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Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

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Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#81

Post by sabalaba »

NathanKP wrote: post #52
sabalaba wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you work on the web services side it's forgivable that you would think that link to reporting infringement is an effective solution / something that Amazon pays close attention to. We've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product on Amazon, found a company selling a counterfeit version of our product, and submitted a complaint to that URL. That was on 4/5/2016. We have yet to receive a response. The…

Gotcha. Yeah I don't sell on Amazon myself or work on the retail side so I can't speak to the effectiveness on that side. It sounds like something they need to improve upon. Have you looked up Brand Gating too? My (admittedly limited) understanding is that Brand Registry is step #1 and Brand Gating is the next level beyond that: https://www.helium10.com/blog/selling-on-amazon/brand-gating...

Yes, we looked into Brand Registry -- this is my first time seeing the Brand Gating, which looks like it would solve this problem. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

In general, I think there's frustration for smaller companies and brands that Amazon (understandably) doesn't retain resources to support individually.

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#82

Post by amluto »

sabalaba wrote: post #47
NathanKP wrote: post #24

Full disclosure I work for Amazon (on the web services side). The author of this article clearly doesn't know much about selling on Amazon, because what he is asking for is possible. It's called the Amazon Brand Registry. You can contact the infringment team using the details here and initiate the process of getting your brand / ASIN locked so that other people can't sell it without your permission: https://www.amazo…

Since you work on the web services side it's forgivable that you would think that link to reporting infringement is an effective solution / something that Amazon pays close attention to. We've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product on Amazon, found a company selling a counterfeit version of our product, and submitted a complaint to that URL. That was on 4/5/2016. We have yet to receive a response. The…

I wonder what would have happened if you filed a lawsuit against Amazon?

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#83

Post by emerged »

mullingitover wrote: post #15

My mileage apparently varies, because I've been shopping heavily on Amazon for years and have never had a counterfeit item show up on my doorstep.

I'm a bit confused as well, because I've spent well into 6 figures on the site since the beginning days of Amazon, and I've literally never noticed a counterfeit product. So if this is a super common problem, they are some quality counterfeiters.

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#84

Post by cjcfjrf »

Not only that, Amazon India openly allows misleading product description and the cse "overlooks" it when you talk to them. In India it's a standard practice to overstate objectively wrong things about products. Eg. Hard drive model number product make: pvc dumbbells vs cheap plastic filled with sand. Yes that's a thing on the site. The attitude of Amazon India is we don't care about bad publicity as long as people are buying from us so not even shaming them here, just mentioning.

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#85

Post by amluto »

Terretta wrote: post #53
NathanKP wrote: post #24

Full disclosure I work for Amazon (on the web services side). The author of this article clearly doesn't know much about selling on Amazon, because what he is asking for is possible. It's called the Amazon Brand Registry. You can contact the infringment team using the details here and initiate the process of getting your brand / ASIN locked so that other people can't sell it without your permission: https://www.amazo…

Did you read your own link? "We do not enforce ... Detail Page Ownership ... Exclusive or Selective Distribution." As long as the counterfeit is good enough, don't bother complaining: "Other sellers can list their items for sale against pages that you have created or added your copyrighted images to. However, we do require sellers to list only against detail pages that exactly match their items. If you believe seller…

> Why do the counterfeiters get to use your own picture of your own product? Because Amazon claims the rights from you: > > "Additionally, when you add your copyrighted image to a detail page, you grant Amazon and its affiliates a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to exercise all rights of publicity over the material."

IANAL, but that sounds very thin. Maybe it would hold up under copyright law, but that seems dubious. What if the party agreeing to that contract doesn't have that right in the first place? But all this ignores trademark law. If that image contains a trademark and the trademark is used improperly, then the cause of action that the trademark owner has seems like it would have nothing to do with "publicity".

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#86

Post by maxxxxx »

chii wrote: post #77
maxxxxx wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't call this good. They are fucking up on purpose and have made a calculation that most people won't notice and it's cheaper to refund the few that do. That's terrible customer and feels very unethical.

> most people won't notice if a customer doesn't notice it's a knockoff, then it's not a knockoff?

If I take money from your bank account and you don't notice it's not theft?

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#87

Post by Spooky23 »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #41
fpvracing wrote: post #18

I designed a hardware product but haven't brought it to market because even if it is successful, Chinese manufacturers will reverse engineer it and then have a cheaper clone on the market within weeks, long before I can recoup even the cost of manufacturing, let alone make a profit. And since I can't afford to pursue legal action, it seems pointless to manufacture the product, and everybody loses. I wonder how much i…

I remember a while back there was a kickstarter for a phone case that folds out into a selfie stick, it got successfully funded. Within weeks of the kickstarter finishing, before the kickstarter had even delivered or even started manufacturing the cases, they were for sale on Aliexpress. It seems so easy for someone in China to do this. Look for successful product kickstarters and you already have market validation.…

An engineer friend noticed this with civil engineering applications as well.

Chinese companies troll RFPs for bridge and other designs. In this case, my friend saw a unique bridge/overpass that he was associated with in some obscure province that was completed before the original. He knew it was their design because it did not include changes that were made after the contract award.

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#88

Post by megy »

prepend wrote: post #36
NathanKP wrote: post #24

Full disclosure I work for Amazon (on the web services side). The author of this article clearly doesn't know much about selling on Amazon, because what he is asking for is possible. It's called the Amazon Brand Registry. You can contact the infringment team using the details here and initiate the process of getting your brand / ASIN locked so that other people can't sell it without your permission: https://www.amazo…

Why is Amazon not actively seeking out patterns of counterfeiters and suggesting this to sellers. Just doing simple image machine learning should get 90% of scammers. He AWS team is great about this. Looking for abnormalities. Looking for posted AWS keys. Proactively. The retail guys need to get some of the cloud guy smarts. Or ethics. Either/or will help stop this. I don’t sell, but I can barely buy from amazon beca…

> simple image machine learning

When did this become an acceptable statement?

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#89

Post by double0jimb0 »

amluto wrote: post #82
sabalaba wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you work on the web services side it's forgivable that you would think that link to reporting infringement is an effective solution / something that Amazon pays close attention to. We've sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product on Amazon, found a company selling a counterfeit version of our product, and submitted a complaint to that URL. That was on 4/5/2016. We have yet to receive a response. The…

I wonder what would have happened if you filed a lawsuit against Amazon?

Great question! Answer is, you have to have a legal team the size of Mercedes Benz:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/05/amazon-g...

Re: Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting

#90

Post by [deleted] »

fpvracing wrote: post #18

I designed a hardware product but haven't brought it to market because even if it is successful, Chinese manufacturers will reverse engineer it and then have a cheaper clone on the market within weeks, long before I can recoup even the cost of manufacturing, let alone make a profit. And since I can't afford to pursue legal action, it seems pointless to manufacture the product, and everybody loses. I wonder how much i…

[deleted]
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