AS 17: Someone stole my Amazon brand name and logo

I for one, am okay, with competition among Amazon marketplaces. Although this is in India, perhaps SnapDeal can come to America one day. I believe, that because Amazon is the only dominant player in the U.S. it potentially puts a lot of sellers at risk, if they mainly sell on Amazon. The risk of suspension is always looming above our heads, and nobody likes that feeling. We sellers are trying to not only sell and be merchants, we are trying be kings.

Todays’ podcast, episode 17 - is titled: Someone stole my Amazon brand name and logo. Aaron Dick posted: ok so big problem, it looks like someone stole my brand name and logo. They emailed me on Instagram saying that I needed to change my name and logo or they would take legal action… my designer had posted a mockup of the logo before on his Instagram (friend who did the work) and they stole my whole concept. I checked the trademark and there isn’t even one that exists. They don't sell on amazon and they don't even sell the same exact stuff but logo/concept is like dead on. Please help!

That is a big problem. It is a major problem. If this user had listened to earlier episodes such as episode – 9, and episode 10 of this podcast, this apocalypse would have easily been avoided.

I will outline his pitfalls, so you can avoid them. In accordance to Episode 10, you are supposed to be the Amazon Seller Entrepreneur – meaning you should never, ever outsource your designs, especially to someone you don’t trust. If someone has the .PSD, aka, the Photoshop design, and then they release it online, it creates zero boundaries to copy to your logo. Furthermore, in encourages would-be brands to use your logo, style, as there is minimum work to do so. It is very questionable as to whether this person who stole your whole concept, actually stole your whole concept. Many times, “so-called” designers, grab .PSD’s of other people’s brands, as well as “white-label” .psd’s, where you can buy them from designers, and they modify it to your brand. This is more likely the case. You have a logo created from a template, that many other brands use.

In episode 10, I describe the Amazon Entrepreneur as a an entrepreneur who creates his designs, and brings them to the manufacturer. He learns Photoshop, and deploys his skills on the fly. If you were this Aaron, then you definitely would not be in the situation where someone else has your design and logo on their brand. But hold on David, are you saying not to hire a design. Of course not, sometimes, when you master skills, it’s great to outsource designs, and other tasks. Please keep in mind this is the DESIGN of your brand, your logo, that shows on every product. So if you do decide to hire someone to do it, then you must trust them with your business.

Now for the other MAJOR issue, which I mention in episode 9, is registering your Amazon brand in brand registry and applying for trademarks on day 1. Yes, trademarks cost money, but being the registered trademark for your brand, prevents this situation from ever happening. It prevents lawyers from hitting you up one day, and potentially suing you for using someone else’s brand. The trademarks protect you from being sued, as well as protect your brand from anyone using it.

Now another very odd part of this story, is this seller had only purchased 100 units of said product AND he has already a potential brand conflict. I find that very odd as that is very early in the game. It’s hard enough promoting your brand in a global market, yet alone your competitor, or conflicting brand recognizes you guys have the same brand. The odds of this happening are fairly astronomical in my opinion. Such a small world we live in that this would happen.

So what do you do about this, because solutions are way better than just worrying about it. Aaron mentioned he checked the trademarks on said product,