Trademark Registration For The Amazon Brand Registry
Why Do I Need a Trademark?
Since you have already arrived here, you are probably an Amazon trader, and you probably already know that registering your brand in the Amazon Brand Registry may enable you to enjoy a range of benefits on Amazon sites. These may include, by way of example, upgraded tools to promote your pages and products, and prevent others from copying your brand.
But before Amazon grant you these special rights, they want to know that you are indeed the owners of the brand.
Accordingly, one of the requirements for entry into the Amazon Brand Registry is that you have registered, or applied to register, your brand, as a trademark.
We have decades of experience in registering trademarks, and will be happy to assist you in applying to register your brand as a trademark, quickly and efficiently.
Where to Register the Trademark?
Amazon's procedures are amended from time to time, so you should always visit the Amazon websites and verify the current regulations and procedures. We are not Amazon traders or consultants, but our clients inform us that at the current time, it is possible to enter the Amazon Brand Registry on the basis of a trademark that is filed in one of a number of countries – listed on the Amazon website – regardless of which Amazon site you trade on.
What this means is that the trademark does not necessarily have to be registered in the home country of the Amazon website where you trade. You can read more about it here, where you will find a list of the countries currently recognized by Amazon for this purpose. Click there on the link "what information is required to enroll a brand in Amazon Brand Registry".
How to Choose Which Country?
Of course, registering a trademark will grant you a wide range of legal rights, regardless of Amazon. For example, in the country in which you have registered your trademark, you will be generally be entitled to prevent anyone else from starting to use a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to yours, in respect of the same type of goods.
So, if you sell your products on Amazon.com, and you also want to be able to stop someone else from copying your trademark in the USA, outside of the Amazon platform, then you may well want to register your trademark in USA specifically.
On the other hand, if you only sell on the Amazon platform, and you have no interest in registering the trademark except for the purposes of entering the Amazon Brand Registry, then you may prefer to register the trademark in one of the other permitted countries, where the registration process may be easier.
(1) US Trademark
A very large number of Israelis sell their products on Amazon.com, and therefore decide to register their trademarks as federal US trademarks, to protect their brand throughout the US, and not just on the Amazon platform.
Registration of a US trademark can often take 7-9 months, even in the simplest case, where you are already using your trademark in the US, and where everything goes smoothly. If you have not yet launched your brand in the US, or there are complications in the registration process, then things may well take longer.
USPTO is one of the strictest trademark registration authorities in the world. Also, the huge quantities of trademarks which are filed in the US may make it harder to obtain a registration, because you will not be permitted to register a trademark that is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark that has already been registered in a similar field.
Under recently enacted and amended policies, Amazon currently allow entry into their Brand Registry as soon as an application to register the trademark has been filed, in one of the approved countries (and not just on completion of the trademark registration process, as was previously the case). Nevertheless, some clients have reported to us that where the trademark is for a logo, and is filed in the US, there are sometimes delays in having the brand entered into the Amazon Brand Registry, while various data fields are completed by USPTO. These delays do not occur where the trademark is for wording, without any design elements.
You can look here, for more information about trademarks in general.
(2) Other Foreign Trademark
As mentioned earlier on this page, it is also possible to register the trademark in one of the other countries approved for this purpose by Amazon. Again – we cannot take responsibility for Amazon regulations and procedures, so you must check with Amazon whether a trademark registration in a country other than the home country of the Amazon site where you trade, will give you all the same benefits.
In some of the approved countries, the examination process may be substantially shorter than in the US (3-4 months, instead of 7-9 months). Also, as a result of different local trademark laws and regulations, there are comes countries where it may be easier to register the trademark, with smaller risks of refusal by the authorities. The costs of filing the trademark application in these countries is often not substantially different from the costs in the US, and in some cases may be cheaper.
Of course, registration of your trademark in a different country, other than the home country of the Amazon site where you trade, will grant you trademark rights in that country, and may give you an entry ticket to the Amazon Brand Registry, but it will not give you the right to enforce your trademark outside the Amazon platform, or in a different country.
(3) Amazon IP Accelerator
You may have come across the term "Amazon IP Accelerator" on the Internet.
Until very recently, this was a special track for US trademarks, which enabled entry to the Amazon Brand Registry on the basis of a pending US trademark application, rather than a completed registration (although at much higher costs).
However, as mentioned above, Amazon have recently amended their policies, and now enable entry to the Brand Registry on the basis of pending trademark applications in various approved countries, so it is now unclear what, if any, advantages the Amazon IP Accelerator currently offers, or whether it will continue to be offered.
