Helping Brands Protect their Intellectual Property

Amazon uses advanced technology and expert human reviewers to verify the identities of potential sellers. Prospective sellers are required to provide a variety of information, such as government-issued photo IDs, taxpayer details, and banking information. In addition to verifying these, Amazon’s systems also analyze numerous data points including behavior signals to detect and prevent risks, and connections to previously detected bad actors. To ensure authenticity of an individual’s identity, we also employ advanced identity detection methods such as, forgery detection, facial recognition, and “liveness detection” technology to quickly verify the authenticity of government-issued identity documents and whether they match the individual applying to sell in our store. We make it straightforward for small businesses to start selling while making it challenging for bad actors to create new selling accounts. Once a seller is already registered, we evaluate risk signals on a daily basis to detect when a seller’s information may have changed. In the event Amazon identifies a potential risk, we promptly initiate an investigation, request additional information if needed, and take appropriate action.

Amazon has developed a suite of tools and programs to protect customers, brands, and selling partners from counterfeits, fraud, and abuse, and create a consistent and trusted experience for customers every time they shop on Amazon.

Brand Registry

Brand Registry helps brands better protect their brand and intellectual property rights. Through the Report a Violation tool, brand owners can find and report infringements. Brand Registry also allows Amazon to more effectively safeguard brands through automated protections that use machine learning and the data provided in Brand Registry.

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IP Accelerator

IP Accelerator helps small businesses efficiently obtain intellectual property rights and expedites a brand’s access to Brand Registry by offering high-quality trademark registration services at competitive rates.

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Transparency

Transparency protects brand and customers by ensuring that every unit shipped is authentic. It is a product serialization service that prevents counterfeits from reaching customers by using codes to uniquely identify individual units of enrolled products. These codes can be scanned throughout the supply chain to verify authenticity, regardless of where the products were purchased.

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Project Zero

Project Zero combines Amazon’s advanced technology, machine learning, and innovation with the sophisticated knowledge that brands have of their own intellectual property and how best to detect counterfeits of their products.

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Amazon Patent Evaluation Express

Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) gives utility patent owners a forum to effectively resolve patent infringement disputes at a much faster speed than the traditional court system. The APEX process invites a neutral third-party expert evaluator to determine if a product is infringing, reducing the time it takes to obtain a decision to an average of six weeks, faster than the two years it takes for the average U.S. patent lawsuit to get to trial.

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Amazon works with trademark organizations across the world, including United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), to protect the intellectual property rights of rights owners. Amazon directly receives and acts upon information from the USPTO. We leverage this information to remove false and otherwise abusive brands and share trends within our store with the USPTO to support their investigations. Amazon joined the EUIPO’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Portal, which provides secure communication and exchange of details with a wide variety of IP stakeholders to support IP protection efforts. Amazon is committed to further collaboration within the private and public IP ecosystem.