Contents
1 / Prepare for brand protection during the pandemic
2 / Exclusive features of Amazon Brand Registry for brand owners
3 / How to correctly use brand attributes in listings
4 / Understand the protection mechanisms: automatic protection + proactive reporting
5 / Project Zero enrollment requirements announced for the first time

Dear Amazon Global Selling sellers, have you resumed work? As a microcosm of China’s large, medium, and small businesses, you are facing the same pressures and challenges, but you have also stood strong on the front lines of the fight against the epidemic. We believe the pandemic will eventually pass and spring will definitely arrive. As long as people are here, there is hope, and business will go on!

Before spring and victory arrive, in addition to gradually resuming production and business operations, this is also a good time to strengthen your operational foundation. We suggest that you devote some of your energy to building and developing your brand. When spring arrives, you can then wait for the orders to come pouring in. To help sellers better address the impact of this special period of the pandemic and minimize the risks to brand development as much as possible, Amazon Global Selling will walk you through the basics of brand building.

Amazon has long been committed to innovating and improving how brands are protected, and has launched a number of powerful brand protection programs and tools, such as Brand Registry, Transparency, and Project Zero.

Next, we’ll walk you through the “three steps to starting brand protection” from the perspectives of basic concepts, analysis of common issues, and tool usage. It’s packed with practical information, so we recommend saving it!

The right way to start protecting your brand is to first enroll in Amazon Brand Registry!It can unlock a powerful set of programs and features for your brand to help you better:
1) Accurately display your brand and products on Amazon
2) Find and report violations
3) Share information that helps proactively prevent violations

In addition to providing stronger brand protection, Amazon Brand Registry is also the “key” to unlocking more brand-exclusive tools. Only brands that have completed Amazon Brand Registry can add EBC (A+ pages), open Amazon Stores, and use the latest “follower growth” tools in the United States marketplace, Follow and Post, and Sponsored Brands to help brands better showcase and promote their brand presence. They can also get brand data through Amazon Brand Analytics and other reports to clearly understand Amazon buyers’ purchasing behavior and provide a better shopping experience.

Amazon Brand Registry offers many benefits. To help you unlock its powerful features faster, we’ve also put together a few practical Q&As:

● What kinds of trademarks are eligible for Brand Registry on Amazon?

To be eligible for Amazon Brand Registry, your brand must have a valid registered trademark in each country where you want to enroll. We currently accept registration of [text-based trademarks] or [image-based trademarks: composed of words, letters, or numbers]. Depending on where your trademark is registered, eligible trademarks may be classified differently according to the local trademark office.

● I don’t have a trademark in the United States, Europe, or other countries, but I do have a registered trademark in my home country. Can I start selling on Amazon first and apply for a trademark later?

Yes, but there may be three major risks:
1) During normal sales, someone else may register your trademark first and then accuse you of infringement;
2) Domestic trademarks cannot be used to register for Brand Registry on Amazon (currently, Brand Registry on Amazon does not accept Chinese trademarks);
3) Temporary trademarks cannot be used for Amazon Brand Registry (only successfully registered trademarks, meaning those that have obtained an R mark, can be used for Amazon Brand Registry), and they also cannot enjoy the benefits of Amazon Brand Registry.
Therefore, we recommend that you apply for a trademark before using it so others cannot register it first, and so you can complete Amazon Brand Registry as soon as possible and enjoy its benefits.

● Does Amazon have requirements for the country or region where the trademark is issued?

Currently, we only accept trademarks issued by the government trademark offices of the United States, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India, Singapore, Turkey, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and the EU.
*Please note:
1) To be eligible to apply for Amazon Brand Registry in the relevant country/region, your brand must have a valid registered trademark in every country/region where you want to apply.
2) If your trademark is registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), please submit the registration number from the trademark office in your country/region, because it may be different.
3) Amazon Brand Registry is not affiliated with any of the above organizations; please do not contact them for information about Brand Registry.
4) If you do not yet have a registered trademark, or if your registered trademark (®) has not yet been approved, we do not recommend applying for Amazon Brand Registry.

