Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Sellers on Amazon in India would now have access to intellectual property experts and law firms to protect their brands and fight counterfeit goods. Jeff Bezos company on Sunday expanded its Intellectual Property Accelerator (IP Accelerator) Program available in the US, Europe, Japan, Canada, and Mexico to India for sellers who are also brand owners including small and medium-sized to secure their trademarks, protect their brands and tackle infringement on Amazon.in and Amazon websites globally. Fake e-commerce goods has been among the biggest challenges for the online retail market globally. As of 2020, annual worldwide retail sales losses from counterfeiting in the clothing segment were $31.2 billion followed by $12.1 billion in pharmaceuticals, $5.5 billion in cosmetics and personal care, etc., as per Statista. Amazon currently has more than 8.5 lakh sellers in India.
Obtaining a trademark registration with the Intellectual Property India, Trademarks Registry (IN TMR) may take as long as 18-24 months and small sellers may find it time-consuming and challenging complex to go through the process on their own, Amazon said in a statement. “Establishing IP rights is essential for businesses of all sizes to differentiate their products, earn customer trust and grow their business. However, the process can be complex and time-consuming, leading to a lot of businesses dropping off along the way,” said Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME & Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India.
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Amazon would also provide an option for SME sellers to avail of Amazon.in’s brand protection services to protect and manage their brand and IP on the marketplace before their trademark is officially registered. Amazon said that it helps sellers through programmes such as Brand Registry, Transparency, and Project Zero, which use machine learning and automated systems to weed out potential counterfeits from the marketplace.
IP Accelerator was launched in the United States in 2019 and was pilot-launched in India in 2020. So far, six IP law firms have signed up to be service providers under the accelerator programme including Hasan and Singh, Lexorbis, Sujata Chaudhri IP Attorneys, Amitabha Sen & co., Remfry & Sagar, H K Acharya & Company. The accelerator can be accessed by sellers on Amazon.in Service Provider Network (SPN) and wouldn’t have any “additional cost” in accessing IP Accelerator firm listings on SPN.
The parent company Amazon in its first Brand Protection report in May this year had said that it blocked over 10 billion suspected bad listings before they were published in its stores. It also claimed that it detected and seized more than 2 million counterfeit products that were sent to its fulfillment centers, before the items were sent to customers. Moreover, more than 7,000 SMEs were connected to law firms in the U.S. and Europe through its IP Accelerator.
