Amazon Brand Registry reviews the trademark, not the store: the brand name, the trademark image, and the trademark number must match, and your products or packaging must bear a permanently affixed brand identifier. Filing is free; all the thresholds sit on the trademark. This article covers eligibility paths, materials, and cross-market layout; the benefits of filing and rejection reasons are covered in a separate article and only linked here.
1. Three Eligibility Paths: Check Where Your Trademark Stands First
Amazon's official requirements: the brand must meet one of the following conditions.
- Hold a valid registered trademark (R mark) in each country/region where you want to enroll;
- Have a trademark application pending at an Amazon-recognized trademark office (TM mark);
- Have a pending trademark application submitted through Amazon IP Accelerator.
A pending trademark can be enrolled, but some brand tools and protection benefits typically open fully only after the trademark is registered; applications filed via IP Accelerator get brand benefits earlier, at the cost of handling trademark matters through its designated service providers with separate fees.
There is also a rule not written into the eligibility list but that often trips people up: to avoid buyer confusion, Amazon limits the number of identically named or highly similar brands. If your brand name is the same as or highly similar to an existing brand on the platform, you may be asked for additional materials or a video verification, or advised to resubmit after the trademark is registered, even if the trademark itself is fine.
2. Four Hurdles the Trademark Itself Must Clear
- Right type: it must be a word mark, or a design mark containing text, letters, or numbers. Purely graphical trademarks (without text) are not accepted.
- Exact name match: the brand name entered in enrollment must match the text in the trademark record exactly, including spaces, hyphens, and symbols. The official example: if the trademark is registered as "Buy with Prime," entering "BuywithPrime" in enrollment will be rejected; case differences are acceptable.
- Type and image must match: the trademark type selected at enrollment must match the trademark record; for a combined word-and-design mark, upload exactly the same image as in the trademark record, not the entire registration certificate.
- The identifier must be permanently affixed: in the submitted photos of products or packaging, the brand name must be permanently affixed during production by printing, sewing, laser etching, engraving, or similar means; stickers, labels, hang tags, and stamps can be added or removed at any time and are not treated as permanent identifiers. For categories where permanent marking on the product is genuinely impractical — furniture, jewelry, toys, wigs, handicrafts, etc. — the brand name must be permanently affixed on the packaging.
3. Materials and Process: Five Steps
Step 1: create a Brand Registry account. Log in to the Brand Registry website with the same account as Seller Central; the account links automatically so permissions for brand tools sync properly. You can file before opening a store, but without a selling account you cannot access A+ Content, the brand storefront, and other benefits.
Step 2: submit brand information. Brand name, trademark office, registration number or serial number, and product categories. The system asks whether you are the trademark owner — if not, you need to upload proof of trademark ownership, or documents such as the rights holder's letter of authorization or license agreement, and explain the authorization chain clearly.
Step 3: submit product and packaging photos. Photos must be genuinely taken, clearly show the brand identifier, and may be from multiple angles. Stock images, retouched or digitally processed renderings, and computer-generated mockups cannot serve as valid proof of IP ownership.
Step 4: identity verification. Amazon may ask for additional production or distribution information to confirm you are indeed the rights holder; in some cases it sends a verification code to the public contact email on the trademark record, which the trademark owner must fill in to complete verification.
Step 5: submit and wait for review. The official position is that enrollment applications should be submitted by the trademark owner; filing with someone else's trademark without producing authorization is the most typical dead end.
4. Six Typical Rejection or Stuck Situations
- Brand name does not match the trademark text (an extra space, an abbreviation, mixed Chinese and English);
- Wrong trademark type selected, or uploading the entire trademark registration certificate page as the image;
- Holding only a purely graphical trademark;
- Product photos are renderings or digitally altered, or the brand identifier is a sticker or hang tag;
- Brand name identical or highly similar to an already-enrolled brand, triggering additional verification;
- The enrolling entity differs from the trademark owner and no authorization letter or license agreement can be provided.
5. Cross-Market Layout: One Brand, Several Trademarks
Brand Registry is done per marketplace: to enroll in a marketplace, you log in with the seller account for that marketplace and, in principle, hold a trademark in the jurisdiction of that marketplace. Common correspondences:
- US marketplace → United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO);
- Major European marketplaces (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc.) → an EU trademark from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), one filing covering all member states;
- UK marketplace → UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), which must be registered separately after Brexit;
- Japan marketplace → Japan Patent Office (JPO); Canada marketplace → Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO); Australia marketplace → IP Australia; Singapore marketplace → IPOS.
When laying out multiple countries at once, the Madrid System allows a single international application designating multiple member countries, usually more cost-effective than filing country by country; for the US market, a standalone application after assessing the filing basis is generally recommended for better control of timing. Timeline-wise, start at least 6–9 months before peak season and secure the TM mark first — filing needs that foothold.
6. After Filing: Use the Tools, Then Extend Outward
Passing the filing gets you A+ Content, a brand storefront, brand analytics, the Report a Violation channel, and anti-hijacking tools such as Transparency and Project Zero — these are defense within the platform.
Two more pieces need to be added outside the platform: first, customs recordation, to stop counterfeits at import and export (see the article "Customs IP Recordation"); second, trademark enforcement in the destination country — cease-and-desist letters, litigation, or local administrative procedures as needed. Amazon is only the starting point that connects the scenarios, not the endpoint.
Amazon adjusts its review standards for filing materials, trademark types, and verification processes from time to time; before actually submitting, defer to the latest requirements published on the Amazon Brand Registry website and Amazon Global Selling. The rules in this article are current as of 2026.
7. Where to Get It Done
To handle the above matters, you can submit a US trademark registration application through MyTMBee, with a registered trademark agent following up.