Brand Registry
Brand Registry is Amazon’s free programme for brand owners with a trademark, which helps them protect their brand and manage its listings.
- Amazon Brand Registry
What it means
Brand Registry is for the owner of a brand rather than everyone who sells it: Amazon describes it as “a programme for sellers who manufacture or sell their own branded products”.4 It is free, it “helps you protect your intellectual property (IP), manage your listings and grow your business”, and a brand can enrol “even if you don’t sell in the Amazon store”.1
Amazon names two requirements: the brand name, or a logo that includes it, “permanently affixed to your products or packaging”, and a trademark for that name or logo from the trademark office of a country with an Amazon store.1
Enrolment changes what other sellers can do. For an enrolled brand, Amazon limits the creation of new ASINs “by sellers who do not have a selling role assigned to the brand”.2 It is also one of the two routes Amazon offers for a product with no GTIN: “you can apply for an exemption or register your brand”.3
The tools that come with it include A+ Content, which adds “videos, enhanced images, product-comparison charts and more” to a product page, and Report a Violation, for reporting “suspected IP infringement”.1
Think of it like this
Plenty of people may hold a key to a house: a lodger, a cleaner, the neighbour. The deeds say whose house it is. Brand Registry is Amazon reading the deeds, which for a brand means its trademark, and giving the owner a say that the key holders do not have.
For example
Hollinsby makes garden tools with its name moulded into every handle, and holds a UK trademark for the name, so it meets both of Amazon’s requirements and can enrol. When another seller lists forks that Hollinsby never made under the Hollinsby name, Hollinsby can report them as suspected infringement through Report a Violation.1
Why it matters
For a brand owner, it is the way into Amazon’s brand tools and the protections around its product pages.1 For a reseller, it changes what you can create: Amazon limits new product pages for an enrolled brand from sellers without a selling role, and the way to sell a product that already has a page is to add your offer to it.2
Not to be confused with
Not to be confused with brand name approval, which Amazon asks for when you try to create a listing under a brand name it has not approved yet. That is a check on the name, and it applies “across all countries”.5 Brand Registry is the separate programme for owners with a trademark.
Sources
- Amazon (sell.amazon.co.uk). Amazon Brand Registry: Protect and Build Your Brand in the UK.
- Amazon Seller Central UK. ASIN creation policy.
- Amazon Seller Central UK. Find your product ID (GTIN).
- Amazon Seller Central UK. Overview of category UPC requirements.
- Amazon Seller Central UK. Brand name approval requirements and issue resolution.