Short story, X is a short common word that is not trademarked in the class it describes precisely because it describes the class itself.
I need to vent in public about the seller support insanity I've experienced. I had an item taken down by an Amazon internal team because it used a word that is actually one of my business SIC codes (the amazon AI started my listing description with "Experience authentic X action . . . ", ironically). One of my business SIC codes is X, so I'm in a bind.
Now they say on the phone, I need to use phrases like "compatible with" etc LOL. I'm like, that is the equivalent of saying water is compatible with drink. I either need a letter of authorisation to use the trademarked word (impossible as nobody owns that as a trademark in the relevant class in the UK in natural form - for good reason as that's one of the words that describes the class and the trademark examiners are rational). So, I reword my description (through gritted teeth to remove the bad word) to just get back in business, and then write a detailed letter explaining why the 10,000+ other items containing this word in the UK market are also fine. I was advised to get a LETTER OF AUTHORISATION to use the word if I want to continue using it. Not possible when the rights holder is not identified, so I write a detailed business latter explaining all of this. But . . . now they can't forward the letter to the original team because my account health is back. This is pure insanity.
They don't see the problem and refuse to forward my concern to the internal team. So it looks like I can't describe my products in listings without risk of random take down.
It seems my option now is to list an item called "genuine X thing for an X and great for authentic X", to deliberately get it delisted by some overzealous bot, and then and only then can I send a letter. However, there is also the risk that this would be rejected as it is not from the (non-existent) rights holder they are defending.
Once this is done, maybe its worth the risk to list other items in my catalogue. The last support adviser suggested I just list stuff and open support cases when it gets taken down! I had to close the chat in laughter. I feel like the asylum has been overrun.
If anyone can begin to explain why this was flagged so I can avoid this going forward I'd be grateful. Perhaps the use of the word "Authentic" caused a flag. As I say, over 10k items come up with the keyword search for X. I mentioned this to the support agent on the phone. They said they probably all have letters of authorisation. At this point I had to burst out laughing.
It's great Amazon take trademark seriously. I own some, but this is pure and utter insanity. The support agents even acknowledge it is insanity, but can't do anything because of the internal systems