I really hope you are right. I will call them tomorrow.
According to Amazonās guidelines, violations should either be removed after 180 days or once resolved. Nov 25, 2024 ā¦
Were you using their image to sell your āsimilarā item or the item itself?
Was the item sourced correctly? ā¦ Do you have a LOA?
We get the feeling that you should delete the listing NOW and remove your inventory from FBA.
Because Amazon normally doesnāt enforce pending trademarks, your situation has many of us scratching our heads.
If we got this right, you had a listing of an item and used another brands image to sell your item. The brand of the item then took action to get the image trademarked to stop you from using their image to sell your item. Using their image to sell your product could put your product in jeopardy of being called counterfeit.
If you were selling the brand on a listing using their image and the brand was already trademarked, they would just do a test buy and claim counterfeit and there would be no need for the image trademark ip complaint. In this case, you would need to show an invoice and/or a LOA to Amazon.
The question we arrive at would be ā¦ if this is just an image issue, why wouldnāt you produce your own image and replace it on the listing?
This issue has to be more that just the image.
I did not use another brandās image. I would never do that.
This was not a brandās image when I started selling this. It is their brand image now ā at least itās pending opposition.
If I can be so vague, itās as if I started selling pink triangles, which is a symbol in the lgbt community (no, thatās not the image in violation). So, everyone knows this image but itās not trademarked. Now, someone comes along and trademarks it and claims it as their own. Thatās what this company did.
You guys, given the circumstances, should I admit fault to make them remove the violation? Or, is admitting fault a very bad thing?
I wouldnāt admit fault. I would appeal with the truth. You have all the evidence you need that Amazon can clearly see.
- When you listed the item with the image.
- When whomever this is filed for the IP
- I would find the Pending vs. Live IP / TM policy and quote that too. I know Iāve seen it, just donāt know where it is.
And btw, if this was us, I would get our lawyers involved with a C&D with the violation based on policy and threat and not giving you fair warning on this since you were OK to use that image when it was first available to use.
This is a steaming pile of BS that we would defend ourselves against aggressively.
Maybe it should be opposed if already in common use. Is that a TM consideration, in the same sense as copyright prior use?
I remember looking something up, canāt recall the word/words or if for TM or copyright. * But I do recall the result. A law firm in Germany had it registered in many many unrelated categories. I wondered if it was a trap for extortion via infringement claims.
*
Memory requires more coffee, overnight cobwebs havenāt cleared up yet.
Sometimes when you go to appeal all you need do is answer a few questions to remove the blemish.
In your case you used it before registration, which makes a difference IRL, but not always to Amazon.
I would wait to see if it falls off within 36 hrs., but if not I donāt suggest just leaving it for the 180 days without any kind of response. Yes sometimes itās OK to let sleeping dogs lie, but it also looks bad if something else should get flagged and they see you ignored the last one.
I completely agree that this āviolationā is nonsense, and that the OP did nothing wrong, at least according to the evidence presented here.
That said, how much of a fight is this worth? The violation is minor, the OP has already stated they have no further plans to sell on this listing, and in 180 days it should go away on its own anyway. Unless @Amazon_Sellerās account is borderline and this new violations poses a real threat of pushing them into a danger zone, Iām not sure this is worth getting too agitated over. The cost of having this on your account is negligible, and the effort and inconvenience of getting it removed is potentially significant. I would give it a couple of attempts through the more likely to succeed channels, and if that didnāt work, I would go back to running my business. Having these āviolationsā on your account can be annoying, but they only matter if you start to stack up a bunch of them. There is no guarantee that fighting this will be successful in any case, and how much stress is it worth?
Just for the point I would oppose the trademark with UTPSO as it has been in common use for years before application.
Also Amazon is very vague with trademark infringement. I got a hit for āstarburstā for a Vehicle Emergency light. The only active trademarks are not in that category. I pointed that out to them and got radio silence..
Are many people using this image/word? Is so, they could be getting ready for a Schedule A IP lawsuit.
Still not sure how you were informed about a pending mark anyway.
Success! I had emailed the complainant and they retracted the complaint. My AHR had fallen to 240 after this hit, but at least the IP infringement has been completely expunged. I donāt have to wait 180 days for anything.
The image is in the public domain on Wikipedia. It says āThis work has been released into the public domain by its authorā¦grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.*ā
I was notified by Amazon when they gave me the IP infringement.
Great!
Iām glad this was easy to resolve.
Thanks. Truth be told, given that there was no trademark and it was in the public domain, I think I had a good case for going after them, but I donāt have the time, money, and stomach for it.
And yet it has a status of āPublished for Oppositionā with USPTO ā¦
If this ā¦
Then this ā¦
But in any case ā¦ congrats on getting it solved for now ā¦
Niceā¦! There are reasonable people in this world afterall.
Congrats.
Never give up
I very much agree and wonder if they thought that you might oppose the trademark (with obvious proof of prior use and public domain access) was on their mind in retracting the complaint. 
I also agree that since you were ready to delist this anyway, you simply move onā¦this time. 