How to Solve Amazon Patent Infringement: 5 Simple Steps for New Sellers
If you sell products on Amazon, you will probably get a Amazon patent infringement at some point. This is very common for Amazon sellers—almost every seller faces this problem in their international trade business. When Amazon sends you a patent complaint or brand infringement email, they usually give you about 30 days to prepare your materials and solve the problem. If you do nothing, your product listing will be removed, your money may be held by Amazon, and your account could even be restricted. You don’t want that to happen, right?
In our years of doing international trade, we have met this situation many times and have tried multiple ways to solve Amazon patent infringement issues, and we have learned and concluded necessary methods to fix the problems from our experience. Today, I would like to share our practical solutions with you that have worked and proven well for us many times. After reading this article, you will know exactly what to do when you get a patent complaint on Amazon. You will not feel worried or lost. You can protect your account, save as much money as possible, and reduce your losses.
Let’s start with the most important and effective step—talking to the patent owner.
1. Find the Patent Owner and Negotiate a Settlement
When you get a patent complaint email from Amazon, the email will include some information about the patent owner. But sometimes, this information is too vague. Sometimes, you can’t contact the patent owner easily, or you can’t communicate with them well using the information given. When this happens, you need to find other ways to get the patent owner’s contact details—preferably their phone number, WeChat, email, or address. These ways will help you communicate with them quickly and smoothly.
Step 1: Find Clear Patent Owner Information
The best way to find the patent owner’s clear information is to use freelancer on Fiverr.com. Fiverr guys are easy and fast for the communication. Usually, after you place an order to them, they can deliver the work within 24 hours. But in order to ensure the fast work, you should provide the basic information to them such as the product image, patent ID etc.
Once you have the patent report, you should analyze the information and focus on the patent owner name. Maybe the patent owner is a person or a company, just use it to search on Google and try to find their details (like phone number, WeChat, website or email), then you can get in touch with them directly. You should be active to reach to them and explain your situation not just waiting for someone to contact you, because you can take control of the situation and solve the problem faster.
Step 2: Negotiate with the Patent Owner Honestly
When you talk to the patent owner, be honest and polite. Remember, you infringed their patent by accident—you didn’t know it was protected. Show them that you respect their intellectual property, and tell them you are willing to pay compensation to solve the problem. This is the key to a successful negotiation.
Be honest about two important things: how many products you have sold so far, and how many products you still have in stock. Don’t lie about these numbers—patent owners can often check the sales data on Amazon, and lying will only make them angry and unwilling to negotiate. Tell them the truth, and ask them how much compensation they want to settle the complaint.
Step 3: Understand the Patent Owner’s Goal and Clear Your Inventory
Most patent owners will agree to a settlement if you are honest and willing to pay. Once you agree on a compensation amount and pay it, you can ask the patent owner to do two things: first, send you a settlement letter (a paper that proves you have settled the problem), and second, withdraw the complaint on Amazon. Then you can send these documents to Amazon, and they will remove the restriction on your account.
But here is a very important thing to note: it is very hard to get a permanent license to sell the product on Amazon forever. Why? Because most patent owners also sell their products on Amazon. If you keep selling the same product, you will take their customers and share their market. Their final goal is to make your product listing disappear from Amazon. But our goal is to get a one-month settlement, or even longer. If the patent owner gives you one month or more to sell your remaining inventory, that is a very good result.
During this settlement period, you need to sell as many products as possible to get your money back and reduce your losses. The most common and effective way is to lower the price—sell the product at a big discount so that customers will buy it quickly. You can also use other methods, like offering free shipping, bundling the product with other cheap items, or promoting it on social media. The key is to clear your inventory as fast as you can before the settlement period ends.
Tips: Most Patent Owners Are Chinese—Use a Chinese Agent If Needed.
In many cases, the patent owners are Chinese. They have factories in China and sell products all over the world. If you cannot communicate well in Chinese, or you don’t know how to talk to them, you can find a Chinese agent to help you. A good agent can talk to the patent owner for you, help you negotiate a lower compensation, and get a longer settlement period. One good agent we highly recommend is Sourcing Pioneer—they have a lot of experience in dealing with Amazon patent complaints and can help you solve the problem easily.
2. Move the Product to Other Selling Platforms If Negotiation Fails
Sometimes, you cannot reach an agreement with the patent owner. They may ask for too much money, or they refuse to withdraw the complaint at all. When this happens, don’t give up—you still have other options to reduce your losses.
