E179: Trademark Protection and the Importance of Being Amazon Brand Registered

It's becoming increasingly difficult to sell on Amazon.

I know I share the same sentiment with many listeners of this podcast. These days, you need to position your brand in a way that it can effectively differentiate itself. Only then will you be able to sell products effectively. So it's downright frustrating and disheartening when you encounter imitators online who hijack and duplicate products for monetary gain but at the original creator's expense.

That being said, it's crucial to have your brand and your products protected by a trademark. And in today's podcast, we not only get to pick the brains of a lawyer who assists clients with protecting their brands. He also has his own ecommerce business to boot.

Steven Weigler is someone who's certainly seen both sides of the coin. A former prosecutor and technology law practitioner, he has been running an ecommerce business for a decade. He is also the founder of EmergeCounsel, a business legal services provider.

Steve sheds light on what a trademark is and how many different kinds are there. He also talks about the Amazon Brand Registry and a relatively new program within it called Transparency.

Here are some highlights from our discussion.

• Brand Registry is a way for Amazon to identify legitimate brands and help the sellers of these brands weed out imitators.
• Filing for a trademark yourself with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is not advisable because it is a tedious process that requires specific legal knowledge and expertise. Any error that could be incurred while doing it on your own will leave a mark and its effects can be potentially irreversible.
• Going down the DIY route will also end up being more costly than if you had an experienced lawyer doing it on your behalf.

On that note, EmergeCounsel has a business service package that's right up this alley. For an $875 all-in fee you can get the following:

• Strategic discussions about branding and trademark needs
• A comprehensive trademark search using multiple sources
• Suggestions for proper trademark categorization to minimize the costs and maximize a trademark's protection
• Phone-in or in-person consultations as needed
• USPTO trademark application preparation
• Responding to technical official actions issued by the USPTO
• Filing all forms and paperwork throughout the process
• One year of defense monitoring alerting clients to any possible threat to their trademark
• Assistance and advisory on the registry process
• Discounted rates for Emerge counsels

For more information, you can get in touch with Steve via his email address: sweigler@emergecounsel.com

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