What does a UK Design Right actually cover? (and advice request)

Selling on Amazon šŸŒ Other Amazon Marketplaces
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1

I have had one of my best selling item listings removed because another seller has claimed it has infringed on their registered UK design right. I have looked it up and the shape of the product is clearly different.

Does anyone know how broad of a spectrum of products does a Design Right even cover? it seems Amazon support doesnā€™t even know the answer to this.

For example if you registered a design right for a cat shaped plate, could you only hold authority over all cat shaped plates, or could you claim against any plates of any kind? If the latter is true then there should be ZERO other products in the category my product is in, the design right holder who has claimed against me should be the ONLY listing on offer!!

A sincere thank you in advance to anyone who is able to offer any help on how to fight this. I have already lost almost 2 weeks of sales. Amazon Support being really unhelpful.

2

First ā€¦ welcome to SAS!

We personally do not have knowledge on UK design right to give advice. Hopefully, another seller with this knowledge will come along and share.

Again ā€¦ welcome to SAS!

3

  1. If this happened on .com then you need to appeal and remind Amazon that UK Design rights do not apply in the US

  2. If this happened in the UK then you either must file suit or appeal with design specs showing a difference.

Either way Amazon is usually very hesitant to side with anyone on these type complaints.

Post the actual notice so we can see what Amazon said and also what you have done so far.

Tier 1 support doesnā€™t get involved in such things. Account Health likely canā€™t even answer this.

PS - And also a ā€œWELCOME TO SAS!ā€

4

Thanks for the welcomes!

It happened on UK, i have submitted 2 appeals and am still working on finding a solution.

I am hoping someone here is able to answer my question however i am starting to wonder if it is down to opinion. Also keen to hear from others who have been through this and hopefully been able to have it overturned.

5

There really canā€™t be anything other than opinion here.

  • Amazonā€™s opinion typically is to stay out of deciding unless itā€™s obvious (at least form what Iā€™ve seen in the past)
  • The Sellerā€™s opinion will be that itā€™s not the same
  • The Rightā€™s holders opinion will be that itā€™s a copy

Without knowing the 2 products I donā€™t think anyone can really suggest much other than to write a good appeal, include product sketches and explain the difference.

Iā€™ve successfully defended this in the past a couple times, but itā€™s been a while, and itā€™s very case/product specific.

6

That seems crazy to me that something so important can be down to opinion! Like there are no clear written guidelines on this. And from my experience so far, and many other cases I have found on forums, Amazonā€™s opinion seems to be to automatically side with the claimant and enforce the claim.

I am relucant to reveal the exact product for obvious reasons, but suffice to say a cat shaped plate (claimant product) vs a Fish shape plate (mine) is a good comparison.

Good to know you have been able to defend in similar cases, gives me some glimmer of hope! I think the next step will have to be to consult a lawyer/expert. Was really hoping it would be a simple fix and wouldnā€™t need to go that far but shows my naivety I suppose. Thanks for your thoughts.

7

As I mentioned above ā€¦

Because they can be held responsible for allowing sales.

I get the why on sharing. If you wanted to PM me the ASINs I would give my opinion.

Based on this example the only similarity is that they are both plates with different designs. Pretty obvious there.

You should be able to get info on the complainant, to contact them and let them know that if not removed you will file suit for damages on list sales.

Rob