● Why does my Amazon Brand Registry application keep getting rejected?

Pay attention!During the registration process, please carefully check the following to avoid your application being rejected:
1) Whether the brand already has a valid registered trademark in the country where registration is being applied for, and whether it is based on a valid word mark or image mark; you can check the validity of the trademark on the official website of the local trademark office.
2) The brand name submitted to Amazon Brand Registry must exactly match the Mark Name registered with the local trademark office.
3) Trademark registration number submitted in Amazon Brand Registry
(Trademark Registration #) must exactly match the registration information with the local trademark office.
4) Is the trademark type entered incorrectly? For example, if your trademark is a word mark, but you selected a design mark by mistake, or vice versa.
5) Make sure that the trademark image you upload is exactly the same as the records on the official website of the local trademark office. Ensure that trademark contact information is current and valid in all public resources.
6) Please make sure that within 30 days after receiving notification from
Send back the verification code within 30 days after receiving the email from brand-registry-support@amazon.com notifying you to receive the verification code.
7) After submitting, please continue to monitor email notifications from
email notifications from brand-registry-support@amazon.com.

● According to Amazon's latest brand name policy, how should you correctly use the brand attribute when listing products?

1) generic product: If your product is a generic product, it means the product does not belong to any brand. When listing the product, you must enter “N/A” (not applicable) in the product’s “brand” attribute to indicate that the product is not affiliated with any brand. Generic products do not have a common name, logo, or other name used to label the product or packaging.
*For example: a pack of tissues that does not belong to any brand will not have any brand markings, so the ASIN should use the brand value to indicate “not applicable.” To do this, in Seller Central, go to Inventory > Add a Product to open the screen shown below. First, click Important information in the upper-left corner of the page to find the field for brand (see the red box in the image below). Second, enter “N/A” in the Brand field (see the yellow box in the image below).

2) Branded products: When the products you sell belong to a brand, you should use that brand’s name as the brand value. Branded products and/or their packaging display the brand name, and the brand identification should be permanent (a brand name printed on the packaging is considered permanent brand identification, but a label is not considered permanent brand identification because it can be added after production). You can then use these names to determine which value to use for the brand attribute. If your brand is already enrolled in Brand Registry, you can use the registered brand name as the brand value; if your brand is not yet enrolled in Brand Registry, you may receive an error message when listing products using that brand name. You can contact Seller Support and list products using that brand after Amazon has reviewed and approved your brand. For more information, go to Seller Central and search for "Amazon Brand Name Policy."

After successfully enrolling your brand in Amazon Brand Registry, you can continue using the automated brand protection + proactive infringement reporting combination throughout the selling process to guide and protect your brand. How exactly is brand protection implemented?See the detailed explanation below:

▶ Automatic brand protection

Through machine learning, Amazon uses information provided by brands to implement predictive protections in an attempt to identify and remove potentially harmful product listings. Automatic brand protection includes protection for brand names and logos, restrictions on creating offers, and restrictions on creating ASINs. Automated Brand Protection has successfully blocked more than 3 billion suspicious bad listings before they are published to Amazon stores.

▶ Proactively report infringement

The Report a Violation tool allows intellectual property owners and their agents to notify Amazon of suspected intellectual property infringement. With our custom features designed specifically for brands, the Report a Violation tool offers global search, image search, and bulk ASIN search to simplify the process of finding potential infringements. The types of infringement reported include trademark infringement, copyright infringement, and patent infringement.

*Tip: Before submitting a report, please search for “Rights Owner’s Intellectual Property” in Seller Central to learn more about Amazon’s intellectual property policies. Submitting a complete and accurate report helps us take swift action to help you protect your brand and buyers.

In addition to the powerful brand protection features that come with Amazon Brand Registry, we also offer more specialized, more detailed services and tools to help you address challenges as you expand your brand globally:

▶ A useful tool to protect against counterfeits: Transparency

After completing Amazon Brand Registry, brand owners can also use Transparency to effectively prevent harm from counterfeits. As a product authenticity inspection service, Transparency can help proactively protect your brand and consumers from counterfeit products. With a small Transparency barcode, you can prevent counterfeit versions of your products from being sold to consumers, give consumers more transparent product information, and help maintain consumer trust and product reviews.

