What Is Amazon Brand Registry? (Requirements, Benefits, Cost, and How to Do)

The value of brand protection is obvious to anyone who has ever sold anything on Amazon or another online marketplace. Amazon Brand Registry enables you to do just that. If this is your first time hearing about Amazon Brand Registry, don't worry; this post covers everything you need to know.

Amazon's mission is to be the most consumer-centric company. They achieve this in several ways, one of which is by preventing fraud and abuse and creating a trustworthy customer experience.

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What Is Amazon Brand Registry?

The Amazon Brand Registry is a free service that allows you to register your brand with Amazon so that you may better manage your listings, secure your intellectual property, and expand your business, all at no cost! With the use of advanced technologies such as AI, Amazon has developed a suite of tools to stop and stop bad actors and listings.

If this sounds interesting, this article is for you. You’ll learn everything you need to know, including what you need to get enrolled.

A Rundown Of Amazon Brand Registry

In 2017, Amazon introduced a new and refreshed registry for brand owners called Amazon Brand Registry. For brand owners, this meant they had access to powerful tools helping them protect their trademarks, including proprietary images and text. The new database also gave brands better access to advertising options, ultimately boosting their storefront visibility and, by extension, their sales.

Please note that Amazon Brand Registry was updated in 2017. The new registry came with new eligibility requirements and functionality. This is especially important if your brand was registered prior to April 30, 2017. If this is the case, you will have to re-enroll to get the program’s benefits.

Who Can Enrol To Amazon Brand Registry?

The following is a list of eligible parties who can join the Amazon Brand Registry.

Product manufacturers or private label brand owners.
Any distributor with a licensed trademark.
Any seller or seller with written permission from a brand owner or manufacturer to manage a product's details page on Amazon.

As long as you manage a brand and need to protect it from fraud, you can enroll in Amazon Brand Registry.

Why Should You Enrol?

If Amazon Brand Registry is new to you, you may be wondering what the benefits of the program are and if you should, at all, enroll. If you are a brand owner, it is crucial that you get your brand protected from fraud by enrolling.

With the new registry, brand owners get powerful tools to help them protect their brand and trademark. It is critical that you realize the magnitude of the brand fraud problem on Amazon and the damage it does to honest businesses.

Besides the revamped brand registry, Amazon has invested over $900 million and hired more than 12,000 people, including machine learning scientists, software developers, and investigators, to combat brand fraud in the marketplace and safeguard merchants, brands, and customers.

If you're still on the fence about enrolling, perhaps the following reasons will sway your decision.

Spotting and Stopping Bad Actors

Amazon claims that more than 2.5 million attempts to create fraudulent selling accounts on Amazon were blocked in 2021. This prevented criminals from posting any products for sale on the site. If your brand is in Amazon’s Brand Registry, it is at a lower risk of getting attacked by bad actors who may sell low-quality products under your brand, thus tarnishing your brand’s reputation. Therefore, it is essential that you sign up for the program so that you can help identify malicious players.

Holding Counterfeiters Accountable

The Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) of Amazon remained dedicated to bringing those responsible for sabotaging Amazon and other companies to justice. More than three times as many counterfeiters were sued or referred for investigation by Amazon's CCU in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and China in 2021 as in 2020.

Making Brand Protection Tools More Prevalent In The Industry

More than 700,000 brands are now actively using the Amazon Brand Registry, a set of tools to establish and protect a brand on Amazon, a growth of 40% from the previous year. Also, the average number of notifications of infringement reported to Amazon by a Brand Registry participant has dropped by 25% year over year.

Identifying And Seizing Counterfeits

Amazon claims it has discovered over 3 million fake items, seized them, and destroyed them. This number accounts for both counterfeit goods that made their way to Amazon's warehouses and the instances in which the company collaborated with brands and law enforcement to locate and shut down counterfeiters' warehouses and facilities.

How Much Does Amazon Brand Registry Cost?

Enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry is free. However, you need to have a registered trademark to meet the criteria for joining. The price of registering a trademark ranges anywhere from $225 to $400.

How to Register Your Trademark?

If you haven’t registered your trademark yet, the task can seem quite daunting. This is, however, not the case. You can register your trademark by visiting The United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO). If this seems like too much work, you can hire a lawyer or use online services such as LegalZoom or Trademarkia.

Please note that the application and approval process could take anywhere from six months to a year. You should, therefore, waste no time if you want to apply for Amazon Brand Registry—get your trademark as soon as possible.

What Other Brand Protection Tools Does Amazon Have?

To further aid in detecting and preventing fraud, Amazon also provides its third-party sellers with several other services and tools. Amazon's Transparency is one such service; it provides serialization to safeguard individual product units, and the business claims that it has protected over 500 million such items.

Bottom Line

Amazon Brand Registry plays a vital role in helping you to protect your trademark. Once you get the approval from Amazon to be enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, it means that Amazon will not allow third-party sellers to sell products with the same trademark as yours. It takes one month for the registration to become effective and three months for someone to challenge your application. All that is required to join is a registered trademark—enrollment is completely free.