Amazon Trademark Questions Answered with Attorney Anita Mar

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this week’s episode, I’m joined by an amazing special guest, Anita Mar, to answer all your questions about trademarks and Amazon. Anita is an attorney and founder of Trademark Angel, a registration agency that provides online solutions to help you with all your trademark needs. She’s been in the trademark industry since 1999, working with various law firms, but struck out on her own in 2017 after noticing potential clients asking about the brand registry requirements just introduced by Amazon.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To kick things off, Anita gives us a rundown of the benefits of Amazon’s brand registry and why she thinks it’s essential for anyone wanting to sell successfully on Amazon. She also explains how being brand registered and putting your trademark on your packaging gives you better protection against hijackers, both in putting them off in the first place and getting Amazon’s help if your listing does get hijacked. I then ask Anita about how trademarking works with bundles containing multiple brands, and she explains that what you’re trademarking isn’t the products themselves but the service you provide in putting them together in your bundle. She also runs us through some examples of trademark violations sellers might fall foul of and discusses the potential pitfalls of attempting to file trademarks yourself instead of going through an attorney or a service like Trademark Angel. We then get into specifics about trademarks, Anita explaining the difference between word marks, design marks, and combined marks, the benefits of each, and Amazon’s rule that your trademark must have some text in it to be accepted in their brand registry. She follows that up with advice on what to consider when choosing a trademark, including things to avoid (like descriptive marks), what makes for a good trademark, and the importance of a trademark search to ensure nobody’s got there before you. And finally, Anita discusses whether sellers should register for multiple