Amazon Brand Registry: Why It's Important & How to Enroll

When selling on Amazon, the last thing you want to do is waste your time fighting off counterfeiters or monitoring the accuracy of your product listings.

Amazon’s Brand Registry program saves you the trouble. The program lets brand owners and manufacturers protect their registered trademarks and control product listings (ASINs) with access to a dedicated team and exclusive benefits.

Amazon itself claims that 95% of notices of infringement submitted by rights owners are investigated within 24 hours, and that enrolled brands report 99% fewer suspected infringements than before registration.

Moreover, Brand Registry is required to access features like Enhanced Brand Content for improving your marketing and quality of listings.  

Some sellers even face account closure if they fail to enroll by a certain time period. If you’re not sure what all the hoopla is all about, here are the top advantages of enrolling in Amazon’s Brand Registry. Safe to say that It’s one of the most surefire ways for your brand to sell safely and efficiently on Amazon.

Top Benefits of Registering Your Brand

1. Police Your Own ASINs

As a registered brand, Amazon will protect your listing content from being altered by other sellers. This includes protection over your product title, description and images.

To further streamline the process of cleaning up ASINs and to avoid a backlog of IP infringement claims, Amazon has also rolled out do-it-yourself tools in Brand Registry that let you remove unauthorized resellers without filing IP infringement claims and waiting for Amazon to take action.

These tools include advanced search via images, keywords or a list of ASINs, so you can easily search multiple Amazon stores and report suspected violations through guided workflows.  

Note that Amazon Retail listing contributions made through Vendor Central could potentially alter the info on your product pages, but the Brand Registry support team can override these changes if you submit a valid listing issue ticket.

2. Gate Your Brand

Once you have Brand Registry, Amazon may consider you for brand gating whereby you can eliminate the ability for other sellers to sell on your ASINs altogether to prevent price wars (i.e., buy box competition) and counterfeiters. Alternatively, if you don’t have in-house direct-to-consumer (D2C) capabilities and/or employ resellers, you as the Brand Registry holder can choose which sellers can sell on your ASINs, provided they abide by your Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy.

3. Gain Proactive Protection

Amazon will use the information you provide in your Brand Registry to implement predictive protections that will help to remove bad listings, including ones that:

• Incorrectly use your trademarked terms in their titles
• Incorrectly use your logo in photos that don’t show your product
• Ship products from countries where you do no manufacture or ship your brand
• Are listed as new products by other sellers, though you’ve already listed your full catalog to Amazon
  ‍

4. Access Advanced Brand-Building Tools

Enjoy a suite of tools for growing your business, such as:

• Enhanced Brand Content (EBC): a customizable product description that lets you tell a more differentiated story on your ASINs with enhanced images and text placements
• Stores: a free, branded multi-page store on Amazon that showcases your various products through videos, images and other content you create
• Sponsored Brands: CPC ads that feature your brand logo, a custom headline and up to three of your products on search result pages  
• Brand Dashboard: report of recommendations for improving your conversions, traffic and overall success on Amazon  

5. Take Advantage of Amazon Transparency  

Brand Registry now includes an item-level tracing system called Transparency. Transparency allows brands to serialize individual units of inventory which are authenticated at Amazon’s fulfillment centers. The service allows customers, in turn, to check the authenticity of products they receive by scanning Transparency codes with a simple mobile app.

Enrollment Requirements

Beyond having an Amazon account, either Seller Central or Vendor Central, Brand Registry requires country-specific trademarking (see chart below).

Text-based marks are trademarkable, as are image-based (i.e. logo) marks. We recommend filing for word marks and image marks wherever possible.

Country-Specific Brand Registry Eligibility Requirements

<center>
<table class="tg">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th class="tg-38kr">Country</th>
<th class="tg-3yha">Requirements</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-gxsv">United States</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.uspto.gov/">United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must have a live registration issued and active in the principal register</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Typeset word(s), letter(s), number(s), standard character mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: an illustration drawing that includes word(s)/letter(s)/number(s); words, letters or numbers in a stylized form</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Canada</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/business/ip.html">Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Design mark</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Mexico</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="http://marcanet.impi.gob.mx/marcanet/">Marcas Instituto Mexicano de Propiedad Industrial (IMPI)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Nominativa</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Mixta; Nominativa + Innominada o Diseño; Innominada o Diseño</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Brazil</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="http://www.inpi.gov.br/">Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Nominativa</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Mista contendo elementos nominativos</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">European Union</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/home?ld=ABRENBROB_null">European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Figurative mark; figurative mark with word elements</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">United Kingdom</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/trade-marks?ld=ABRENBROB_null">UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Figurative mark</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Germany</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.dpma.de/?ld=ABRENBROB_null">Deutsches Patent und Markenamt (DPMA)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Wortmarke</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Wort-Bildmarke</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">France</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.inpi.fr/fr?ld=ABRENBROB_null">Institut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Marque verbale</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Marque figurative</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Italy</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="http://www.uibm.gov.it/">Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi (UIBM)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Marchio verbali</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Marchio figurativi, marchio figurativi a colori</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Spain</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.oepm.es/es/signos_distintivos/index.html?ld=ABRENBROB_null">Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (OEPM)</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Marca denominative</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Mixta - Denominativo con gráfico</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">United Arab Emirates</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="http://www.economy.gov.ae/english/Pages/default.aspx?ld=ABRENBROB_null">United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy Trademark Department</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Design mark, design mark with word elements, stylised word marks</li>
</ul>Amazon is currently only accepting UAE trademarks where the text in the trademark is represented in standard English characters.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Japan</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.jpo.go.jp/?ld=ABRENBROB_null">Japan Patent Office</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark (文字商標)</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Figurative mark with word elements, stylized characters / combined (結合商標)</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">India</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="http://www.ipindia.nic.in/?ld=ABRENBROB_null">Controller General of Patents Designs & Trademarks</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word mark</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Device/combined</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-ibqw">Australia</td>
<td class="tg-gxsv">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Trademark organization</strong>: <a href="https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/?ld=ABRENBROB_null">IP Australia</a>
</li>
<li><strong>Statutes</strong>: Trademark must be registered</li>
<li><strong>Text-based marks</strong>: Word</li>
<li><strong>Image-based marks</strong>: Device; word, device; fancy</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</center>

How to Apply and Enroll Your Brand(s)

Step 1. Make sure you have the following required documents prepared:

1. Your brand name that has an active registered trademark
2. The associated government-registered trademark number
3. A list of product categories (i.e. apparel, sporting goods, electronics) in which your brand should be listed
4. A list of countries where your brand’s products are manufactured and distributed
   

Step 2. Navigate to the Brand Registry webpage to begin the enrollment process. You’ll be asked to choose the country where you have an active registered trademark. Then, you’ll have to log into your Vendor or Seller Central account.  

That’s it! Follow the guides to complete your registration. If you have a registered trademark in multiple countries, you’ll have to apply for each separately.

Additional FAQs

• ‍I already enrolled for Brand Registry before April 30, 2017. Do I need to re-enroll? Yes, Amazon Brand Registry 1.0 no longer applies and you will not be automatically enrolled in Brand Registry 2.0. ‍

• How long does it normally take to get approved for Brand Registry? This depends on how many requests Amazon is handling at a given time, but many applicants have received approval within 24 hours.

• ‍How much does Brand Registry cost? It’s free aside from the fees you pay for getting a trademark.

• ‍Where can I check the status of my application? Log into your Brand Registry account and check your case log for an up-to-date status.