Selling your products on Amazon gives you a well-established and highly trafficked platform to reach potential customers, especially when you consider that 89% of consumers are more likely to buy from Amazon than other e-commerce sites.
The Amazon Brand Registry is just another level of protection and tools that help to make your business a success. While it’s not hard to register your brand, you need to fulfill the Amazon Brand Registry’s requirements before you can enroll.
Amazon Brand Registry Requirements
Suppose you’re interested in submitting an inquiry for the Amazon Brand Registry. In that case, you’ll need to have a registered and active text or image-based trademark in each country where you want to enroll in the Brand Registry. You can also have a pending trademark filed through the Amazon IP Accelerator.
Different countries have different classifications for trademarks. There are two trademark styles that Amazon accepts. The first is a text-based mark. The other is an image-based mark that contains words, letters, or numbers.
The trademark in your trademark registration or pending application needs to match the brand name on your Brand Registry application. It also needs to be the same trademark that appears on your product or packaging.
How to Enroll
If you are the trademark owner, you can submit an application for your brand to be enrolled in the Brand Registry. Once the trademark owner enrolls the brand, they can add other people as authorized users. You can sign in using your existing Seller or Vendor Central credentials.
Once you are signed in, you will need your brand name, trademark registration number, and a list of the product categories where your brand should appear.
Amazon Brand Registry Benefits
When you register your business trademark with the Amazon Brand Registry, you gain additional protections. Several tools become available for you to use, making it easier to monitor the use of your brand’s intellectual property within the platform.
Exclusive Protection and Control
You gain exclusive control over how your brand and products are presented on Amazon. This prevents other sellers from changing your product listings. Without Brand Registry protection, another seller could alter the information related to your brand and products. To fix those changes, you would have to open a case with an Amazon representative, which will take time and may not always have an immediate favorable outcome.
Eliminate Fraudulent Brand Usage
With Brand Registry protection, you can have product listings using your branding for goods that are not yours removed. You can have images that bear your trademark removed if they are not properly being used exclusively with your brand. Moreover, fraudulent listings for counterfeits or other unauthorized goods may also be removed.
Potential for Increased Sales
One of the most immediate benefits you will experience with the Brand Registry is an increase in sales. Amazon prioritizes Brand Registry listings while removing fraudulent ones. This helps to generate more sales for your business.
Search Tools and Reporting
There are proactive reporting and search tools available to members of the Brand Registry. Take advantage of these tools to know precisely when potential infringement arises so you can act quickly to remove it. Use the search tools to find other listings using your logo or ASINs. When you do find a instance of infringement, you can report it directly through the system. Amazon then handles the rest, typically removing infringing listings or materials within eight hours.
Increased Ad Options
As a member of the Amazon Brand Registry, you’ll have access to Sponsored Brands promotion. This is an ad format that is exclusive to Amazon and allows you to promote up to three products. The product ads will feature your brand name and logo.
These sponsored listings will appear at the top of the search results page, giving your products greater visibility. You can coordinate the sponsored listings as a part of a comprehensive ad campaign for a more holistic approach to promoting your products.
You will also appreciate the faster approval times. Amazon’s approval times for Sponsored Products is typically less than 24 hours, enabling you to act faster and have a more responsive marketing campaign.
Amazon Brand Registry Cost
Considering all of the benefits that are included with the Amazon Brand Registry, it can be easy to assume that it would be an expensive service. That isn’t the case, though.
Any legitimate brand that has a valid trademark can register free of charge. This makes the Brand Registry affordable for everyone. Some would argue that because a trademark is required, this can be seen as a cost for joining the Brand Registry; however, all businesses should protect their branding through trademark registration regardless.
The ultimate cost of your trademark application will depend on your initial filing basis, such as whether the mark is already being used in commerce or if you have not yet begun such use. The initial filing fees are up to $350 for each class of goods or services claimed in the application that the mark will be used with. Because you can only register one mark (either a name or a logo design) per application, if you have more than one mark for your brand, this may require additional applications for each mark.
If your mark was not being used in commerce at the time of filing, you will ultimately need to provide this evidence by filing a Statement of Use with the required filing fee after the application has received a preliminary approval. Although you will have a 6-month period to file a Statement of Use once the approval is issued through a Notice of Allowance, if you need additional time to show use, you may file a request for an Extension of Time along with the accompanying filing fees. Each extension will provide you with an additional 6-month period to file your Statement of Use, and you may file up to 5 extensions for each application.
Do You Need A Trademark for Amazon Brand Registry?
Previously you did not need a trademark to register for the Amazon Brand Registry program; however, this has since changed. Amazon now requires you to have a text or image-based trademark registered, and the trademark must be registered in the country where you want to join the Brand Registry.
If you have a pending trademark application and want to register in the United States or India, you can submit a request to join the waitlist. To do so, you must first have an active Amazon Seller Central or Vendor Central account. The team at Amazon will review your request and contact you when you can move forward with your application.
Taking The First Step Toward Joining The Amazon Brand Registry
If you currently sell or plan to sell products on Amazon, joining Amazon’s Brand Registry will provide you with invaluable benefits and tools. While you can’t always prevent someone from attempting to infringe on your brand, you will have much stronger fighting power to stop it when you are a part of the Brand Registry.
Schedule a free consultation today and secure trademarks for your brand so that you can qualify for the Amazon Brand Registry.
