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Managing Risk: Trademark Dispute

managing trademark disputes in a business

Trademark disputes are one of the major risks in running an Amazon business.
The risk is that your brand name is considered to the same or too similar to another company's registered trademark, particularly if that company is much larger than yours.
You may have done all the research to ensure that your name is unique but it might not matter if you cannot afford to fight it - you might be up against a multinational company with very deep pockets and teams of lawyers to protect their trademarks.

So what can you do?

What can you do to minimise the risk and potential damage to your business if a large company disputes your brand name?

A quick simple fallback solution.
Create an emergency brand name:

  1. Research a new brand name (free)
  2. Buy the domain name ($10)
  3. Registered the trademark (this will take 9 months)- $250
  4. Get a simple logo ($20)
  5. Get Brand Registered on Amazon (free)

This emergency brand name will be ready to go in an instant if you need to abandon your existing brand name. The costs to setting up the emergency brand name will be minimal (as little as $280)

You can then:

  1. Change your product listing to include the new brand name so that you can keep your existing listings, reviews and ranking.
  2. Be ready to go with new production from your suppliers.
  3. Switch your website, email, social media to new domain name.

The issue then becomes what to do with your existing branded stock. You should only have around 3-4 months inventory on hand and in production.

You could then negotiate with the disputing company to arrange for a period to sell out of your existing stock before the new trademark comes into effect whilst showing them that you have taken positive steps to remedy the situation.

By setting up an emergency brand name, you are minimising the risk to your business from a trademark dispute and minimising the financial damage that may occur. There will be some pain involved but it would be much cheaper than the legal fees involved in fighting the claim or having Amazon closing your account or products.