that Amazon can restore the seller's seller rights.

3. Accept neutral evaluation procedures

If the complainant sends the seller a neutral evaluation procedure on the Amazon platform, the seller can accept the evaluation, and Amazon's third-party lawyer will provide a conclusion on whether there is infringement. This neutral evaluation program project provides a simple and low-cost patent infringement determination procedure.

The process of Amazon's neutral procedure includes: ① The patentee (complainant) lists the Amazon ASINs (not exceeding 50) of the products that infringe their patents; ② Amazon will send the program to the complained seller and give them two options: receive a neutral evaluation program and pay a $4000 evaluation fee; Not accepting neutral evaluation procedures and removing the complained product from Amazon; ③ After the complained party receives the procedure, a third-party lawyer conducts a quick assessment. If the product being complained about infringes, Amazon will forcibly remove the product; ④ Evaluate the cost. The third-party evaluation fee shall be borne by the party that fails the evaluation, and the winning party shall refund the fee of $4000. Amazon will not charge any fees.

Of course, if the seller does not accept the neutral evaluation result, they can sue in a US court.

NO.3File a lawsuit or invalidate the complainant's patent/trademark rights in court

1. In the United States

In the United States, sellers can also file invalidation requests with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, courts, or the International Trade Commission.

2. In France

In France, sellers can request the court or the French Intellectual Property Office to invalidate the complainant's patent/trademark rights.

3. In Germany

In Germany, sellers can request the court or the German Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate or revoke the complainant's patent/trademark rights.

4. In Italy

In Italy, sellers can request the court or the Italian Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate or revoke the complainant's patent/trademark rights. In addition, for trademark rights, sellers can also request rejection through the third-party observation process at the Italian Patent and Trademark Office.

Source: Shenzhen Cross border E-commerce Intellectual Property Rights Protection Guidelines