In this article, we will cover key details on Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX).

What is the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) program?

This program allows US utility patent owners or registered agents to report listings in the Amazon store that may violate their intellectual property. Rights owners or agents who have concerns about potential intellectual property infringements of their utility patents can apply for the APEX program using the Report a Violation tool. The program allows US utility patent owners or registered agents to obtain a neutral evaluation of a patent infringement claim against ASINs listed in the Amazon store.

If you apply for APEX and your patent meets the program requirements, the reported sellers can opt in to the evaluation and defend their ASINs. If none of the sellers opt in, or if the neutral evaluator finds that the reported ASINs infringe on your patent, we’ll remove the reported ASINs from the Amazon store. You can also use the APEX ID associated with this decision in future US utility patent reports within the Report a Violation tool.

What roles can apply to the APEX program?

Once you’ve enrolled your brand in Brand Registry, you’re assigned the roles of Rights Owner and Administrator. You can then affiliate users and assign roles to help manage your brand. Each of these three account roles within Brand Registry has access to different tools:

1. Rights Owner: the trademark owner or their employee who is authorized to report violations. Users with this role have access to the Report a Violation tool and listing benefits.
2. Registered Agent: a third party who is authorized by the Rights Owner to report violations using Brand Registry tools.
3. Administrator: the user who has permission to assign roles to user accounts.

To assign roles to user accounts, follow these steps from the Brand Registry page:

1. Click Settings and select User permissions.
2. Locate the user account and click Manage.
3. Add or remove roles by checking or unchecking the corresponding boxes in the row for the brand.

Requirements for the APEX program:

Currently, APEX is only available to those who have a registered US utility patent and is not available outside of the United States. To participate in the program, your patent must meet the following requirements:

• It must be a registered US utility patent. Design patents, non-US patents, and expired patents are not eligible.

• There must not be a court order or International Trade Commission (ITC) order finding infringement of this patent.

If there is litigation pending on a patent that is subject to a proposed or pending evaluation, Amazon may decide not to initiate, or to suspend, an evaluation until the completion of that litigation.

How to report a violation with an APEX ID:

If we grant your application an APEX ID, you can use this APEX ID when submitting a report of potential utility patent infringement in the future. This helps to ensure that we can remove infringing ASINs. To report a violation using an APEX ID, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Brand Registry, click Protect, and select Report a violation.
2. Indicate that you have an APEX ID.
3. Enter the APEX ID in the text field.

If you include an APEX ID with your report, we’ll use the information from the neutral patent evaluation when reviewing the potential infringement.

For more information, read the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express help page.

Are any Sellers willing to share their experience with APEX? Was it hard to do? If you are enrolled, how much easier is reporting Patent Infringement? Any negative experiences? Any tips or tricks for reporting?

I welcome any and all insight!

Best,

Dougal