To fill out Amazon’s Report Infringement form, go to amazon.com/report/infringement, sign in with any Amazon account, confirm whether you are the rights owner or an authorized agent, choose the type of intellectual property at issue, enter your registration number, identify the infringing listings by ASIN, describe the violation in plain language, and sign the perjury declaration before submitting. The form is free, does not require a seller account, and produces a complaint ID you should save for follow-up.
Getting it right the first time matters. Amazon rejects reports from anyone who is not the rights holder or an authorized agent, and it bounces submissions with mismatched registration details without much explanation.
Gather Your Documents First
Most rejected reports fail because the registration information does not match what Amazon can verify. What you need depends on the type of intellectual property:
- Trademarks: the registration number or serial number from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or from the relevant national office if your mark is registered abroad. The brand name entered on the form must match the registration exactly.
- Copyrights: a U.S. Copyright Office registration number strengthens the claim, though Amazon also accepts reports based on proof of original authorship.
- Patents: the patent number issued by the USPTO, for either utility or design patents. It appears on the face of the grant document.
If you are filing on behalf of the rights holder as an attorney, brand manager, or other authorized agent, have your written authorization ready. Amazon’s form asks you to confirm your authority, and submitting without it can invalidate the complaint.
You also need the ASIN for each listing you plan to report. An ASIN is a 10-character alphanumeric code unique to every product in Amazon’s catalog. It appears in the product URL and on the product detail page under “Product Information.” Multiple ASINs can go into a single submission as long as they all relate to the same intellectual property claim.
Step Through the Form
Go to amazon.com/report/infringement and sign in. A regular buyer account works; you do not need a seller account. The fields change based on your answers, so accuracy on the early screens matters.
Select Your Role and IP Type
The first question asks whether you are the rights owner or an authorized agent. Choose accurately, because Amazon verifies this. Then select trademark, copyright, or patent. That choice determines which fields load next.
Enter Your Registration Details
For trademarks, type the registration number exactly as it appears on your certificate. For patents, enter the patent number. For copyright, provide a registration number or a description of the original work and your claim to ownership. A transposed digit here means Amazon cannot verify the claim and the report goes nowhere, so check every character against the official document.
Identify the Infringing Listings
Enter each ASIN and be specific about where the infringement appears: the product title, the bullet-point descriptions, the images, or the product itself. Vague complaints along the lines of “this seller is copying my brand,” with no pointer to the exact element, tend to get bounced back. The more precisely you describe the violation, the faster Amazon’s team can evaluate it.
Write the Description
The description field is where you explain, in plain language, how the listing violates your rights. State what you own, what the seller is doing, and why it counts as infringement. Keep it factual and concise. The review team processes thousands of these and needs clear, scannable information, not legal argument or emotional appeals.
Confirm and Submit
The form collects your name, address, and email. Before you can submit, you must check a box confirming a good-faith belief that the reported use is not authorized, and that the information you have provided is accurate under penalty of perjury.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury That language carries real legal consequences, covered below.
After you submit, you receive a confirmation email with a unique complaint ID. Save it. It is the only way to track the report’s status or reference it in follow-up.
What Amazon Will Not Treat as Infringement
Amazon draws a firm line between intellectual property violations and business disputes, and filing on the wrong side of that line risks more than a rejection.
Amazon will not intervene in exclusive or selective distribution disputes. If you have authorized distributors and an unauthorized but genuine reseller lists your product, that is a contract matter between you and the retailer, not an IP violation Amazon will enforce.2Amazon. Report Infringement
There is also a copyright quirk that catches brand owners off guard. When you upload a copyrighted image to a product detail page, you grant Amazon a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to that image. Other sellers can then list against that same page using your image. Reporting those sellers for copyright infringement on images you uploaded to a shared catalog page is unlikely to succeed.2Amazon. Report Infringement
What Happens After You Submit
Amazon does not publish a fixed review timeline. An Amazon representative on Seller Central stated plainly that “there is no set time frame” for review.3Amazon Seller Central. Trademark Infringement Review Timeline In practice, straightforward trademark cases with clear registration numbers tend to move faster than copyright or patent disputes that require more judgment. Amazon notifies you of the outcome by email.
If the Listing Is Removed
When Amazon finds a valid claim, it typically removes the reported listing and notifies the seller. The seller can then file a counter-notification. For copyright-based removals, that process follows 17 U.S.C. § 512(g): the seller submits a written statement under penalty of perjury that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification, with consent to federal court jurisdiction.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online
If a counter-notification is filed and you do not respond by filing a court action within 10 to 14 business days, Amazon is required to restore the listing.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online An infringement report alone does not permanently resolve the problem. It buys you time to pursue the matter in court if the seller pushes back.
If Your Report Is Rejected
Rejection emails usually identify what went wrong, though the explanations can be terse. Common reasons include submitting without being the rights owner or an authorized agent, registration numbers that do not match Amazon’s verification databases, reporting a distribution dispute rather than an IP violation, and failing to identify specific ASINs or listing elements.2Amazon. Report Infringement You can resubmit a corrected report; there is no penalty for a good-faith rejection.
Retracting a Report
If you filed in error or resolved the issue with the seller directly, Amazon provides a Notice Retraction Form to withdraw the complaint.2Amazon. Report Infringement Retracting promptly prevents unnecessary strikes against the seller’s account and reduces the chance that your future reports get flagged as unreliable.
The Legal Risk of a False Report
The perjury declaration on Amazon’s form is backed by federal law. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that material is infringing can be liable for damages suffered by the seller, the actual copyright owner, or Amazon. Those damages include the seller’s lost revenue, legal fees, and reputational harm.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 512 – Limitations on Liability Relating to Material Online
The standard is knowing misrepresentation, not honest mistakes. Courts have found liability where a rights holder filed a takedown notice without first considering whether the reported use qualified as fair use or whether the seller was actually authorized. Using reports as a competitive tactic to remove legitimate sellers is the fastest route to a § 512(f) claim, and Amazon’s internal teams track reporting patterns for exactly this kind of abuse.
Faster Tools for Brand Owners
The public Report Infringement form works for any rights holder, but brand owners selling on Amazon get stronger tools by enrolling in Brand Registry. Enrollment requires an active or pending trademark registered with a government trademark office and a permanent brand logo on your products or packaging.6Amazon. Amazon Brand Registry Once enrolled, you get access to the Report a Violation tool and Impact Dashboard, which let you search Amazon’s catalog for potential infringements and report them in bulk more efficiently than the public form.
Brands that want more control can apply for Project Zero, Amazon’s program granting self-service counterfeit removal privileges. Project Zero lets you remove counterfeit listings yourself without waiting for Amazon’s review team. To qualify, your brand must already be enrolled in Brand Registry with an active registered trademark, and you must complete a short training module on responsible use of the tool.7Amazon. Project Zero The self-service power is significant, and Amazon holds you to a higher accuracy standard in return. Abuse it and you lose access.