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11 August 2020TrademarksMuireann Bolger

Amazon launches Project Zero in a further seven countries

Amazon has today, August 11, announced the expansion of its anti-counterfeiting programme,  Project Zero, to seven new countries, making it available in 17 countries in which Amazon operates.

Project Zero is newly available in Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. According to Amazon, the project “empowers brands” by combining “Amazon’s advanced technology, machine learning, and innovation with the sophisticated knowledge that brands have of their own IP” to drive counterfeits to zero. More than 10,000 brands have enrolled in Project Zero since it was launched in 2019.

“Amazon is committed to protecting our customers and the brands we collaborate with worldwide,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide customer trust and partner support at Amazon. “Project Zero has been a leap forward in protecting brands, especially for those that use all three of its components.”

“We are excited to see that Project Zero is expanding into the new marketplaces,” said Adrienne McNicholas, co-founder and CEO of  Food Huggers. “The programme has already had a very positive impact on our enforcement efforts and we are glad to see Amazon’s continued commitment to protecting our brand across the world.”

Brands that are enrolled in Project Zero and already have a trademark enrolled in one of the newly launched countries will automatically be able to use it in these additional stores. Project Zero uses three components to protect brands, including automated protections that scan more than 5 billion attempted daily product listing updates globally to look for suspicious listings. These are powered by Amazon’s  machine learning and are continuously fed new information to automatically  prevent and block potential counterfeit listings.

Second, Project Zero provides a self-service tool to brands enabling them to directly remove listings from an Amazon store. These removals feed into Amazon’s automated protections, so it can catch potential counterfeit listings. Finally, the project offers an option of product serialisation, enabled by a unique code that brands apply within their manufacturing or packaging process. This allows Amazon to scan and confirm the authenticity of every single purchase of a brand’s enrolled products from Amazon’s stores.

In June, Amazon launched the  Amazon Counterfeit Crime Unit , to investigate and bring legal action against counterfeiters, and last year it  launched IP Accelerator, a project that connects brands with a network of IP law firms.

The law firms, which include  The Sladkus Law Group,  Neal & McDevitt, and  Dunner Law, provide trademark registration services to help brands secure a trademark at the  US Patent and Trademark Office. These measures come after Amazon warned investors about the risk of counterfeits on its online platform for the first time in its annual report last year. Amazon also offers a  free brand registration service, which it claims helps brands deliver an accurate and trusted customer experience on Amazon while protecting a brand’s IP.

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