Selling on Amazon is definitely one of the most promising ways to build your ecommerce business. However, the competition is stiff — which brings the need to protect your Amazon business.
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A lot of Amazon sellers have expressed concerns which risk their business, including:

• 'Hijackers' listing similar products or counterfeits
• Chinese suppliers selling similar products at a lower cost
• Unauthorised sellers selling your brand products and driving down product prices and your brand value

Now you might ask yourself what is the best way to defend yourself from such infringement? The answer is to register your brand trademark with Amazon Brand Registry.

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In this blog, you will learn what is Amazon brand registry, the benefits of Amazon brand registry, how does Amazon brand registry work, and what are the other Amazon programs which help you protect your brand identity.

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What is Amazon Brand Registry?

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Amazon Brand Registry is a program designed for ecommerce merchants selling products on Amazon. It enables sellers to register their brand to Amazon and access a plethora of powerful tools that help them protect the intellectual property of their brand and create a trusted experience for Amazon customers.

Originally, Amazon's Brand Registry was just a tab in Amazon's seller central. However, in May 2017, Amazon launched a new and improved Brand Registry designed to help brand owners protect their registered trademarks by providing access to proprietary text, image search, predictive automation, and reporting tools.

As of 2019, Amazon has more than 3,50,000 brand enrolled in their program. Amazon Brand Registry also unlocks a powerful suite of features for verified brand owners to build their brand presence on Amazon and grow their business.

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The benefits of Amazon brand registry

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Brand protection

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The most important aspect of Amazon's Brand Registry involves protecting ecommerce businesses from brand infringement, counterfeit merchandise, and disruptive product listings.

Amazon simplifies the process of finding cases of potential infringement with powerful search and report tools designed specifically for brands:
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1. Global search: It allows you to search for content in different Amazon stores (in different countries) from one platform.
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2. Image search: It allows you to find product listings on Amazon using images that match your products or your logo.
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3. Bulk Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN search): It allows you to search for a list of ASINs or product URL's in bulk to identify and report potentially infringing content. Additionally, you can enlarge image thumbnails for easier identification.
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Once you have completed your search, Amazon Brand registry provides you with a guided walkthrough to submit a potential infringement report. Amazon then reviews this report and takes appropriate action.

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Product enhancement

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Amazon Brand Registry also allows you to maximise conversions by making your products more lucrative to Amazon customers.

• Enhanced brand content (A+ content): Create customised product descriptions which include high-quality images, unique text placement, and product videos.
• Customer reviews: Amazon evokes early reviews from customers in exchange for Amazon vouchers (Amazon early reviewer program)
• Unique URLs: Create customised URLs just for your brand and have sole ownership of the buy box.

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How does Amazon brand registry work?

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Eligibility criteria

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Amazon Brand Registry requires sellers who:

• Manufacture their own products
• Brand white-labelled products, own a private label brand or explicitly have permission to distribute and own a brand on Amazon.
• Principal registered trademark and active text-based or image-based trademark in the relevant country

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If you haven't obtained a principal trademark for your brand, head to the official website of intellectual property of India to find out more information related to registering for a trademark.

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Enrollment

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To be a part of Amazon Brand Registry, you need to sign in to the Amazon seller central and head to the Amazon Brand Registry enrolment page. You will have to provide:

• Your brand's name and logo
• Comprehensive collection of your brand's intellectual property including government registered trademark type, name, number, and office
• Identification features such as product images, packaging images, websites and social media pages.
• Identification characteristics including sellers, vendors, unique identification codes, licenses, countries of manufacture, countries of distribution, and product categories.

Amazon will verify the information that you provide against the registered trademark. You will then need to obtain a verification code from the trademark office or website and send it to Amazon.

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Enrollment of multiple brands

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To register multiple brands, you need to repeat the above-mentioned process with the same contact and seller information.

Alternatively, you can register one trademark that encompasses all your brands — this will help you save time, effort and money.

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What are the other Amazon programs which help you protect your brand identity?

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Amazon Transparency

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Amazon transparency is an item-level authentication service that helps brands proactively identify and prevent counterfeits from reaching customers. Sellers enrol their products into the program and assign a transparency code to each product. This transparency code is scanned by Amazon to confirm the authenticity of a product.
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Eligibility criteria
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To qualify for the Amazon Transparency program, sellers must:

• Be able to verify themselves as the brand owner of their products
• Have a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), such as a Universal product code (UPC) or an International Article Number (EAN) barcode on their products
• Have the ability to apply unique transparency codes on every unit they manufacture.

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Amazon Project Zero

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Amazon Project Zero is a program which leverages the combined strength of Amazon and the registered brands to drive counterfeits to zero.

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Features of Amazon Project Zero:
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• Automated protections

Brands provide key data points about themselves such as trademarks and logos. Amazon then uses machine learning to continuously scan brands selling on Amazon to remove suspected counterfeits — Amazon scans up to 5 billion product listings daily.
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• Self-service counterfeit removal

Brands registered with Project Zero have the ability to remove counterfeit listings without contacting Amazon using a self-service tool. Amazon also uses this data to strengthen its automated protection and catch similar counterfeits in the near future.
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• Product serialisation

Brands apply a unique code on every unit they manufacture. Amazon scans these unique identification codes and confirms the authenticity of each product. With this, Amazon makes sure no counterfeit reaches your customer.
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Eligibility for Amazon Project Zero:
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1. Your brand must be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry with a government registered trademark.
2. You need to be the rights owner of the registered trademark.
3. You need to have submitted reports of potential infringement with a minimum acceptance rate of 90% in the last six months.

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Bottom line

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Amazon Brand Registry might sound like a program reserved for the big brands and the white collars — but it's not. Register your brand to this program and protect your most valuable assets — your brand identity and your customers.