1. Introduction
Brand Registry is Amazon’s program for introducing a brand owner to selling online through the retail giant. Once your brand is identified (or registered) in Brand Registry, you gain access to enhanced marketing features, intellectual property (“IP”) protection, and greater control over how your content is presented on the Amazon eCommerce platform. Upon application and approval, you will be able to report IP violations, policy violations, and listing issues, as well as provide control over the information presented on the Amazon product detail pages associated with the brand name.
While Amazon Brand Registry is deficient as a comprehensive, standalone defense of product reputation and goodwill on Amazon, it is nevertheless a good first step. Below you will find a breakdown of how to register your brand on Amazon Brand Registry.
2. Make Sure You’re Eligible
To enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, a brand owner must have all of the following:
An active, registered trademark (country specific) for a text-based mark or an image-based mark that contains text and which appears on the product or product packaging
The ability to verify itself as the rights owner
An Amazon Seller Central (or Vendor Central) account.
Currently, there are no costs specific to enrolling in Brand Registry. However, as stated, you, or the owner of your brand, will have already needed to have registered its trademark(s) to qualify for a Brand Registry application. Obtaining a registered trademark can take months, and registered trademark fees can typically range from $225 to $400. These fees do not include any cost associated with hiring an attorney, if you choose to do that.
3. Sign in and Enroll
By using a newly created or existing Seller Central or Vendor Central account, a brand owner can sign in and enroll in the brand in Brand Registry by stepping through the application process. You must first select the country you’re seeking registration for and then provide these details:
● Official government-registered trademark number
● Images of the brand’s logo
● Images of the product and/or product packaging that clearly display the brand’s trademark
● Selection of product categories (e.g., electronics, sporting goods) under which the brand will be listed
● Selection of countries where the brand’s products are manufactured and distributed.
4. Explore Your Options
Brand Registry is one of a few programs Amazon is utilizing to better help brand owners gain control over its products in the Amazon ecosystem. You should take the time to explore these other programs too, such as Transparency and Project Zero.
Transparency enables brands to assign a secure, unique, alphanumeric code to every product unit that a brand manufactures, which is then used to authenticate the products. Amazon looks for and scans these codes within its fulfillment centers to ensure that only authentic products are shipped out to customers.
Project Zero strives to drive a brand’s counterfeits to zero through automated protections, self-service counterfeit removal, and product serialization.
5. Recognize Its Limits
The more familiar you become with what Amazon’s Brand Registry has to offer, the more you can benefit from the program. However, Brand Registry has its limits. Brand Registry does not allow you to control who can sell your product, does not enforce MAP pricing, and does not address issues with the gray market, just to name a few. You can find a deeper dive into the ways Amazon Brand Registry can and cannot protect your brand in a separate article.
Amazon admits its own limitation, explaining on its website, “[e]nrolling a brand in the Brand Registry and registering as the brand owner does not prevent other sellers from selling the branded products.” But you don’t have to take that as the final answer.
Gray Falkon steps in where Brand Registry falters with a one-of-a-kind gray market monitoring and enforcement service that is dedicated to removing unauthorized sellers of a brand’s product. Contact us for more information.
About the Author
Brandt Madsen, Chief Product Officer of Gray Falkon, is a world-class expert in trademark law and other intellectual property (IP) matters. Brandt’s experience includes representing and advocating for all types of IP interests, from those of multi-national corporations, such as Toyota, Nikon, and Rolls Royce, down to the individual entrepreneur. Protecting these rights fueled Brandt’s decision to co-found his own law firm and then sell it to pursue a larger vision of protecting brands in the evolving e-commerce world. Brandt earned his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University and his law degree at the prestigious Franklin Pierce School of Law at the University of New Hampshire, where he graduated cum laude.
If you are interested in learning more about him and the Gray Falkon team visit their About Us page here.