Bogus Design Patent Infringement claims
How do you deal with false infringement claims?
I had an ASIN taken down because of an IP complaint by the owner of a Design Patent. They are a competitor and their patent does not cover my product, and that can be easily seen.
I have a fair amount of experience with patents and an attorney who is drafting a letter to send to the rights owner, but wanted to see if anyone here has had success getting Amazon to lift the policy violation. Most patent owners know that these types of claimed are unfounded, and probably wont be too quick to reply.
I have also submitted an appeal to the notice-dispute email at amazon and detailed the reasons why my product does not infringe upon their patent (with PDFs attached with the patent as well as comparisons between our two products).
Should I also open a case on seller central for this? Goal is to get the listing reinstated as quickly as possible.
Seller_EQTdXPTPBc6wR
I am in the exact same situation! I have a completely absurd IP infringement claim. Were you able to find a lawyer that knows how to submit stuff to amazon?
Seller_At4DHj7fwb664
In the same process too - any luck/tips? This is a huge problem and a horrible way to treat sellers
Seller_hiIt9s4ESGsQi
I am also dealing with the same issues as all of you right now with an IP complaint. The crazy thing for me is that the contact person that amazon gave me to contact knows nothing about any of this and swears that she never filed such a claim and admits that my product is not hers.
With blood, sweat and tears (literally) I got her to finally write into amazon to tell them she retracts this complaint.
I had not heard a word from amazon and the violation still stands today on my account.
So I followed up with an e-mail to amazon. I forwarded her e-mail and told them to please remove the violation essentially.
Get this… the response I got was they do not accept my POA, and they wanted more! Are you kidding me? Below is the letter they sent me.
"Thank you for submitting your plan of action. We reviewed your appeal and determined that it is missing the following information. Please include the missing information listed below in your plan of action:
Thank you for submitting your plan of action. We reviewed your appeal and determined that the corrective action items you have listed have not been implemented. Please make sure all corrective actions have been completed to be in compliance with your plan of action:
– Proof of product authenticity (e.g., invoice, Order ID, licensing agreement, letter of authorization). It must clearly prove that your products do not infringe any intellectual property rights.
– Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
– Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve the infringement issues.
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
– Greater detail on why you believe an error has occurred.
If you believe there has been an error, please tell us why. Your explanation should include the following information:
– How your listing(s) have not violated the brand’s intellectual property.
Where do I send this information?
Please submit this information by clicking the Appeal button on Account Health (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/performance/dashboard).
What happens if I do not send the requested information?
If we do not receive the requested information within 17 days of the original suspension notification, your account will remain deactivated.
If we do not receive the requested information, the listing will remain removed and your account could be deactivated."
They are acting as if I have been suspended and are giving me 17 days to reply from the “appeal button from my account health page” Well since I am NOT suspended I don’t even have that appeal button.
It is so upsetting that they do not read when is sent in. So I have drafted up another letter and I am again going to forward to them the letter that the supposed complainant wrote to them to lift the violation as well as invoices for the said products. I am not going to write a POA because I did not infringe and if they would read what has been given to them, they would see that. UGG.
Hoping that something of my case helps you out. But then again… I have not even got this settled.
Good luck!
