Amazon tries hiring lawyers for sellers claiming patent infringement

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For $4,000, the program will match a seller and an accused merchant with a neutral, third-party lawyer. If the merchant doesn’t respond to claims that it violated the seller’s utility patent — which details how a product is used — the product will be removed from Amazon, and the seller will get its money back. If the accused merchant wants to rebuttal, it will also make a $4,000 deposit. The lawyer will make a decision and collect $4,000 from whichever side loses. The winner will get its deposit back, and reportedly, Amazon won’t take any of the fee.

Amazon has been testing the program since at least last fall, according to The Information. We don’t know when Amazon will open the service to all users, but it’s not unheard of for the company to pilot programs for as long as a year. When this goes live, it could benefit both patent holders and merchants accused of counterfeiting. It is limited to utility patents, though. So like Amazon’s other attempts, it won’t be able to solve all of the company’s imitation problems.

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