How to report trademark, copyright and counterfeit infringement on Amazon

Two routes: the public form and Brand Registry

You do not need to sell on Amazon to use either. If you have a registered trademark, enrolling in Brand Registry is worth it: it gives you more tools, including Project Zero once you qualify. Amazon's help pages are not entirely consistent on whether the public form needs a Brand Registry role, so if the form asks for one, enrol first.

Choose the right claim type

Each notice covers one type of IP. If you list two trademark numbers in one notice, Amazon only considers the first, so file separate notices.

How to file with the Report Infringement form

1. 1

   Sign in

   Go to amazon.com/report/infringement and sign in to your Amazon account.

2. 2

   Find the products

   Search for the products. Tick the whole ASIN, or use Show offers or Show all images to tick a specific offer or image.

3. 3

   Pick the infringement type

   Open the 'Report # selected' menu and choose the type. You can include up to 50 ASINs, ISBN-10s or URLs in one report, all for the same issue.

4. 4

   Answer the questions

   The form starts with 'What best describes your issue?'. Give your registration number, where the infringement appears (product, packaging, image or text), and the specific sellers if you are not reporting the whole ASIN.

5. 5

   Add a test buy if needed

   Reporting a specific offer for trademark or copyright infringement needs a test buy. Enter the order number where it asks 'What is the order ID number?'. Reporting a complete ASIN does not need one.

6. 6

   Submit and track

   You get a confirmation, then a follow-up by email. You can retract a notice within 365 days using Amazon's Notice Retraction Form.

Amazon shares your contact details with the sellers you report: your secondary contact details if you give them, otherwise your primary ones. Give a brand-protection address as the secondary contact.

Build evidence Amazon accepts first time

• Match the claim to the content you select. If you tick an image, the claim should be about that image (usually copyright). If you tick the whole ASIN, the claim should be about the product itself.
• Use rights that are valid in that store. A registration for the UK supports amazon.co.uk, not amazon.com.
• Report the whole ASIN when it is all infringing. That avoids the test-buy requirement for specific offers.
• Keep the test-buy order details when you do need one. Amazon asks for the order ID in the form.
• Look beyond your brand name. Copies that remove the logo will not show up in a name search. Search for the product type and compare images. In our Kitsch case, 18 of 37 lookalike listings had the logo removed or swapped.

Agents can file for a brand. In Brand Registry, the brand's Administrator gives an agent the Registered Agent role, and the agent then reports under the brand's registrations. If you use a service, check that it files under your brand's account so the acceptance rate builds towards Project Zero for you.

What happens after you report

If Amazon accepts the notice, it removes the content, tells the sellers and takes what it calls 'appropriate action', without sharing details of any non-public action. If it rejects the notice, you are told why. Amazon does not publish a response time.

Sellers can appeal or file a counter-notice from their account. Amazon warns that 'multiple submissions of inaccurate or inauthentic notices could lead to the removal of your submission privileges', so a weak notice can cost more than a missed listing.

What Amazon will not act on

• True compatibility statements. 'Fits the [Brand] bottle' is allowed if it is accurate.
• Rights from another country. A mark registered in one country does not support a notice on another country's Amazon store.
• Price and distribution agreements. Amazon does not enforce minimum advertised price agreements, and only enforces exclusive distribution in a few countries (China, France and the UAE).
• Parallel imports and warranty claims, except where local law applies (Amazon names the EU, Brazil and Türkiye).
• Detail page ownership. Another seller listing genuine goods on a page you created is not infringement.

Brand Registry, Project Zero and Transparency

Brand Registry is free and needs an active registered trademark, or a pending application filed through Amazon's IP Accelerator. Its Report a Violation tool covers suspected IP infringement and policy and regulatory concerns.

Project Zero lets brands remove counterfeit listings themselves, without a report. To qualify you must be a Brand Registry rights owner who has used Report a Violation in the last six months with at least a 90% acceptance rate, and you must keep at least 99% accuracy to stay in. It is free. Transparency, Amazon's product serialisation programme, is paid per code.

The acceptance-rate requirement is the reason careful filing matters from the start. Every rejected notice lowers your rate.