In 2020, we established an in-house investigation and prosecution team, the Counterfeit Crimes Unit. They are a global team dedicated to holding bad actors accountable. The team is focused on building and referring cases to law enforcement, undertaking independent investigations or joint investigations with brands, and pursuing civil litigation against bad actors. Through close collaboration with brands, many of the Counterfeit Crimes Unit’s lawsuits were filed jointly with brands, including household names like 3M, YETI; U.K. cosmetics brand KF Beauty; Italian luxury brands like Maison Valentino and Ferragamo; and small businesses like JL Childress, which sells travel products for parents, and Dutch Blitz, a family-owned card game manufacturer.

Amazon designed IP Accelerator specifically with small and medium businesses in mind, making it easier and more cost effective for them to protect their unique products and intellectual property (IP). IP Accelerator connects entrepreneurs with a curated network of law firms that specialize in IP. Amazon vetted each of the participating law firms for experience, expertise, and customer service, and all have agreed to competitive, pre-negotiated rates. When entrepreneurs use these law firms to file a trademark application, Amazon will provide their brand with early access to Brand Registry.

Amazon has built industry-leading tools to verify potential sellers’ identities using a combination of algorithms, machine learning technology, and expert human review. Prospective selling partners are required to provide a government-issued photo ID and information about their identity, location, taxpayer information, bank account, credit card, and more. Our proprietary systems analyse hundreds of unique data points to verify the information and detect potential risk. Our verification processes stopped over 6 million attempts to create a selling account before they were able to publish a single listing for sale.