Are you a seller on Amazon, and find yourself discouraged by the plethora of copycats on the site? Do you see your own intellectual property (IP), whether patents, trademarks, and/or copyrights unfairly used by others to benefit from your ideas? Registering your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may be the first step to enforcing your IP rights on Amazon.
As discussed in previous articles, trademarks are IP rights that consist of words, phrases, symbols, designs, or some combination thereof that identify and associate a good with its source. Trademarks are key in building your brand and helping consumers identify your goods in the marketplace.
You may be familiar with the two symbols commonly used to identify trademarks: TM and ®. Federally registered trademarks are indicated with the ® symbol. Trademark registration grants greater protection and enforceability than what is available to common law trademarks – including the ability to enforce your trademark rights on Amazon. The TM symbol is used to indicate that a mark is a “common law” trademark, or a trademark that is not registered with the federal government.

Registering your trademark with the USPTO can be a complex endeavor. An application must be prepared, including a description of the goods and/or services associated with your mark, as well as an identification of the relevant International Trademark Class.
After your application is filed, the examining attorney from the USPTO assigned to your case will issue an Office Action – a communication that indicates whether your application is accepted or rejected. Responding to an Office Action often requires an in-depth analysis of the rejection and any prior art references (i.e., other pending trademark applications or registered trademarks) cited in the Office Action.
It is highly recommended that you work with an experienced IP attorney to handle the filing and prosecution of your trademark application.
Once the USPTO allows your trademark application, and assuming no objections are filed during a public notice period, you will be assigned a registration number for your trademark.

As discussed in a previous article, Amazon has a service called the Amazon Brand Registry, where sellers can register their brands and submit complaints of IP infringement. A federally registered trademark (indicated by the ® symbol) is required to enroll in Brand Registry; in other words, common law trademarks (indicated by the ™ symbol) are not accepted.
Brand Registry can be used to report Amazon product listings for trademark, patent, and copyright infringement. A patent complaint submitted via Brand Registry also serves as the gateway to Amazon's Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) program, which is discussed in greater detail in this article.
The fact that Amazon requires a registered trademark to join Brand Registry underscores the importance of obtaining federal registration for your trademark, even if you are more focused on your other IP, like patents or copyrights. We encourage you to take advantage of this Amazon program by obtaining a registered trademark and enrolling in Brand Registry to protect all forms of your IP from infringement by other Amazon sellers.
How Gallium Law Can Help
Whether you need help registering your trademark or already have a registered trademark and want advice about how to enforce it (or your other IP), we are here to help. Feel free to fill out this Contact Form to schedule a free consultation.
*The information in this article is not legal advice and should not be relied on. The content of this article is for informational purposes only and is meant as a starting point in your search for answers to your legal questions.
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