One of my listing that is for my own Brand is being sold by a competitor on the Amazon.ca marketplace. My brand is trademarked, a recognized brand in Amazon, and I own the UPC.
In the US I have this customized, and at the time I made the listing, I wasn’t able to add a customization in the .CA marketplace.
What’s the best course here?
These two.
You could also send a C&D to the pirating seller. might get their attention if they are in US/Ca. If they are in CN, then it is a waste of time, go with 1
Follow up - does anyone have a tip for monitoring listings in multiple marketplaces. Do you have a virtual employee or FIVERR help?
Update, I see that the pirate seller just placed an order through another one of our listings on that market place. I mistakenly sent a new customer the pirate listing from our .com ASIN listing (he ended up at the .ca pirate listing since he’s in Canada).
The buyer cancelled their order with the pirate, and now the pirate is trying to cancel their order us. The pirate placed their order on a customized listing, so the cancellation is not automatic.
So they are just drop shipping. Interesting
EDIT - Turns out is isn’t drop shipping. The customer just placed 1 wrong order, they are tied to the same buyer profile, so it can’t be from the pirate seller.
So I’m thinking I’ll do a test purchase of another product later tonight. And then I’ll submit all ASINs for brand / trademark violation.
Additional thought from my employee…
I do a test buy, confirm item is received is counterfeit, and then file counterfeit brand claim. I think that should lead to termination, correct?
Does a counterfeiter have any POA path to reinstatement?
I like their thought path.
At least for the ASIN
If they fake an invoice or LoA maybe
Is your trademark registered with CIPO (Canadian Intellectual Property Office)?
If not, your US trademark doesn’t work for brand registry on .CA. Seems silly, but that is how it works. I’m not saying you can’t report them for trademark infringement, I would just be surprised if they actually did anything about it (they didn’t for me).
If you really want to keep on top of this, trademark your brand with CIPO and link that trademark to your brand registry. It’s fairly easy to do so but takes a long, long time to get your trademark approved from CIPO. Then you will have control over your brand/products in .CA.
Good Luck,
TJB
Thanks. Wouldn’t selling a counterfit US brand in another marketplace still invite swift retribution from Amazon?
An overwhelmingly-vast abundance of the available evidence over the last dozen years or so would seem to strongly suggest that such swift retribution is unlikely to be forthcoming from Amazon, sans it being forced to do so to remain in regulatory compliance with the authorities responsible for monitoring the same in any given one of its ever-expanding Global Marketplaces.
Even then, matters like this can easily become something of a crapshoot should Amazon’s decision-makers determine that immediate gains to the coffers are likely to to provide ample room for profitability which offer even the barest prospect of assuaging the pain of eventual fines.
I strongly agree with our friend @TJB’s sage recommendation(s) in Post #9 upthread as being the best path forward.
That’s the catch, they are different marketplaces which play by different rules. As far as .CA is concerned, your US trademark has no legal authority in Canada. I was shocked at this as well but it does make sense from a strictly legal point of view.
In no way am I defending Amazon on this. I’m just sharing what I found out in a similar situation. You’ll find CIPO much easier to deal with than the USPTO, they are just really slow. I’ll give you a big hint, look at their application suggestions very closely. I can’t remember exactly what they call it, but it’s something like pre-approved product categories for your trademark. If you can use one of their pre-approved categories it will save a long, long time on your application.
Good Luck,
TJB
If your trademark isn’t registered in canada then it’s not counterfeit.
Depending on the laws of the country and the specific circumstances, you may or may not have any rights, and any rights you do have would need to go through a lawsuit to prove you have those rights, since you don’t have a registered trademark to affirm those rights.
I would not contact the seller unless you register the trademark first or are prepared to go to a legal battle. If they have any idea what they’re doing tipping them off may get them to try to register the trademark first.
It is not CIPO registered (yet).
If the CIPO option doesn’t work out, I can always change the UPC to something very colorful.
I’ll check out CIPO tonight. The product incorporates 2 product classes, so if there’s a pre-approved product class for stickers, that might be very helpful.
Thank you @TJB - both of my product classes are on the pre-approved product list. This will save me several months.
What a long game this is.
You’re very welcome.
I was in a rush getting started with CIPO and didn’t take the time to really dig into it. 6 months later CIPO sent me a notice “suggesting” that I amend my application using a pre-approved category or my application would be significantly delayed. Of course I amended my application which then went straight to the back of the line. I can’t blame CIPO for that. Had I paid more attention in the beginning, I wouldn’t have lost that initial 6 months. Live and learn.
TJB
I would not hire a virtual employee. Monitor your listings yourself.
Time consuming yes. Problems not.
This is the way 
How long after you amended your application until it was approved?
The item is not able to be reported as “counterfeit” unless there is a registered trademark in the country where the sale takes place, BUT:
You can assume that this is NOT a counterfeiter, but instead a drop-shipper who is ordering your product, and using a 3PL warehouse to slap a delivery label on it for the actual customer, who bought from his listing in Canada.
The solution here is to check your orders for complex addresses that include order numbers in the address, and obvious give-aways like “warehouse” in the address. Do not ship, send the customer a message asking for a deliverable address, as Amazon provided you with the address of an “Amazon Warehouse” (you can safely play dumb here - all 3PLs do Amazon prep work). If no answer from the drop-shipper, you cancel, due to an “undeliverable address”. If they answer, you can engage them in a conversation about a “correct” address that “matches the payment method address”, and pretend that you know as much as Amazon does.
Most often, the drop-shipper panics, and deletes the item from their “catalog”, as they realize that this specific product is not magically making them “passive income”, and might put their account at risk.
You can also report the messages to Amazon, and tell them that this fellow is a drop-shipper, and is misrepresenting “used” as “new”, as he buys new from you, and then resells, asking you to ship to what is clearly a 3PL warehouse.
Does it matter if the item is shipped to the United States where there is a trademark?