How to Protect your Brand in Amazon: Amazon Brand Registry
Protecting the Brand while selling the products online is an essential part of the business. Amazon has a unit dedicated to Intellectual-property protection. However, many sellers hesitate to sell their products at Amazon. Sellers or Brand owners fear of their reputation might be attacked by their competitors. Although one might not sell its brand in Amazon, some other sellers might do. So it is not possible to completely isolate your brand from Amazon. That is the reason every brand owner or a company must register for Amazon Brand Registry.
Amazon Brand Registry is a program offered by Amazon to protect the brand and intellectual property. If there is an issue with the policy, listing, product, logo, or technical details, one can rise compliant and take action for violation of intellectual property rights. Apart from protection, brand owners can have many perks for marketing, content, and Amazon Storefront. Brand Registry will put a break to counterfeit products in Amazon stores. Also, the Brand Registry helps to identify authorized sellers as well. Many reputed brands work as a vendor to Amazon. Brands cannot sell their products directly in Amazon Marketplace if Amazon sells the items. Amazon uses tools like inventory management, pricing, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), and also protects your intellectual property by Brand Registry.
Requirements to enroll in Amazon Brand Registry
Amazon Brand Registry rules change according to country one wishes to register.
- Registered Trademark
- Proof of Ownership
- Amazon account
- Images of Brand label, Logo, Product Categories and Details
- Product manufacture details and location
How does the Amazon Brand Registry process go?
Once the above details provided by the Brand owner to Amazon, the details need to verify for authenticity. Country-wise, local amazon headquarters takes action; in some cases, they visit the manufacturing facility. Generally, Amazon will send a secret code to the registered address. Sending secret code is a very similar method used by Google to verify the Business Addresses. Don’t worry. Amazon will provide all the information to whom it has sent so that the verification process will be smooth.
Also, after submitting necessary papers and once address verification over, within 24 hours, the Brand Registry will take place. The whole process is free of cost; however, to obtain some papers like Trademark registration, one has to visit government offices respective to their country. Each country has its own rules and guidelines to register the trademark. Therefore, the Amazon Brand registry also must be done country-wise. One can check the eligibility at the amazon brand registry page.
Advantages of Amazon Brand Registry
One can report intellectual property issues easily and also retract wrong claims. Counterfeit products in Amazon market place will have no place. Eliminating copied products will help to create brand value and reputation as well. Attackers like blackhat sellers needs to find new ways to target you. Hence, eliminate fake reviews, attacks from competitors, changing listing content, and many more threats. Also, enjoy the perks of Amazon Storefront.
Brand Registry is not able to control who can sell the products. But, it helps in selling genuine products. Besides, the Brand registry does not control the distribution as well. If an owner decides not to sell a particular product in another country, somehow other sellers import genuine products and sell them. Brand Registry cannot help in these cases because the sellers are selling authentic items. This type of import is called grey imports.
Brand Registry is a system to protect IP, and one can sell the products in Brand Registry as well.
Finally, If you are the owner of Brand, we strongly recommend you to register in Amazon Brand Registry. The program helps you protect IP and helps you in many other ways, as mentioned above.
