Your Amazon web shop faces risk with delisting due to alleged intellectual property infringement? A client shared a real story with us, we asked him if we can publish an article to share his experiences with our clients or internet visitors, who could or would encounter similar problems regarding alleged IP infringement to their Amazon web shop. We’re glad that the client approved our idea. Here’s the story, how a small entrepreneur, an Amazon webs shop owner for US and Europe site, successfully got his web shop unblocked by Amazon’s delisting by using a Counter Notice. We write the story as a first-person, as if the client is telling you his story by himself. We thank for his openness to share his experiences with us and you!
Every time I receive a small red flag of intellectual property infringement notice in Amazon backend, I got worried. What I find most troublesome is the copyright infringement complaint. Not only because of the product images similarity, but also similar listing can be the reason for the complaint. It just so happens that pictures and listing are the key to facilitating orders on Amazon. That’s unavoidable problems that make sellers easily crash.
J., Amazon seller on US and Europe site
How disastrous is a copyright infringement complaint? I am a seller who has made thousands of orders monthly. I worked hard to achieve the first in the small category, but was maliciously complained of copyright infringement by competitors, and I was devastated. Fortunately, it eventually cost me about 800 dollars, because I asked an intellectual property lawyer friend to help solve it.
I want to share with you the tips for successful appeal: counter-complaint letter & reminder letter provided by intellectual property lawyers. After sending these two letters to Counter Notice handling of Amazon, my listing was allowed to resume.
Perhaps some of you, who are also sellers, could have received an email from Counter Notice handling of Amazon, and are confused or urgently want to know what counter notice is? Is it part of Amazon compliance? What business does it target?
What is Counter-Notice?
Counter-Notice, also known as DMCA Counter-Notice /DMCA Counterclaim, can be understood as a counter-notification. To understand what a Counter-Notice is, you must first understand what a DMCA notice is. According to the DMCN (United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act), if the copyright owner complains about infringement by others, the relevant platform must prohibit access to the infringing work to avoid liability.
The DMCA notice is prepared for copyright owners to defend their rights, while Counter-Notice is prepared for the respondent. If the respondent has no infringement or has the legal right to use the work, he can submit a Counter-Notice.
Submitting Counter-Notice is equivalent to directly replying with an official letter, telling the other party strongly: I have no infringement, or you can withdraw the lawsuit or sue me. And notify the relevant platform, indicating that he has fully understood the situation, and believes that he has no problems, and is willing to bear all the consequences.
What happens after the Counter-Notice is submitted?
If you are complained of copyright infringement on the Amazon platform, but believe that you are not infringing, but the other party has made a malicious complaint, you can submit a Counter-Notice to Amazon.
When Amazon receives your counter notice, it is obliged to resume your listing after 10 working days and forward the notice to the complainant. At this time, the complainant will either withdraw the complaint or sue you and determine whether you have infringed through the court’s judgment. If the complainant does not take any measures, Amazon will unblock your listing after 10 working days.
What do I need to submit a Counter-Notice?
1. Your (or attorney attorney)’s signature.
2. Clearly indicate the removed or prohibited content, and the location before the removal.
3. A statement of penalties for perjury stating that you are convinced that the relevant materials have been deleted or disabled due to errors or misidentification.
4. Your name, address and telephone number, and your consent to the statement of the jurisdiction where the address is located by the Federal District Court.
5. Or if your address is outside the United States, any jurisdiction where the service provider can be found, and you will receive processing services from the person who provided the notice or the person’s agent.
Conclusion
Amazon’s handling of infringement complaints has been complained about, but it has not been improved. If there is a complaint, regardless of the number of the complaint, the listing of the product under complaint will be removed first.
If you want to resume the listing after being complained, you must go through the extremely cumbersome appeal process. If you are lucky, you can resume the listing once or twice. If you are unfortunate, it will be endless appeals, and then seeing inventory backlog and suffer heavy losses.
In addition, the copyright official website will not display the specific drawings of the work, and cannot confirm the copyright information of the complainant, especially the complaint on amazon. When encountering a copyright infringement complaint, you can only ask the complainant to provide copyright related information, which is very passive.
If you confirm that you have no infringement or think that the other party is making a malicious complaint, sellers may wish to try to submit a Counter-Notice to Amazon. If the other party is really making a malicious complaint, they will not waste money and energy to file a complaint in court. Within 10 working days, the listing will be unblocked!
Of course, the best way to protect rights is to register copyright, which can not only clarify the ownership of the copyright, but also protect against malicious squatting. You have more confidence to compete with the other party when encountering malicious complaints.