Eskil
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For years, Amazon has turned a blind eye to sellers that blatantly infringe on US patents - allowing (mostly Chinese) copycats to steal ideas and profit from them on Amazon. And of course - Amazon has been, and still is, profiting very well from this as well.
My own product fell victim to being copied by the Chinese, and allowed by Amazon to sell there - despite my numerous attempts at requesting a takedown. I learned the hard way that Amazon doesn't (didn't until now) give a shit about you and your patent. I guess they figured they're big enough to where smaller companies wouldn't have the legal resources to fight them - and would just see how long they can get away with this until some day being forced to take action by the government.
I created numerous support tickets, spent hours on the phone with them. Each time, Amazon just told me to "talk to the seller directly", which I of course tried, but they basically ignored me and gave me the virtual middle finger. Amazon support instructed me to try sending a certified letter in the mail with copies of my patent, proof of the blatant similarities and patent claim infringements to their "copyright department" but to no avail. One support rep even told me to "email Jeff Bezos directly" (he gave me his email, lol). As if Jeff sits there and reads emails like that, lol... The fight seemed futile, until now.
BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS!
I guess Amazon is starting to cave under pressure from countless patent owners like me, as well as pressure from the government to clean up their trade in counterfeit goods, infringed products, etc.
Enter the new Amazon Utility Patent Neutral Evaluation Process.
Some articles about it here and here.
Basically, you prepay them a refundable deposit of $4000 to request an inquiry, along with reference to your utility patent number(s), etc. Then, they reach out the infringing party, who must also pay $4000 to start the inquiry process. Whichever party wins the dispute gets refunded the deposit.
So I emailed them once again of course about my case - and I was pleasantly shocked that a few days later, the infringing listing was GONE! And they didn't even make me pay the deposit fee.
So to any of you here that are struggling with patent infringers on Amazon, contact Amazon ASAP about this.
My own product fell victim to being copied by the Chinese, and allowed by Amazon to sell there - despite my numerous attempts at requesting a takedown. I learned the hard way that Amazon doesn't (didn't until now) give a shit about you and your patent. I guess they figured they're big enough to where smaller companies wouldn't have the legal resources to fight them - and would just see how long they can get away with this until some day being forced to take action by the government.
I created numerous support tickets, spent hours on the phone with them. Each time, Amazon just told me to "talk to the seller directly", which I of course tried, but they basically ignored me and gave me the virtual middle finger. Amazon support instructed me to try sending a certified letter in the mail with copies of my patent, proof of the blatant similarities and patent claim infringements to their "copyright department" but to no avail. One support rep even told me to "email Jeff Bezos directly" (he gave me his email, lol). As if Jeff sits there and reads emails like that, lol... The fight seemed futile, until now.
BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS!
I guess Amazon is starting to cave under pressure from countless patent owners like me, as well as pressure from the government to clean up their trade in counterfeit goods, infringed products, etc.
Enter the new Amazon Utility Patent Neutral Evaluation Process.
Some articles about it here and here.
Basically, you prepay them a refundable deposit of $4000 to request an inquiry, along with reference to your utility patent number(s), etc. Then, they reach out the infringing party, who must also pay $4000 to start the inquiry process. Whichever party wins the dispute gets refunded the deposit.
So I emailed them once again of course about my case - and I was pleasantly shocked that a few days later, the infringing listing was GONE! And they didn't even make me pay the deposit fee.
So to any of you here that are struggling with patent infringers on Amazon, contact Amazon ASAP about this.
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