Trading on Amazon- how does this affect my trade mark?

As a start-up business, you may want a helping hand when it comes to marketing and selling your products.

A way to get this is by trading through third party websites.

 A well-known example of this is Amazon.

However, you need to be aware of the consequences if you have already started to build a brand.

As a respectable and established brand, Amazon offers a respectable platform for small traders to offer their goods to customers. They also can offer services to sellers which can help with production and delivery.  

When a business wants to take advantage of this service, there is a participation agreement that they have to abide by.

While this agreement contains many terms that are standard agreements between businesses, there is a particular part in relation to IP that can be quite surprising to some.

Taken straight from the text of the agreement, it states

“By entering into this Participation Agreement and listing an item, you grant Amazon and its affiliates a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, right to exercise all copyright, database rights and rights of publicity over the material displayed in your listings or in any other catalogue or product information that you provide to us”.

Therefore, you effectively hand over all control over any material that is posted onto the site. This can include photos, phrases or videos.

One thing that Amazon does not require control over is any trade mark or logo you have. The agreement expressly states that the above statement excludes “any of your logos, trademarks or other similar branding”.

You therefore can continue to build a reputation and a brand that will not be affected by your decision to trade through Amazon. You also will have no issues if you decide to protect your trade mark or logo by registering it with the UK Intellectual Property Office.

For any further guidance or if you are looking to start a registration process, contact Jane at The Trademarkroom

By Ellis Sweetenham