Currently, more than 8,000 brands have registered to use the Transparency service, and Amazon has successfully prevented more than 300,000 counterfeit products from reaching consumers through the Transparency service.

In the video below, let's take a look at how Transparency does it!

With such a reassuring “secret weapon” that helps you avoid late nights, you’re probably eager to get started with the service. Before you begin, take a closer look at these frequently asked questions:

● How do I join Transparency?

Brand owners who have completed Amazon Brand Registry can enroll their brand in Transparency. If you complete Amazon Brand Registry in one country, products of the same brand can be enrolled in any marketplace where Transparency is available (the United States, five European countries, Canada, and India).
Sellers who want to learn more about the Transparency program can click here for details.

● In which Amazon marketplaces is Transparency available?

Transparency is currently available on the United States marketplace, Europe marketplace, Canada marketplace, and India marketplace.

● After joining Transparency, do all products in the store have to be labeled with codes?

No. You can choose which ASINs to enroll as needed; you are not required to enroll all products in your store, and there is no minimum order quantity for Transparency codes.

1) Automated protection: automated protection is powered by Amazon’s machine learning, continuously scans our stores, and proactively removes suspicious counterfeit products. Brands provide their own key data points (such as trademarks, logos, and so on), and we scan attempts to update product information more than 5 billion times every day to identify suspected counterfeit products.
2) Self-service counterfeit product removal: Brands no longer need to contact us to remove counterfeit products from our stores. Instead, they've gained an unprecedented ability to remove counterfeit products themselves by using our new self-service tool. We also use this data to enhance our automated protection capabilities to better proactively catch potentially counterfeit products in the future.
3) Product serialization: For registered products, brands apply a unique code to every product they produce, enabling Amazon to scan the code and confirm the authenticity of every product purchased in the Amazon store. This service allows us to detect products before they reach buyers and prevent counterfeit products from reaching buyers.

Similarly, to help you better understand and join Project Zero as soon as possible, we’ve compiled a few frequently asked questions and answers:

● How can you join the Project Zero program?

You can go to the Amazon Brand Registry Project Zero page (brandregistry.amazon.com/projectzero) to see if you’re eligible. Generally, you can join Project Zero as long as you meet the following eligibility requirements:
1) Your brand must hold a valid government-registered trademark and be registered in the Amazon Brand Registry.
2) You must:
i. Be the trademark rights owner.
ii. Have an Amazon account that can access Brand Registry.
iii. You have submitted potential infringement reports in the past six months using the Report Infringement tool, and your acceptance rate is at least 90%.

● In which countries/regions is Project Zero currently available?

Project Zero is currently available to eligible brands in the following countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, and Mexico.

● What is a counterfeit product?

Counterfeiting is a specific type of trademark infringement. Counterfeiting is a specific type of trademark infringement. A counterfeit is an unlawful reproduction of a registered trademark, or a mark that is very similar to a registered trademark, on a product or packaging. Similar products sold on different product detail pages are not counterfeit products if the registered trademark is not improperly used, even if the product may look similar or identical to the trademarked product. However, similar products may infringe other intellectual property rights (such as design rights) or constitute unfair competition/counterfeiting (in some countries/regions). For more information, you can also search for “Rights Owner's Intellectual Property” in Seller Central.

● How does Amazon ensure brands make accurate decisions when using the Counterfeit Product Self-Service Removal Tool?

We entrust brands with unprecedented responsibility because we believe the combined strengths of Amazon and brands can reduce the number of counterfeit products to zero. Brands must maintain at least 99% accuracy to retain their Project Zero privileges. We have put many processes in place to improve accuracy, including requiring training to enroll in Project Zero and ongoing monitoring to prevent brands from misusing our tools.

● Do brands need to serialize their products to enroll in Project Zero?

No, but brands that serialize their products get the best results. Product serialization is a powerful tool for detecting and preventing counterfeit products from reaching buyers. Brands can also choose which products to serialize.