Hacked accounts are back. The hackings usually involve sellers being locked out of their accounts, and then their money is distributed to different bank accounts. About a year or so ago when this came up, the money was mostly going to Croatia where most Amazon sellers do not have their bank accounts. We were 100% successful in getting all of the seller's money back and all of their accounts reinstated. Keep an eye on your distributions so you'll know right away if your money goes someplace where it shouldn't. Related accounts are for experienced sellers who are operating more than one account, returning sellers who had an account years ago and are now getting back in the game, and also new sellers who seem to be unable to get past the business verification. If you have a related account suspension, you need to stop, take a step back, identify what the link is, if any, and then clearly address it. It is almost always easier to get the oldest account back first and address the problem that that account had. But lately, we've been having success in getting newer accounts back as well, just not as much. The oldest account is always easiest to get back first, and if you are a brand new seller, get your ducks in a row. Get your utility bill. Have your documents ready, so we can get you back on very, very quickly.
I hope every single person that is joining me on Amazon Sellers Breaking News also joins me for the Seller Labs Online Amazon Summit. This subject is Amazon's increasing control over sellers, and most importantly what you can do about it. So please join me today at 12:30 online.
Also on Monday, I am taking off for India and I want every private label seller to check out Indiasourcingtrip.com and Indiasourcingtrip.com's Facebook page. If you're a private label seller, you got to find places to source your products other than China. eCom Chicago, October 16th through the 19th, and October 27th through the 29th, Global Sources in Hong Kong is an absolutely tremendous event.
The trends when it comes to intellectual property rights complaints against sellers are copyright, not patent, not trademark, copyright complaints seem to be increasing dramatically. Copyright complaints have to do with this theft of images, and the theft of verbiage, copying and pasting somebody else's verbiage onto your listing, scraping pictures from the brand's website and sticking it on your listing or otherwise using pictures or verbiage.
Now if you're doing this, it's a pretty easy thing to get the complaint withdrawn when it's copyright. You're going to promise not to do it. You can swap out the pictures and Amazon will often reinstate you, even without the complaint being withdrawn, as soon as you take the images off your listing. You also have, when it's a copyright complaint, the power and the ability to send what's called a counter-notice.
A counter-notice has some statutory requirements that include that you either physically or electronically sign it. It has your name, address, your phone number. It identifies the material that you've been accused of violating. It has a statement that it's under penalty of perjury and most important that you agree to the jurisdiction of a federal courthouse. It could be your home courthouse, but it has to be a federal courthouse.
You put this form together and you send it out the door, and now that brand or that seller engaging in dirty tricks has a choice to make. They have to either actually start a lawsuit against you, which is very costly, or their complaint goes away. And if you're a seller in another country, it adds to the cost of actually filing that lawsuit. So a Digital Millennium Copyright Act counter-notice is a fantastic, powerful tool in the right situation.
You shouldn't across the board serve counter-notices, because then you might draw a lawsuit that you really don't want. But the trend in the IP complaints is an increase in copyright complaints, and I want you to know that you have a lot of power. Sellers are not impotent. You have the power of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act counter-notice.
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