Fighting baseless IP (Right Owner) Complaints for Amazon sellers

Under the first sale doctrine, Amazon sellers who lawfully purchased genuine products through legitimate distributors generally have the right to resell them, even using the manufacturer’s trademark or images, as long as the items are not materially different from those sold by the rights owner. When a rights owner files a baseless IP complaint anyway, sellers may have options to push back and seek a retraction rather than simply losing their listing or account.

We hear from Amazon sellers regularly who receive baseless intellectual property complaints for their items that were listed on Amazon. When we refer to intellectual property, we are referring to any one of 4 (four) categories including trademark, copyright, patent, and trade dress.

A rights owner can submit a complaint to Amazon against an Amazon seller under penalty of perjury whereby they rights owner alleges that the Amazon seller has violated their intellectual property rights. In these instances, the rights owner allege that the item(s) sold by the seller are “materially different” and that therefore, they violate the rights owners rights.

Under the first sale doctrine, a seller has the right to market an item including the rights owners logo, trademark, copyright, or images of the item without being in violation of the rights owners intellectual property rights as long as the item is not “materially different” from the items sold directly by the manufacturer.

Oftentimes, our clients, Amazon sellers have not violated any intellectual property rights, but rather purchased and resold products lawfully acquired through their distributors.

In these instances, a seller is not left without defenses. We are an avid believer that a the best defense is a strong offense, and with that sellers can bring claims against the rights owners who bring wrongful claims against them. These sellers who are selling from tens of thousands of dollars a month, through millions of dollars in sales per month, can have their account jeopardized, and can bring claims against the rights owner under intentional interference with contract, and fraud against the individuals who filed the complaint.

How we handle these matters?

We generally start of by having one of our attorneys who is fully familiar with Amazon and with intellectual property law review the listing, and the complaint against our clients to determine whether the complaint was baseless or whether there was any merits asserted by the rightsowner against our client. We are never reluctant to reach out to the rightsowner to address the issue to try and rapidly reach a resolution which results in the “withdrawal” of the complaint to Amazon. Often, we write a letter to the rightsowner to address the matter and allow them an opportunity to review and address the matter so we can reach a resolution and a subsequent “withdrawal”. We have found in many instances where sellers try reaching out to the rights owners directly, and are unable to receive a response. In our experience, most rightsowners respond to our letters as they clearly understand that the seller takes the matter seriously and we most frequently receive a response and a willingness to cooperate and reach a resolution which is advantageous and favorable to all parties involv

We advocate fiercely for our clients and push to obtain a retraction from the rightsowner of their baseless complaint

If you or someone you know has an issue with their Amazon’s seller account, i.e. :IP violation), please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.