You can move your product to other selling platforms. These platforms are not as strict as Amazon about patent infringement, so you can keep selling your products there. Some good platforms to try, such as: eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Shopify, or local e-commerce websites in your country. These platforms have different rules, and many of them are more relaxed about patent issues.
This is a good choice if you have a lot of inventory and don’t want to lose all your money. For example, we once had a product with a patent complaint on Amazon—we moved it to eBay, and we sold all our inventory in three weeks. It’s not as good as selling on Amazon, but it’s better than getting nothing. You can also try selling on multiple platforms at the same time to clear your inventory faster.
3. Use the Infringing Product as a Free Gift
If your product is small and light (like a keychain, a small toy, a phone accessory, or a small kitchen tool), you can try this simple and effective method. First, remove the infringing product from your Amazon listing—this will stop Amazon from restricting your account further.
Next, ship the infringing inventory back to your warehouse or keep it in Amazon’s FBA warehouse. Then, create a new, safe product listing on Amazon—this product should not have any patent issues. Finally, offer the infringing product as a free gift when customers buy your new product. For example, you can say: “Buy this new water bottle, get a free keychain!” or “Free phone case with every purchase of our new earphones!”
Customers love free gifts, so this will help you get more orders for your new product. At the same time, you can clear your infringing inventory without breaking Amazon’s rules. This is a win-win way to reduce your losses and promote your new product.
4. Sell Your Inventory to Stock Buyers
If you cannot sell the product on other platforms or use it as a free gift, you can sell your inventory to stock buyers. Stock buyers are people who buy unwanted inventory from sellers at a low price. They will take all your inventory in one order, so you don’t have to worry about selling it one by one or paying for long-term storage fees.
The price will be very low—you may only get 10% to 30% of the money you spent on the product. But it’s better than losing all your money. You can find stock buyers on Facebook groups, Alibaba, or local wholesale markets. Selling to stock buyers is fast and easy—you get cash back immediately, and you don’t have to deal with the inventory anymore.
5. Donate the Products to Charity
If you really cannot sell the products at all—no matter on other platforms, as gifts, or to stock buyers—you can donate them to charity. Many charities accept different kinds of products, such as toys, bags, kitchen tools, small electronics, clothes, and more. Donating the products helps people in need, and it also helps you clear your inventory without paying extra storage or disposal fees.
Although you cannot get any money back, you are doing something good for society. Some countries even offer tax benefits for donations, so you may save some money on taxes. It’s not the best option for getting your money back, but it’s a responsible and kind way to deal with unwanted inventory.
What to Do If Your Supplier Cheated You
Many sellers get patent complaints because their suppliers lied to them. Some suppliers will tell you: “We own the patent for this product,” or “This product is 100% safe to sell on Amazon.” But later, you find out that they do not have the patent at all—they produced and sold you an infringing product, which caused you serious losses (like account restriction, lost money, and wasted time).
If this happens to you, you can ask your supplier to compensate you. If you bought the product on Alibaba or other international trade websites, you can open a dispute. Show them your chat records (where they lied to you), payment proof, and the Amazon patent complaint email. You can ask for a full or partial refund, including the cost of the product and the international shipping cost.
If the supplier lied to you and said they were the patent owner, you can ask them to pay you full compensation. This includes all your product losses, shipping losses, and even the money you paid for the patent settlement. Suppliers do not want bad reviews or punishments from the platform, so many will agree to pay you back if you have strong proof.
Tips: We should also be clear about one thing: sometimes it is not that the supplier is lying, but a matter of time window. It may take at least six months to a year for a product’s patent application to be approved. During this period, no matter how you research, the product will show that there is no patent at all. If you listed the product while the patent was being applied for, you are really unlucky.
Why Patent Complaints Happen
You may wonder why patent complaints are so common on Amazon. There are three main reasons: first, many new sellers do not know about patents and accidentally infringe them; second, some suppliers lie to sellers about patent rights to make sales; third, Amazon is very strict about protecting intellectual property—they want to make sure that all products on their platform are legal and do not steal others’ ideas.
But you don’t need to be afraid. Patent complaints are normal—every big seller has faced them before. The key is to stay calm and use the right method to solve the problem. Don’t panic, and don’t give up—there is always a way to reduce your losses.
Conclusion
Getting a patent complaint on Amazon is not the end of your business. It’s just a small problem that you can solve with the right steps. With the methods we shared today, you can protect your account, reduce your losses, and become a smarter and more experienced Amazon seller. Good luck with your business—you’ve got this!
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