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Lawsuit against a Chinese company? Amazon related.


Boner
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This got me thinking. A friend of mine has a product he designed and has a patent pending. He makes about $70k of sales on Amazon per month. Someone in China just crashed his sales this week. I'm talking obliterated it. They took the design and replicated it 100%, including the brand name.

 

Is there any legal recourse in these situations? I can't imagine. What about amazon?

 

I'm getting ready to launch a couple products and I am also concerned.

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I’m curious how?

 

Even if they replicate the exact product it isn’t just that simple. Assuming your friend has an actual brand, good reviews and has been ranking for his keywords.

 

Also is he brand registered? Do a test order from the knock off and open a case with amazon.

 

Any reason to believe it isn’t his supplier doing the knockoff?

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He has copies and they are 100% exact. It's easy anymore. In fact, I've learned cad in less than a month and can replicate anything. It's very easy.

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He is brand registered with amazon.

 

He should first try and resolve it though amazon.

 

You’re telling me this is a 100% perfect clone of his product? Did they hi jack his listing or create a new listing themselves. Based on your info it sounds like his listing was hi jacked. Best course of action would be to take it up with amazon first and prove they are selling a counterfeit product. (Assuming this is a unique product your friend has and not just a generic private label.

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I have sued some Chinese companies in US courts. The money part of the judgment is not usually collectible. But getting an injunction that bars their product from being sold, seizing domain names, etc has some value.

 

If they are entirely located overseas and engaged in shady stuff they often do not appear. Expect the suit to still take 9-12 months.

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He should first try and resolve it though amazon.

 

You’re telling me this is a 100% perfect clone of his product? Did they hi jack his listing or create a new listing themselves. Based on your info it sounds like his listing was hi jacked. Best course of action would be to take it up with amazon first and prove they are selling a counterfeit product. (Assuming this is a unique product your friend has and not just a generic private label.

 

They have 100% cloned his product. He has even bought one as proof. Also, they automatically adjust their price if he changes his. It is crazy! He has at least 600 positive ratings on his product and the clone has 70 already.

 

I probably shouldnt post what the product is, because I dont want to step on his toes. My main issue is that I have a few products I want to release soon and I am worried about the same issue. I did apply for a trademark, and I am working on the design patent. If you have these, I think Amazon will at least back you up. They really need to ban the IP address of sellers who do this crap.

 

I dont know what to expect out of all of this. My stuff is already in motion and my plastic injection tooling is complete. I hope I am not wasting money. I guess I will have to ride the train until the wheels fall off.

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They have 100% cloned his product. He has even bought one as proof. Also, they automatically adjust their price if he changes his. It is crazy! He has at least 600 positive ratings on his product and the clone has 70 already.

 

I probably shouldnt post what the product is, because I dont want to step on his toes. My main issue is that I have a few products I want to release soon and I am worried about the same issue. I did apply for a trademark, and I am working on the design patent. If you have these, I think Amazon will at least back you up. They really need to ban the IP address of sellers who do this crap.

 

I dont know what to expect out of all of this. My stuff is already in motion and my plastic injection tooling is complete. I hope I am not wasting money. I guess I will have to ride the train until the wheels fall off.

They likely are fake reviews as well. I'd add that for Amazon to look into...

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Same thing happened to a major shredder company recently. All of their equipment was stolen by the factory and the exact same product starting getting reproduced under a different name.

 

From what I understand, and all of the research I've done while inventing myself, it's very hard to fight legal battles with companies in China if not impossible. They clone everything, sadly.

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Amazon should not allow counterfeit products to be sold.

 

They're one of the largest online retailers in the world but yet the site is flooded with counterfeit products. No idea why they can't weed out these sellers.

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Post # 10 seems most relevant.

Judgement collections, court fees, even clone product seizure at border.

 

Perhaps Amazon is perhaps a better course of action?

Link closing, post deletes, disclaimers.

You are not the first to encounter this and Amazon may have action steps.

 

Good luck

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A little more on Amazon takedowns:

 

If you flag an item for trademark infringement, Amazon will not typically remove it unless your trademark is in registered status. We tried a takedown in December for a new product where the TM was still pending and Amazon didn't pull it down. We re-flagged it for a copyright violation and they pulled it down without asking for a copyright registration. If they steal your marketing material, user manual, pictures/photos, etc. that's a hook for alleging a copyright takedown.

 

If you don't want to use the Amazon on-line form, maybe you want to send a longer letter explaining that it's a counterfeit/knockoff/whatever, the contact email addresses for their response teams are:

 

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the help! I'll pass that on. It sounds like I may need to wait 3 months for my trademark to process. As far as copyright goes, I don't think I can do one on my stuff. Design patent is possible.

 

I wonder if the listing can be composed of an image that is copyrighted?

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