Now, Amazon wants that sellers should have a federal trademark registration to qualify for the Amazon Brand Registry.
Due to its popularity, some trademark infringers, listing hijackers, product counterfeiters, and others continue to be a huge problem throughout the Amazon marketplace. Recently, Amazon launched its latest version of the Amazon Brand Registry. It is a registry only available to federally registered Amazon trademark owners in the United States, India, Japan, France, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and the European Union. It encourages sellers to enroll so their brand and Amazon can work like a team to reduce potential intellectual property rights violations and promote an accurate representation of their brand on Amazon.
Amazon
Amazon is the leading online retailer, Web services provider, and manufacturer of electronic book readers. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington.
Amazon is a vast Internet-based company (has an e-commerce website) that sells books, clothes, electronics, groceries, movies, and many other goods, either directly or as the middleman between other retailers and Amazon’s millions of customers. Its Web services business includes renting data storage and computing resources which are known as “cloud computing,” over the Internet.
The company also launches the market-leading Kindle e-book readers. Its promotion has led to dramatic growth in e-book publishing and turned Amazon into a major disruptive force in the book-publishing market.
Amazon Products and Services
Amazon has product lines available at its website including several media, apparel, beauty products, gourmet food, groceries, baby products, consumer electronics, health and personal care items, jewelry, watches, industrial & scientific supplies, kitchen items, lawn and garden items, tools, automotive items, musical instruments, sporting goods, and toys & games. Amazon has separate retail websites for some countries and also caters to international shipping of some of its products to certain other countries.
Amazon.com has several products and services available which are as follows:
- Amazon Fresh
- Amazon Prime
- Amazon Web Services
- Alexa
- Appstore
- Amazon Drive
- Echo
- Kindle
- Fire tablets
- Fire TV
- Video
- Kindle Store
- Music
- Music Unlimited
- Amazon Digital Game Store
- Amazon Studios
- Amazon Wireless
What is the Amazon Brand Registry?
The Amazon Brand Registry is an Amazon’s program that permits verified brand owners to have more control over their brand and have access to enhanced reporting tools across Amazon.
In May 2017, Amazon launched a new and updated Brand Registry designed to help brand owners prevent their registered trademarks and create an enhanced and trusted experience for customers by providing access to predictive automation, proprietary text and image search, and reporting tools.
Today, the Amazon Seller Brand Registry unlocks a powerful suite of features and programs for verified brand owners to not only protect IP (intellectual property) but also build their brand presence on Amazon and expand their business.
Standard Character Mark Trademark
The Trademark must be a standard character mark. Many sellers tried to register their mark but got rejected by Amazon because their trademark is not a standard character mark.
A trademark for a word or phrase can be filed in two ways:
- Standard character mark
- Stylized mark
Standard character mark means you are applying for a trademark for the word or combination of word, as standard characters, un-stylized, with no regard towards the font, size, shape, or color. Companies want to prevent others from using the phrase for example “Verse” regardless of what these words look like. They simply want the standard character “Verse”.
However, in the actual logo, “Verse” is in a special font. If other companies applied for a trademark by using the above same word, where the company name is in the special font and color then that trademark application would be a “Stylized Mark” not the standard character mark and will be ineligible for Amazon’s Brand Registry.
Must more: Cost of Trademark Registration
Difference Between Standard Character Mark and Stylized Mark
If you are trying to protect a word or phrase such as your business name or good name, a standard character mark is a more powerful trademark than a stylized mark as a standard character mark is protecting a word or phrase without specifying the font, size, shape, and color. By not specifying the font, size, shape, and color, you are asking for protection on just that word or combination of word, regardless of what that word or combination of the word looks like and how it is styled.
So you might think that when you should apply for a trademark using the Stylized Mark option. That option is good for logos. For example, “Verse” has a graphic in a logo that looks like a document. To protect this graphic, they would file a trademark for this graphic as a Stylized Mark.
Amazon is accepting brands only if you have a properly registered trademark for words only, a standard character mark into its Brand Registry. So make sure it is filed as a standard character mark at the time of filing if you are applying for an Amazon trademark on a company or brand name. If you already have a trademark and want to make it an Amazon trademark but it is getting rejected by them for not being a standard character mark, you can take professional help which can help you to solve these problems.
Why Does Amazon Require a Trademark Registration?
Amazon deals with thousands of different brands as one of the largest online retailers in the United States. As a result, it gets thousands of complaints each day from sellers regarding infringement, counterfeits, and other legal issues. For its Brand Registry, Amazon requires a trademark registration as among other reasons, registration means that the law presumes that the owner of the registration is the owner of the trademark itself, and hence, the trademark is valid.
Trademark registration is granted only after a government attorney which is called an “examining attorney” reviews the application and the information provided. A registration helps Amazon to eliminate brands and companies who otherwise may not have a protectable trademark and allows Amazon those sellers who are more focused on their brands.
Time Taken To Register a Trademark for the Amazon Brand Registry
It will take at least 9 months from beginning to end to obtain a trademark registration.
The most crucial date (for trademark registration) is the date when you apply. Anyone who files for the same kind of trademark after you will have to wait in line behind you. Once filed, a trademark application waits about 3 months before an Examining Attorney who reviews the application. The government will publish the application “for the opposition” in about 3 months If you get approved. If no one opposes the trademark application then it will register in an additional 3 months.
There is one exception to this “9-month” rule that you may be able to file a “Petition to Make Special,” It is a petition to the Director of the USPTO’s office asking them to speed up the initial review of the trademark. There are additional costs and will only reduce the first stage i.e. the time it takes for a government attorney to review your application. It likely reduces the processing time for about 2 months.
Once you’ve decided to apply, you must do the registration process accurately. In some situations, if you make errors on your application, you will have no choice but to re-file and begin from scratch.
Conclusion
If you are viewing to analyze your trademark registration process enable TrademarkCart to manage your application. We offer loads of services worldwide. We allow Trademark registration in the USA, Dubai, Singapore, UK, and many more countries. You can visit our website “TrademarkCart” and trademark Services. Even you can call us at the number: +1-3024672224 or mail us at [email protected]
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