RE: BRAND REGISTRATION REJECTED EVEN WHEN WE SUPPLIED ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION
Dear Amazon Brand Registry Team,
We are truly honored to be part of the Amazon family and have been diligently working to fulfill all necessary requirements for our brand registration.
We recently submitted all required documentation for our Brand Registry enrollment, but unfortunately, our application was rejected due to an inability to verify our registered business name and business identifier (e.g., tax ID number or business ID number). However, our business is fully registered, and we have already provided our EIN number and all necessary documentation as requested.
Given this situation, we kindly seek your guidance on how we can further verify our business ownership. We are more than willing to provide any additional documents or clarification needed to resolve this matter.
Case No: 17436098611
We sincerely appreciate your assistance and look forward to your support in mitigating this issue.
Best regards,
Kelechi [Moderator Edit: removed personal information]
For - Stallion Surfaces LLC
RE: BRAND REGISTRATION REJECTED EVEN WHEN WE SUPPLIED ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION
Dear Amazon Brand Registry Team,
We are truly honored to be part of the Amazon family and have been diligently working to fulfill all necessary requirements for our brand registration.
We recently submitted all required documentation for our Brand Registry enrollment, but unfortunately, our application was rejected due to an inability to verify our registered business name and business identifier (e.g., tax ID number or business ID number). However, our business is fully registered, and we have already provided our EIN number and all necessary documentation as requested.
Given this situation, we kindly seek your guidance on how we can further verify our business ownership. We are more than willing to provide any additional documents or clarification needed to resolve this matter.
Case No: 17436098611
We sincerely appreciate your assistance and look forward to your support in mitigating this issue.
Best regards,
Kelechi [Moderator Edit: removed personal information]
For - Stallion Surfaces LLC
20 replies
Seller_9z7K85RzAOGC9
Are you an LLC disregarded as a separate entity by any chance?
Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb
This same thing is happening to me and we are an LLC - are you saying that is what is causing the problem for all of us?
We are stuck with the same issue, endless loop of saying the business name doesn't match but it all matches perfectly. GOING INSANE WITH AMAZON OVER THIS!
Seller_9z7K85RzAOGC9
Depending on how you are set up even as an LLC, especially if disregarded as a separate entity then your tax I.D. may be your social security number and not your EIN and you may have to input your tax info under your name and social. That may or may not be the issue, but it's worth a try to enter your info on Amazon that way and see if the tax check comes back as verified.
Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb
I completely understand what you're saying here, as I kept getting rejected by the "Tax Interview" thing no matter what I tried there, finally got it to pass by entering my personal name and SSN.
But this theory makes no sense for Brand Registry, as their IS an LLC setup (but yes, all single member LLC's are 'disregarded entity', and THAT LLC has registered the trademark with the USPTO, and THAT LLC clearly has an EIN and the names match on all of those things.
If I try to use my personal name and SSN for the Brand Registry then the names with the USPTO are DEFINITELY NOT going to match at all or even be close and that' they claim is an immediate rejection.
So which is it Amazon? If all the names have to match (which they do now), they need to be able to verify single member LLC names and EIN's, the paper work all matches.
If they can't verify that, then they would be making us register trademarks under personal names and that's not proper business either.
This name verification system with their Brand Registry is a mess.
Dougal_Amazon
Hello @Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb,
Dougal here and I would be happy to take a closer look at your application/appeal. Please start a new discussion and include your appeal or application case ID and I will review.
I did provide a generic response to the business verification process as it pertains to enrolling a brand in Amazon brand Registry in my response to @Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe, but if that does not clarify your questions or you just want me to take a look, please start a new post so that I can ensure the Original Poster @Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe gets the support they need.
I appreciate your understanding.
Best, Dougal
Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe
No, we have our EIN under the same entity, duly incorporated and the same information as in the USPTO.
Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe
Hopefully, they can be able to finda solution to this.
Seller_9z7K85RzAOGC9
@Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb & @Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe Maybe if you submit and IRS Form 147C or IRS Form SS-4 (If you already haven't) if you have those on hand. Those should be clear indications of you as an individual associated with your LLC to connect you to your brand when they do a search. I keep both of those forms on hand electronically for when I need them for anything. Just trying to think of anything that may help or possibly be missed.
Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb
What's crazy is I've actually done that. I've literally uploaded the SS-4, the Articles of Incorporation with state, the USPTO receipt, etc - and on all 3 the LLC name matches as well as the personal name (single member LLC) - EVERYTHING is there. It's like they are incapable of reading. If something doesn't match, they need to take the time to actually explain it. Robotic emails at 2:17 am saying "appeal rejected" for the same reason over and over do not help anyone when the docs match.
Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb
Hi @Dougal_Amazon, thanks for chiming in here, sincerely appreciate your high level help.
I have started another discussion on the Forum for my exact issue, and started a new appeal, that, frustratingly, at 2:17 am this morning, was rejected AGAIN for the exact same vague reason "cannot verify business identity." Can you take a look, as this is driving us insane.
This decision was made since we could not verify the registered business name and business identifier (for example: tax ID number or business ID number) provided by you at the time of submitting the appeal form.
The Case ID is: CaseID: 17451349831
We keep getting the same vague rejection that they cannot verify business identity, and then the same vague "make sure everything matches language.. @Dougal_Amazon, we then have literally uploaded the ORIGINAL SS-4 showing the EIN given by the IRS, the USPTO receipt, and the Articles of Incorporaiton of the LLC with the state. ALL THREE DOCUMENTS show the LLC name PERFECTLY MATCHING. There is absolutely no discrepancy. In looking at your answer / suggestion below, we have done exactly what you are suggesting.
Next, I believe you or another poster in this thread mentions there could be issue because of how Amazon strangely handles single member LLC's, and in some places requires the identity be verified by a person (for instance, the Tax Interview in the main menu of seller central required the personal information of the owner and SSN to pass the tax interview.). Could this be what is causing the problem there? If so, then their response is even more vague and doesn't describe the problem, because you (and the rejection issue) say they are ONLY looking at the Brand, LLC, USPTO names, and they match.
You seem to indicate an actual person or 'team' will review the docs provided, but in our case it doesn't seem anyone with any high level thinking is reviewing anything nor providing any guidance (except you here on the forums), because if they would actually review the documentation that you tell us to provide, they would see that everything matches or at least have the courtesy to reply with what the issue is other than a vague rejection that says things that match don't match. That isn't helpful.
Even if they are now looking at the overall account (which is still registered to the LLC) and the Tax Interview (which has the account owner), they can still tie everything together to the owner as that name is also on EIN and LLC docs, so they can easily see that EVERYTHING matches and can be tied together... account owner -> LLC -> EIN -> Articles of Incorporation -> USPTO receipt.
You can even go on line publicly, search the trademark, and it clearly comes up showing our LLC name which is on the docs we submitted.
Please help make it make sense. We spent a lot of $ and time on this to be stuck in a robotic loop of rejections that don't make sense and that can't be fixed without being told exactly what is wrong.
THANK YOU.
Your answer guidance below - we have done all of these things:
What I usually tell Sellers when this question comes up in the Forums is to ensure what they provide in the application/appeal as the owner of the Trademark matches exactly with the "Current Owner(s) Information," tab on the USPTO website. In the instances where a business owns the TM, it is helpful providing the business registration so that the appeals team can connect the TM to the Business and to the individual they are communicating with.
At the bottom of the rejection, it says to do this:
When submitting an appeal, please ensure that: -- The registered business name and business identifier (for example: tax ID number or business ID number) provided by you is accurate.--The data provided by you is accurate based on the business registration documents provided by the government agency or department responsible for business registrations.-- If the name of the business owning the trademark is incorrect or does not reflect the information on the USPTO website, your application may be negatively impacted.
Which we have 100% done and even uploaded the documents, our attorney has looked at them and they all match.
Greatly appreciate your guidance and escalation to someone other than a robot to review the case. Thank you!
Dougal_Amazon
Hello @Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe,
My name is Dougal from the Community Manager Team and I will be happy to look into this for you, thanks for providing the case ID.
Since the appeal is currently being reviewed, I cannot provide any detail to your case specifically, but I can provide a bit more info on the current reason for rejection. To put it simply, the enrollment team is trying to ensure that whoever is submitting the application is the owner of the TM as shown on the USPTO website.
This can be confusing due to the business verification process in Seller Central. This is a separate process and a requirement for your Selling account.
What I usually tell Sellers when this question comes up in the Forums is to ensure what they provide in the application/appeal as the owner of the Trademark matches exactly with the "Current Owner(s) Information," tab on the USPTO website. In the instances where a business owns the TM, it is helpful providing the business registration so that the appeals team can connect the TM to the Business and to the individual they are communicating with.
Hope this helps and please check out the Brand Registry application business information help page for more.
Best, Dougal
Seller_ZWLp1025gQDMb
Hey @Seller_htTEZ0R6RkeEe,
Question for you - are you by chance also a single member LLC? We are stuck with the same issues you are facing, providing all matching documentation, but getting this never ending rejection that doesn't make sense. I'm curious if its because of the business structure, that they can't use their automated systems to match single member LLC's properly to EIN's and business registration and if that is causing both of our issues.
