Since 2017, Amazon sellers have noticed a new claim on their accounts: Amazon intellectual property complaints. If you received such an alert, you would rather read this article than refer to the Amazon sellers-related forums! Because the forums can make you scared a lot! So, in this guidance in the first step, we explain what an IP complaint is and how to avoid getting Amazon intellectual property complaints. Then we discuss how you can handle them if you have received such claims
If you violate any intellectual right, the brand owner can contact Amazon and file a complaint against you for ignoring their intellectual property.
Intellectual property is broken down into 3 types:
It is more likely you have violated the first two rights if you received an Amazon FBA Business intellectual property complaint as an arbitrager.
For brand owners, it is very easy to file an IP complaint on an ASIN that is usually abused. These claims are not always valid. Sometimes, brand owners or competitors use this dirty trick to shut down your account, decrease the competition, and keep the prices high.
Regardless of the problems of the system, we have to handle this issue and protect our business against such claims.
What products or listings can face IP complaints?
You can find valid Amazon intellectual property complaints in two places:
You don’t need to answer any claim sent by the buyers or any other email addresses but Amazon. You can report such messages to Amazon as well.
The most stressful point about receiving IP complaints is getting suspended. If it is the first time you have received such a claim, Amazon won’t suspend your account entirely. But it might suspend you from selling that specific ASIN. If receiving IP complaints is repeated several times, the risk of suspension will be high. So, make sure that you respond to the legitimate claims properly.
Since most extensions and software work on community feedback, their alerts are real. But there is a downside to this: complaints can be old and outdated. imagine you are searching for a pair of sneakers to sell on Amazon and receive an alert from a complaint that was done in 2019. it’s better to rely on a few other sources and search for yourself to make sure that the deal is useless.
Amazon needs to see you take the claims seriously. So, in the first place, contact the right owners. Their contact details should be in the IP claim. Try to understand the basis of their complaint. Sometimes, the complaint is mistaken or inaccurate.
Once you understand how you violated their intellectual property, you can assure them you are not going to violate their rights, or even you will remove your listings of the affected ASINs. We hope that they accept it and issue a retraction with Amazon.
First, send an email to the brand cited in the complaint to apologize and explain the mistake. Attach your receipts for the product purchase and request that they retract the complaint. Sometimes it works. Next, reply to Amazon. Tell them you reached out to the brand, and attach your proof of purchase receipts. You will want to continue communicating with Amazon back and forth until the IP complaint is resolved, i.e., Amazon tells you that the complaint will come off your account in 180 days.
If the right owner doesn’t issue a retraction, you can contact Amazon directly and explain the current condition. It’s better to try to remove an IP claim from your account.
Don’t forget to attach your invoices to your email. Also, you can remove those ASINs and let Amazon know. It helps them remove the claim from your account faster.
The first and the best way of prevention is not to sell brands that are known to issue IP Claims even if you are approved to sell them.
If I want to be clear, I should say there is no official list of the brands that file an IP claim against you if you sell their products. It would be better if these brands were registered as restricted brands and didn’t put the seller’s business at risk by false IP claims. But it is what it is today!
If you want to know about these brands, you can ask other sellers in Facebook groups. I’m sure you can find generous sellers who share their knowledge.
Some extensions can help you and send an alert about these troublesome brands.
There is no official list of brands with IP claims, but here is a list of brands with IP claims on Amazon based on sellers’ experience:
It is overwhelming for Amazon sellers to understand the difference between Intellectual Property Claims (IP Claims) and brand restrictions. When you decide to sell on Amazon, some products, categories, or brands are gated, and you cannot sell. You need to go through the ungating process. However, you may still receive an IP claim for an ASIN after becoming eligible to sell that product.
But, an Amazon IP complaint is an intellectual property complaint from a brand. Some brands request a complaint not to use their trademark or sell their product. They issue IP claims to prevent counterfeit products from being sold on Amazon.
Generally, Amazon trawls listings and detects a potential trademark name violation. A bot helps Amazon with this tracing, and Amazon flags up ‘Suspected IP Claims.’ This is shown in the Account Health section on Seller Central under ‘Policy Compliance.’
A google chrome extension can be helpful for IP Alert. The Chrome extension alerts you when you are on the branded product page filled with intellectual property complaints against resellers. So IP Alerts will instantly notify you about any of your inventory that could be high risk; therefore, you will not get in trouble.
After installing, when you visit an Amazon product page, the IP Alert extension will trigger a pop-up and a flashing red siren near the brand name if the product has an IP claim. This extension is community-based and works on group feedback, and has one of the biggest communities in the market.
It’s important to know that an IP alert does not completely eliminate the risk of IP complaints (no app does it completely). So try to make informed decisions and don’t rely solely on extensions.
OABeans lists contain products and links that are updated and checked several times. We ensure you have the lowest risk of IP complaints with any of the items. The leads are final; you can purchase each product by clicking on the link.
We also check Keepa history to ensure the seller rotation is reasonable. If it is so, but it was reported by a seller a few years ago, we conclude that the brand owner is not eager to report the sellers anymore.
Even a little knowledge about IP claims can help you to protect your account a lot if you are in a condition where you want to prevent future IP claims, so these points will help you a lot.
But if you have received an IP complaint, don’t be scared. Just follow the steps mentioned above, and don’t forget to take valid claims seriously. Not responding to legitimate complaints can have very bad consequences for your business. If you wanna know more about Amazon FBA, online arbitrage deals and etc, follow our blog.
FAQ
Can Amazon Track Your IP Address?
The short answer is “yes.” Amazon tracks your IP address and cookies and keeps them in a database. Amazon uses powerful anti-VPN software that detects and blocks VPN IP addresses. Using the same IP address or the same computer as a suspended account while logging into a new seller account can cause your account to be suspended. The condition is the same when you access more than one account on one computer or IP.
How many IP complaints can you have on Amazon?
It depends on your account health. Sometimes even one IP complaint can result in suspension, and sometimes one seller can handle more at the same time.
How long do IP complaints stay on Amazon?
Amazon removes the complaint as soon as the matter is resolved. But if its not, the violation can hang on your account for up to 6 months.
Can I make a new Amazon account after being suspended?
The answer is yes, as long as you are not banned from Amazon. If you make a new account and the platform identifies you as a banned user, it will be deleted.
