Imagine spending months preparing to launch your business on Amazon or Etsy. You invest in product development, packaging, professional photography, and advertising. Sales begin to grow, your first customer reviews appear — and then, without warning, your product listing disappears, while your seller account is suddenly at risk of suspension.

The reason may be an intellectual property complaint filed by a third party alleging trademark infringement or infringement of another intellectual property right. This is why intellectual property protection on marketplaces should be considered an essential step before expanding into international e-commerce platforms.

All major marketplaces, including Amazon and Etsy, have their own intellectual property policies and well-established enforcement mechanisms. Understanding these rules before launching your business can help you avoid costly disputes, listing removals, and sales interruptions. In this article, we explain the key IP issues every seller should consider before entering international marketplaces.

Three Types of Intellectual Property You Should Protect Before Selling on Amazon or Etsy

Effective intellectual property protection on marketplaces starts with identifying which intellectual property assets your business actually owns and uses. Before launching on Amazon or Etsy, it is advisable to conduct an IP audit to determine which assets require legal protection.

1. Trademarks

Your trademarks may include:

  • your store name;
  • the name of an individual product or product line;
  • logos, slogans, or other signs used on packaging, labels, or product listings.

For Amazon sellers, trademark protection is particularly important because participation in Amazon Brand Registry requires either a registered trademark or, in certain jurisdictions, proof that a trademark application has already been filed.

Importantly, Amazon generally requires a word mark or a combined trademark that includes a word element matching the brand name under which products are sold. Registering only a logo without the relevant wording may not be sufficient for Brand Registry eligibility.

2. Industrial Designs

Trademark protection alone may not be enough. Competitors may copy not only your brand name but also the appearance of your product or its packaging.

Where appropriate, businesses should consider protecting:

  • the appearance of the product;
  • packaging design;
  • labels and other visual design elements.
Protecting Trademarks and Industrial Designs

Unlike copyright, trademark and industrial design rights are territorial. This means they are only enforceable in the country or region where protection has been obtained.

If you intend to sell through Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon EU, Etsy, or other international marketplaces, you should determine in advance where legal protection will be required.

The marketplace you target will determine the jurisdiction in which your IP rights should be protected. It will also influence the most appropriate filing strategy — whether to file national applications in individual countries or use international registration systems to obtain protection across multiple jurisdictions.

3. Copyright

In e-commerce, copyright most commonly protects marketing content, including:

  • product photographs;
  • promotional videos;
  • product descriptions;
  • other original creative materials used to promote your products.

Unlike trademarks and industrial designs, copyright generally arises automatically upon the creation of an original work and does not require mandatory registration.

However, automatic protection does not eliminate the need to properly manage your rights. Businesses should:

  • retain evidence of authorship and creation dates (such as original image files with metadata, drafts, or project files);
  • ensure that agreements with photographers, designers, copywriters, and other contractors clearly transfer economic copyright to the business;
  • consider voluntary copyright registration where available (for example, with the U.S. Copyright Office), as registration may significantly strengthen enforcement options in the event of infringement;
  • regularly monitor marketplaces to identify unauthorized use of your photographs, videos, or product descriptions by competitors, including by using reverse image search tools.
Third-Party Intellectual Property Risks

One of the most underestimated risks for e-commerce businesses is potential conflict with third-party intellectual property rights. Before launching a store on Amazon, Etsy, or any other marketplace, it is essential to conduct a clearance search to ensure that your brand or product name does not infringe existing rights in the relevant jurisdiction.

If, after launch, it turns out that an identical or confusingly similar name is already protected as a trademark by a third party, the rights holder may file a complaint with the platform alleging unauthorized use of their intellectual property within your product listing, including the title, description, or other marketing content.

The consequences may include deactivation or removal from product listings. Similar risks apply to industrial design and copyright infringements.

In more serious cases, repeated or large-scale complaints may also affect your seller account performance and potentially lead to account suspension.

Amazon and Etsy IP Enforcement Tools

Intellectual property protection on marketplaces is not limited to registering rights — it also includes using the enforcement mechanisms provided by the platforms themselves.

Owning a registered trademark or other IP right enables access to Amazon Brand Registry, a system designed to help brand owners better control and protect their intellectual property on Amazon.

Through Brand Registry, rights holders can report suspected infringements, including unauthorized use of trademarks, copying of product images or marketing materials, and the sale of counterfeit or infringing goods. These reports are submitted through Amazon’s internal enforcement tools, allowing for relatively fast takedown actions. In many cases, platform responses occur faster than sellers can even identify the cause of a listing removal.

Etsy offers a similar mechanism through its Etsy Reporting Portal, which allows rights holders or their representatives to register IP assets, identify potentially infringing listings, and submit takedown requests.

However, submitting complaints through these systems requires proper documentation, including proof of registered trademarks, industrial designs, or copyrighted works.

It is also important to note that marketplaces do not proactively monitor all potential IP infringements. Even with enforcement tools in place, the responsibility for identifying and reporting violations remains primarily with the rights holder.

Conclusions

Expanding to international marketplaces is an investment that can be significantly undermined by a single unregistered or unverified intellectual property asset. Therefore, intellectual property protection on marketplaces should be treated as a core preparatory step rather than an optional formality.

Before launching on Amazon, Etsy, or other global e-commerce platforms, we recommend:

  • conducting a preliminary clearance search for your brand, store, and product names in the relevant jurisdiction;
  • filing trademark applications in the countries or regions where you plan to sell;
  • assessing the need to protect industrial designs and copyright works related to your products, including design elements, photography, packaging, and marketing content;
  • implementing ongoing monitoring for potential IP infringements across marketplaces;
  • using platform enforcement tools to report and remove infringing listings when necessary.

If you are planning to launch on Amazon, Etsy, or other marketplaces and want to proactively protect your brand from disputes and listing removals, we can assist you in conducting clearance searches, selecting the optimal filing strategy, and managing the full IP protection lifecycle — from registration to enforcement and monitoring.

Author

Hanna Pereiaslavska