Infringement Ninja

Copycat protection for Amazon

Amazon listing copied your brand? How to find and report Amazon copycats

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The short answer

Rights owners can report infringing Amazon listings through Amazon's Report Infringement form, citing the trade mark, copyright or design right and the listings concerned. Amazon Brand Registry gives faster, broader tools, but generally needs a registered or pending trade mark. Gather evidence and your registration details before you start.

Copies on Amazon range from a seller using your brand name in their title to a full counterfeit hijacking your listing. Cheap copies drag down your reviews when customers confuse them with you, and undercut your price on the same page.

Amazon takes intellectual property reports from rights owners and their agents. A registered trade mark makes everything easier, because it's what Brand Registry and most of Amazon's tools are built around.

What Amazon copycats look like

  • A listing using your brand name in its title or keywords to appear in your searches.
  • Your product photos and A+ content copied onto another seller's listing.
  • Counterfeits sold on your own listing by another seller.
  • A copy of your product design sold under a near-identical brand name.
  • Packaging or logos copied closely enough to confuse buyers.

How to report a copycat on Amazon

  1. 1

    Collect evidence

    Note the listing identifiers (ASINs), seller names and screenshots, plus your registration numbers and dated originals.

  2. 2

    Use Report Infringement

    Rights owners can file through Amazon's Report Infringement form, choosing trade mark, copyright, patent or design and pointing to the listings.

  3. 3

    Consider Brand Registry

    If you have a registered or pending trade mark, enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry gives you search and reporting tools built for repeat problems.

  4. 4

    Test-buy counterfeits

    For suspected counterfeits, a test purchase gives you physical evidence that strengthens a report.

  5. 5

    Escalate repeat sellers

    If a seller keeps relisting, keep a log of every report and consider a cease and desist letter.

How Infringement Ninja helps on Amazon

Our open-web search looks for marketplace listings and stores that use your name or copy your product, and listing checks read a product page from a link so you can see whose rights it may break.

Trade mark watching helps you get the registration Amazon's tools rely on, and catches a rival filing a conflicting name while you can still oppose it. Alerts draft a cease and desist letter when a seller needs one.

Amazon copycats: common questions

Do I need a trade mark to report an Amazon copycat?

Not for copied photos or text, which copyright covers. For brand-name copying, a registered trade mark is usually what Amazon's process expects, and Brand Registry generally requires one.

Can I report a seller selling my genuine products?

Reselling genuine goods is usually allowed once they've been put on the market with your consent. Reports should be about infringement, not legitimate resale.

What if a copycat files a trade mark for my brand name first?

In the UK you can oppose the application within two months of its publication in the Trade Marks Journal, extendable to three with a free TM7A notice. Watching the journal is how you'd know.

Catch copies before your customers do

Infringement Ninja watches the UK trade mark journal, lookalike domains, the app stores and the web, marketplaces included, for your brand, and drafts the takedowns. Free for one brand.

Watch my brand free

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Amazon is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Infringement Ninja isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon.

General information, not legal advice.