Trademark detection system upgraded

[johntusk]

I was selling items with popular trademarked characters for years on Amazon.
Previously I could put trademarks in title, some years later I had to make some kind of word play by changing trademarked terms. And recently, I've opened a new account, published about 30 items with 15 that had depiction of characters from pop culcure and my account was deactivated for sec 3 right after 1 month after publishing.
There were absolutly no trademarked words or graphic trademarked symbols in listing details, photos, etc. The only possible way of detaction was AI and human check.
I also see much less competition in my niche and Chinese sellers are falling from such business practices, too. There are still a lot of unlicensed products with reviews and selling history.
Looks like now Amazon does not really want such bussiness on their platform.

[rsot]

Was it possible that you were linked to previous accounts?

[agent006140]

I've opened a new account, published about 30 items with 15 that had depiction of characters from pop culcure
-------------
Could they be using AI to check the pictures of the characters.
I read somewhere which said to teach AI 'this is a dog',it shows AI 1000 pictures of dogs!

[quantum]

what kind of sec 3 deactivation was it?

[johntusk]

Originally Posted by rsot

Was it possible that you were linked to previous accounts?

Zero.
I've never listed this items on my previous account.
The setup is made on new PC, dedicated white unique IP and real docs. I run 1 amazon/etsy acc per 1 pc.

Other sellers may have listed similiar looking items on their accounts, but the combination of those I had on my account was unique, and I have added some new features to them, making these items very different from Chinese competition. Photos and infographics were very different and mine was better, as the product itself.

[johntusk]

Originally Posted by agent006140

I've opened a new account, published about 30 items with 15 that had depiction of characters from pop culcure
-------------
Could they be using AI to check the pictures of the characters.
I read somewhere which said to teach AI 'this is a dog',it shows AI 1000 pictures of dogs!

Yes, unfortunately

I know a seller who have posted a year ago a costume of "Red panda" on German Amazon without labeling it as red panda and was hit by suspected infrigment notice. I've thought that his niche and brand may be policed highly by Amazon. Other items he listed were without possible infrigment.

[johntusk]

Originally Posted by quantum

what kind of sec 3 deactivation was it?

Same as I've got on my other suspected account, but there was an actual usage of trademarked terms in one of the titles.

"deceptive, illegal activity that harms our customers"

But in the currect deactivation, the suspention letter was super short.
And I did not receive any "suspected infrigment" notices and made any sales or shipped inventory to FBA.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by johntusk

Same as I've got on my other suspected account, but there was an actual usage of trademarked terms in one of the titles.

"deceptive, illegal activity that harms our customers"

But in the currect deactivation, the suspention letter was super short.
And I did not receive any "suspected infrigment" notices and made any sales or shipped inventory to FBA.

Generic suspension message - sometimes these messages don't even truly point out the issue.

"I also see much less competition in my niche" - did you receive any recent purchase from possible competition?

[agent006140]

keep doing it,AMZN could suspend your account,just like Ebay

[johntusk]

Amazon has deactivated account, then asked for utility bill to verify identity and have sent deactivation email for sec 3

No sales on the account. Competitors are calm and items were not available for purchase (no stock)

[rsot]

Originally Posted by johntusk

Amazon has deactivated account, then asked for utility bill to verify identity and have sent deactivation email for sec 3

No sales on the account. Competitors are calm and items were not available for purchase (no stock)

Going to be tough to get the account in working order again

[johntusk]

Originally Posted by rsot

Going to be tough to get the account in working order again

Yes, I know
Just sharing my experience about images, trademarks and AI
I am ending my game with trademarks on Amazon
I've expected that this time would come eventually

[rsot]

Originally Posted by johntusk

Yes, I know
Just sharing my experience about images, trademarks and AI
I am ending my game with trademarks on Amazon
I've expected that this time would come eventually

The experience is always welcomed - always tragic to see accounts go down but yes, constant task to identify why, how, etc from AZ :(

[quantum]

I don't think whatever you're doing is triggering it. Utility bill requests after about a month of account opening is usually an issue with account registration. I've encountered this many many times last year until I started using real information.

Trademark issues usually start with an impact to your account health score that leads to warnings and then an appeal-able account deactivation on the first violation.

[agent006140]

what ever happen to that lady in Germany,she is printing German auto logos she designed or copied on t shirts,police busted in and caught her redhanded,her pic shows the design on the screen and her couch has a T shirt she just made>
The next day she went to the police station,it has all the evidence on the table?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

what ever happen to that lady in Germany,she is printing German auto logos she designed or copied on t shirts,police busted in and caught her redhanded,her pic shows the design on the screen and her couch has a T shirt she just made>
The next day she went to the police station,it has all the evidence on the table?

You're quite good with the research of net info - no links to updated story found? I just let that story fade from memory

[agent006140]

here
https://www.aspkin.com/forums/genera...st-letter.html

[johntusk]

Originally Posted by quantum

I don't think whatever you're doing is triggering it. Utility bill requests after about a month of account opening is usually an issue with account registration. I've encountered this many many times last year until I started using real information.

Trademark issues usually start with an impact to your account health score that leads to warnings and then an appeal-able account deactivation on the first violation.

No, utility bill request occured after a little bit more then 2 months of account creation day and more then 1 month after adding USD bank data from Payoneer.

It happened exactly 30 days after adding listings on Amazon.

Account is created with real ID, not a stelth account.

[rsot]

Exactly 30 days - interesting on the timing - timed security flag could have been tripped

[johntusk]

Maybe Amazon waited to confirm my intention in products I want to sell and to see all my next moves.
ChatGPT can now easily identify characters even just by their silhouettes.

[johntusk]

The account owner, along with a translator, had a phone call with Amazon (ID verification).
No in-depth questions were asked — only general questions about the account.
All questions were answered correctly, of course.

Despite this, the result was returned within 12 hours after the call — with the same outcome: “deceptive and fraudulent activity.”

From a legal perspective, I believe Amazon cannot rightfully accuse me of using copyrighted images, especially considering that only automated AI systems might flag such content, without any actual trademarks or logos being used.
Moreover, this action was taken as a preventive measure, even though the account is brand new and had no sales at all.

With all that in mind, I strongly discourage selling items that reference well-known brands or IP.
You can get suspended without clear reason, even if your listings are not infringing in the traditional legal sense.

[Automasters]

I believe everything is bot / ai run at this point and the sensitivity has been turned up on 'fraudulent' items, even if they are not.....