Malicious Patent Infringement allowed By Amazon.
I am a new international seller.
After months of business preparation, account registration, sampling and purchasing my stock from Alibaba (Which is now on its way to an FBA centre in the USA), my listing was deactivated by Amazon without explanation or any notification.
I later received an email advising that it was due to a patent infringement lodged by another US company, but did not specify what basis the infringement was based on. I checked their product and it was different in both design and functional use. They would not advise me what the violation was.
Amazon advised the onus is on me to provide documents such as a License Agreement, Court Order or seek Legal help to issue a letter of No infringement, which are my only options to re-instate my listing. Another option was to contact the patent owner to ask them to 'nicely" remove the complaint. I have reached out but they clearly won't reply as they had lodged this complaint to get rid of any new competition. There is not much I can do in terms of documentation from being in a overseas country.
This is the equivalent of accusing someone of a crime, not presenting them with evidence and asking them to prove their innocence. Whats crazy is that Amazon allows other sellers to be able to use this internal policy to take out other sellers and ruin their business.
Now I have all this stock due to arrive at an FBA Warehouse and I don't know what to do with it. I have lost several thousand dollars and didn't even get the chance to go live or defend myself.
Malicious Patent Infringement allowed By Amazon.
I am a new international seller.
After months of business preparation, account registration, sampling and purchasing my stock from Alibaba (Which is now on its way to an FBA centre in the USA), my listing was deactivated by Amazon without explanation or any notification.
I later received an email advising that it was due to a patent infringement lodged by another US company, but did not specify what basis the infringement was based on. I checked their product and it was different in both design and functional use. They would not advise me what the violation was.
Amazon advised the onus is on me to provide documents such as a License Agreement, Court Order or seek Legal help to issue a letter of No infringement, which are my only options to re-instate my listing. Another option was to contact the patent owner to ask them to 'nicely" remove the complaint. I have reached out but they clearly won't reply as they had lodged this complaint to get rid of any new competition. There is not much I can do in terms of documentation from being in a overseas country.
This is the equivalent of accusing someone of a crime, not presenting them with evidence and asking them to prove their innocence. Whats crazy is that Amazon allows other sellers to be able to use this internal policy to take out other sellers and ruin their business.
Now I have all this stock due to arrive at an FBA Warehouse and I don't know what to do with it. I have lost several thousand dollars and didn't even get the chance to go live or defend myself.
0 Antworten
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
You could have stopped right here --
"After months of business preparation, account registration, sampling and purchasing my stock from Alibaba "
One of the things that you failed to do in all those months of prep work was looking at the dozens/hundreds of posts on the Forum from sellers banned from the site for using those guys.
It is well known that Ali#$#$ has a well earned reputation for selling counterfeits and knockoffs.
As to this part -- " I have all this stock due to arrive at an FBA Warehouse and I don't know what to do with it."
There is nothing that YOU can do with it. Unless you spend the money to PROVE that you are not infringing (NOT likely to happen) you will not get the items back.
Since they will be considered to be counterfeit Amazon is NOT allowed to return them. In the eyes of the US Government, they actually are supposed to be destroyed or confiscated and sent to the Feds.
About this -- "didn't even get the chance to go live or defend myself. "
You CAN defend yourself but it is going to cost a LOT of money and you will most likely lose. You chose to deal with a country and a company that has very little (if any) respect for IP and laws.
Seller_WBnGS7Ix3XiDX
Obviously @Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp is correct, and had the goodness to be honest with you.
If you bought something off their site, other people can too. Unless it was custom made, not showing on their site, can you assume its a one of a kind.
You said that yours was a bit different? Can you contact the vendor that sold them to you to find out why they sold you a similar product to another buyer. I also think with Alibaba you might have some recourse financially.
You can have a item made, but stay away from off the shelf items. They might be someone else's design. But shame on them for displaying it for sale.
Hopefully you get this resolved with the other seller. Maybe discuss working together til the stock is gone, and then move on. Good luck!
Cooper_Amazon
Good Evening @Seller_V6AVH2asw6Zsq, I am reaching out to our Account Health Specialists to see if they can provide us with any additional information or support around patent infringement cases. They should get back to us within the next few business days. Sincerely, Cooper_Amazon
Atlas_Amazon
Hello @Seller_V6AVH2asw6Zsq
"received an email advising that it was due to a patent infringement lodged by another US company"
Thank you for the information provided regarding the issues you have been dealing with. I understand that you have been dealing with patent issues. You should have received the specific details regarding what intellectual property is being infringed upon, have you been able to verify that the information you are seeing matches the details provided? What type of product are you listing on the platform? Do you have any registered intellectual property associated to it?
For appealing this issue, you do have the option to contact the rights owner, but we cannot guarantee a response will be provided as that is their own discretion. If you cannot acquire a retraction, you will need to provide valid documentation. This could be a letter of authorization or licensing agreement that gives you explicit permission to list the product on the platform.
Otherwise, it will need to be a letter of non-infringement. This needs to be an official document that details how your product is different or does not infringe upon the patent in question. If it is not sufficient in showing this, it will result in a rejection of the submission.
Without valid documents or sufficient details, the violation will remain unresolved. Have you attempted to provide any submission as of now? If so, have you received a response to it? Please continue to utilize this thread for support.
Best,
Atlas
