Then over the years I noticed them rolling out a different kind of market place. The option for businesses to sell products on their website. An incredible opportunity given the amount of traffic they get. And now they are rolling out Amazon Handmade, their alternative to Etsy. As a graphic artist this one has gotten my attention lately. Now there's an opportunity for me to sell on their platform.
I've seen many discussions about Amazon Handmade on Etsy. All the pros and cons, and right now Amazon is only offering an exclusive invitation to select businesses. Everyone is excited to see how this will play out and if it'll be a success. In the meantime another artist forum is discussing Amazon, but in a different manner. Someone found their designs in the Amazon marketplace. And from looking at the stores there are thousands of products. So people take a look and sure enough, their best-selling designs are there. We all discuss about how they got our images and what we should do. Someone provides the link for Amazon's infringement reporting.
So I try looking for myself and sure enough my designs are there. They even took the marketing images to use in their own listings. My best selling pillows for half of its normal selling price. And free shipping. And great customer reviews. I tried searching for more but this one store literally has thousands of counterfeit pillows. And there are several other stores selling my designs too.
I've never bothered to look for theft of my work before. I'd seen many discussions and learned from the pros about how to deal with it. But I didn't think my work was prolific enough to take. I just figured it was something to accept as an artist that makes a living online. Similar to a store that cushions for a percentage of theft. It happens to all businesses.
But now it's become personal. They're taking my work!! So I fill out the infringement report. I see there's an opportunity to file a claim for up to 50 products. I search and come up with 44. I painstakingly provide each product link to show where they took the images. Each product page has a create date so I point that out too. So I submit and receive a confirmation message that says "Amazon respects the intellectual property of others and requires sellers posting information on our site do the same. Our investigations team reviews all reports; we will notify you by email when we have completed our review."
I breath of sigh of relief. Now they're going to do something about it. So a couple days later I get the following email:
Hello,
Thank you for the information you have provided in your infringement complaint. However, we still need additional details regarding these items.
Before we can respond to your complaint, we ask that you clarify how these items infringe your rights by re-submitting your complaint with your answers to the these questions:
- Are you the manufacturer?
- Do you believe the offers in your complaint do not match the product detail pages?
- Do you believe that your trademark appears on products you do not manufacture?
- Do you believe that your trademark is used appropriately on the product details pages?
- Have you place test orders? If yes, be sure to provide the Amazon order numbers.
You can re-submit your complaint using our online form located in the "Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Infringement" section of our "Conditions of Use and Sale" page (http;//www.amazon.com/gp/reports/infringement). You may use the Additional Comments field to provide your answers to the questions.
It has to be a misunderstanding I say to myself. I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I was providing too much information and not being clear enough. Maybe I'll submit the complaint in smaller chunks. By this time other designers are having similar issues and discussing it among themselves. Some had success in getting the counterfeits pulled, they shared about what they said and what boxes they checked. So I do the same hoping for the same result.
No such luck, I get the same stupid email response. I resubmit the claims. Again and again and again. This is crazy. I can't spend all my free time going round and round with Amazon. So I start to think - what else can I do?
I go to Google and type "Amazon copyright infringement" in the search bar. Surely someone has an answer to my problem. To my surprise I see many articles about the matter, mostly about lawsuits against Amazon. I feel disheartened as I can't afford an attorney. I have an autistic child and we spend tens of thousands of dollars each year for medical care and therapy. Insurance doesn't cover much. And there is no extra money for an attorney.
Do I count it as a loss and move on with life? I stop to consider but not able to let the matter go. First the thief, and now Amazon itself. Then the idea comes to start a petition. After all, I see all these petitions on social media and people get the results they're looking for. Why not? It's free, doesn't take long and you never know what will happen.
That brings me to where I am now. The petition started a few days ago and we already have several hundred signatures. I initially drafted it asking Amazon to change it's IP reporting process. But after careful I research I found a bigger problem. It's easy for these internet pirates to set up store. And if they're caught and shut down, it's just as easy to set up another. We refer to it as the "whack a mole" game.
I don't want to bash Amazon, but I along with other artists and designers are frustrated with the whole infringement reporting process. We're not asking Amazon to assume responsibility for copyright verification. And we accept that there will be theft of our work, that's just the nature of things given that we sell our work on the internet. But we do want Amazon to take a harder look at their processes, both for IP infringement reporting and for setting up as a third-party seller. There needs to be more vetting, more verification of these vendors. It shouldn't be so easy to shutter and open shops as we've seen with these thieves. I think Amazon is a great marketplace and these improvements would make it even better. It would protect customers and give them the assurance that they products they buy are high-quality authentic items. As for the artist, it would help them protect their work and deter others from profiting off it. It's time to step up Amazon.