My product has been cloned
I've been selling a product that I designed since 2016. I found another seller offering a clone of this product recently for significantly less. I purchased it to see what they were selling.
What I received was a crude copy. They took the color card stock instructions that come with our product and Xeroxed them (B&W). Didn't alter them at all, still has all our logos and all.
The listing used our product photos and altered them adding text descriptions. In those photos you can see our logo on the product.
I have reported the listing, but wondering what if any other options we have? This isn't a patented product. However, our logos are trademarked and we're brand registered.
Since I know this will come up. The answer is NO this isn't some Alibaba product that we stuck our brand name on. I came up with the idea and designed it myself. It is something that can be easily copied, but a very low volume niche that really isn't viable for anything beyond and small business such as ours.
Any help would be appreciated.
My product has been cloned
I've been selling a product that I designed since 2016. I found another seller offering a clone of this product recently for significantly less. I purchased it to see what they were selling.
What I received was a crude copy. They took the color card stock instructions that come with our product and Xeroxed them (B&W). Didn't alter them at all, still has all our logos and all.
The listing used our product photos and altered them adding text descriptions. In those photos you can see our logo on the product.
I have reported the listing, but wondering what if any other options we have? This isn't a patented product. However, our logos are trademarked and we're brand registered.
Since I know this will come up. The answer is NO this isn't some Alibaba product that we stuck our brand name on. I came up with the idea and designed it myself. It is something that can be easily copied, but a very low volume niche that really isn't viable for anything beyond and small business such as ours.
Any help would be appreciated.
22 replies
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
I'm not sure what options you have if you never patented it, but I would still suggest contacting a lawyer who works in patent/trademarks to see what they think. And maybe have them register it for a patent (if that's possible at this point).
Seller_xo4Akj7FBBnfC
A product we designed was also knocked off by overseas copycats, and the same thing has happened to countless other U.S. sellers.
As discussed in this thread, one of the many extreme costs of selling on Amazon is its cultivation of overseas copycats through:
- reporting systems designed to help imitators quickly identify products to copy,
- massive, low-friction China-to-U.S. import infrastructure, and
- advertising that floods every listing with dozens of ads for cheaper alternatives.
Once a U.S. seller’s product gains any traction here, overseas knockoffs will generally appear within about 18 months.
U.S. patents and trademarks won't help you. Every takedown will be met with more small overseas sellers popping up, the infringing manufacturers in China will face no consequences, and the U.S. innovator will eventually be driven out of business.
Seller_JQ2Dj853XJZRt
A Chinese company has copied our pipe hanger, used our text etc. Copy has no UV protection and is the wrong melt plastic so they will not last long.
Seller_xo4Akj7FBBnfC
I'd be interested to hear how other sellers handle pricing when overseas knockoffs appear.
In our case, three overseas competitors appeared within days of each other, so they're almost certainly fronting the same copycat manufacturer in China.
Those listings launched at below our pricing. Each time we matched them, they dropped again. The cycle continued until we're now liquidating our remaining inventory at far below cost.
Fortunately, we have other products to sell. But we learned our lesson that the only sustainable strategy is keep innovating — and avoid manufacturing in countries where weak IP enforcement makes product designs easy targets for theft.
A few months ago I was surprised to see an innovative seller based in China facing the same problem.
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
Certainly this seller sells his product under HIS brand or unbranded. So, return the one you bought "not as described" as a customer and contact customer service (NOT seller support!) saying for example: the product description and pictures says brand A (your's) and I received brand B (his one). Add a picture. NO review or rating or feedback in any way!
That's a first step.
Afterwards you can create a case with seller support in seller central under "Help" regarding the theft of pictures.
Seller_xo4Akj7FBBnfC
As @Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC said, proceed very carefully when taking action against another seller.
Sellers' accounts have been deactivated for posting a negative review of a competitor's product.
Topher_Amazon
Hey there @Seller_CVFHhedDuSeYu and thanks for including all of the details in your post here.
This seems to be a use case for the Report a Violation tool, have you already submitted anything here?
Because your logos are trademarked and you're brand registered, you actually have two strong claims here: trademark infringement (logos on instruction cards and visible in the photos) and copyright infringement (your original product images). When you file, include the Order ID from your test buy purchase and be specific about what you received: the B&W Xeroxed cards with your branding still on them is strong evidence. If the report gets rejected for any reason, don't resubmit, but instead go to Brand Registry Support and select "Escalate previously submitted issue." You've got solid grounds here regardless of patent status.
Hope this helps!
Topher
Seller_7Ad1KU5V0WgEV
I have been dealing with this as well, so I sympathize with you. It seems to be a very common trend these days, and it hinders innovation. What is the point of investing, researching, and designing a quality product just for an overseas competitor to create cheap copies and undercut the price. I do think since they used your photos and logo, you have grounds to report it. But I understand your fear of retaliation too.
