How Amazon Broke the US Patent Office

[@TheTexas1994]

Nothing says Amazon verified like a brand that has only capital letters, little to no vowels, and the description is likely written by a bot and/or direct Google Translate

[@ThisHandleIsNotTaken.]

My XCRNTL branded apple agrees

[@deleted-something]

Fr

[@deadandbored]

descriptions written by chatgpt will probably soon takeover.. fuck

[@joshuaychung]

Is this why my my HP laptop keeps losing connection to my LG or JBL headphones these days?

[@hankidyhank]

And all images contain the same basic font

[@alhypo]

I love Amazon's approach to problem-solving. 1. There is no problem 2. Kids catch on fire 3. Ok, maybe there is a problem 4. Define the problem 5. Recognize that the problem is too hard to fix 6. Figure out a way to push the problem off on some unwitting government agency 7. Give executives bonuses

[@sethkriticos664]

It's how basically every large company is approaching problems. The technical term is externalizing costs. An example is the oil and plastics industry. They give you a product that causes a big mess, and then ignore it as it's someone else's problem. When successful, the cost is usually pushed to the taxpayer. Sometimes the problem is also just ignored and pushed off to future generations. Ignorance is a very powerful business tool.

[@DipayanPyne94]

​@@sethkriticos664 It's part of the corporate agenda of having all the power in the world.

[@patrickstonecrusher]

If you do stupid things cleverly, are you clever or stupid?

[@ExEBoss]

@@patrickstonecrusher Yes.

[@fss1704]

Apple: you're holding it wrong, we have no problem on the antenna, you should give a backflip and hold the phone on three fingers while standing in a power tower.

[@fortpatches]

There is a lot left out on the USPTO side. One thing you have to do when applying for a trademark is provide a specimen, usually in the form of an image with your trademark in use. They received many photoshopped images of specimens in filings. The USPTO passed a rule in the federal register that applicants that are not US residents must apply through a US attorney for accountability purposes. Before, a foreign national could file as many applications as they wanted no matter the quality and they would have to go through processing with no recourse for fraud. No, there is an attorney they can go after for failure of due diligence. One problem now is that we have found instances of foreign filers impersonating US attorneys. So new rules were introduced that for trademark filings, the attorney has to have a verified USPTO account. All this has gone on over the past three-ish years.

[@rmartin275]

Thank you, I could tell there was a LOT being omitted on the USPTO side. I'd love to learn more details on that side of things

[@travelinman70]

@@rmartin275 yes, I too would like to learn more about circumventing the new rules. please tell us more!

[@AllAmericanGuyExpert]

@@travelinman70 Yes! Rich Martin, please do all the dirty work of researching this, then post it into a KZbin comment, and we'll sit back here in our undies until 2 hours later when we watch more KZbin videos full of ads and stock images and have so little research that we clamor for more in a comment, and then we'll see your comment and be happy!

[@ChemEDan]

Thanks for posting a comment twice as interesting as the video LOL. Guess that's why it's called half as interesting.

[@earthling_parth]

And the game of whack-a-mole continues

[@jonzulanas]

I guarantee you, some employee was told to register a trademark and decided that whacking their head against the keyboard and submitting it was easier than trying to run anything by the marketing department.

[@philippebrehier7386]

Boycott Amazon ! Do not confuse your desires with vital needs. The planet will be better off.

[@Megumins_ass]

Work for such a company. Can confirm

[@jonzulanas]

@@philippebrehier7386 I'm right there with you. I've only made two purchases from them in the past 2 years, and only because I was given a gift card for it. Amazon deserves to fail for it's criminal treatment of workers and union busting (not even to touch on their e-waste and ecological impact)

[@TitanBichota]

@@jonzulanas The saddes part is that Amazon had the potential to be so much better than retail stores but did just the same thing. At least the idea of direct trade between producer and consumer with a plataform that doesnt rip off any of them sounds appealing to me

[@qapncrunch]

​@@TitanBichota also known as eBay...

[@PPschnuppe]

It usually goes like this: - There's a factory in china producing some random product - Dozens of traders try to source these products and sell them under their private label, so the products are 'unique' and they are the only one selling them (so they have the 'buy box') - Some seller directly from china eventually takes over the listing anyway and undercuts prices - The shipments usually get fulfilled directly by amazon, so they have all the information about manufacturing sites, sell numbers etc. - Amazon takes over products that are selling well by sourcing them themselves and turning them into 'amazon basic' products. Now, no third party seller can compete anymore and amazon outsourced all the hard work and financial risk in finding viable products

[@equality72125]

And I don't think this is a bad thing. Saves consumers time and money by stripping out as many middlemen as possible while allowing economies of scale to do it's thing.

[@ahwhite2022]

@@equality72125 yup. Amazon basics is actually a brand I can trust. The others? Nope.

[@happity]

@@equality72125 wrong, in this case (how much it happens, who knows), Amazon was the middle man, but stole the businesses and are now the seller AND middle man. Anti - competitive trade.

[@RT-qd8yl]

>EUPA has left the chat

[@iandavidvillaloboswong5180]

The cycle repeats itself over and over whenever the guy doing the reselling finds something else in the chinese market

[@MrA6060]

Linus from LTT also explained how many of these companies use clothes to gather reviewes and stars and more, then changing the product to a tech product, that is in many cases a scam (see sd cards, ssds, usb sticks, mostly)

[@dtibor5903]

And they are usually operated by people in the US, not only chinese sellers. Here in europe the situation is not that bad yet, they just sell a lot of stuff unbranded

[@MrA6060]

@@dtibor5903 tbh i ordered many of the tech stuff. Amazon has a decent return policy so if the product is bad i know it asap and so far everything worked as intended. But for memory stuff i only shop with trusted brands.

[@tomsko863]

@@MrA6060 Do you have a link to LTT video/article?

[@soaringmonkey96]

@@tomsko863 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4DLfZ-sg9F8aJI

[@FastSloth87]

@@tomsko863 Probably can't post links here, just search for "SCAMazon".

[@jonas1015119]

Its amazing how much worse the Amazon shopping experience has gotten over the years. Was trying to buy a massage gun a while ago and its basically the same exact product being sold by 100 different fake brands, descriptions and product photos might not even show or describe what youre buying, and then you need to quadruple check if its actually being sold by amazon or some random company with no reviews or a return policy. But it probably makes them marginally more money than actually picking out real products and discarding the other 90%.

[@nope.0.]

I've completely stopped buying on Amazon. There's always a retailer that specialises in the category that doesn't have a marketplace, and wants to keep a reputation of not selling total junk. Plus many manufacturers now operate their own shop. Sure, sometimes this means not having the goods show up right away but I'll take that over dodging knockoffs, counterfeits and general tat to get to a decent quality item.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

The last two (physical) things I bought on Amazon were good products, but only because I was buying the exact same cat water fountain my brother had been using for half a year without problems, and then a box of the filters for it. - I have gotten stung a couple of times. Once I bought a power cord for my laptop by entering the model number of the computer as my search term. What I got was a transformer that output the wrong amperage for my laptop. Luckily, I caught the problem before plugging it in and sending nearly twice the required amperage into my machine. So I put that one into my box of transformers and power cords (because who doesn't have one of those?) and ordered a different one, paying VERY close attention to specifications over the "fits your computer".

[@guilherme94]

@@MonkeyJedi99 "sending nearly twice the required amperage into my machine." That's not how it works. If the voltage was right, then the amperage doesn't matter (as long as it is higher than needed). I asked ChatGPT to explain it to you: "Think of a car on a highway. The highway represents the charger's amperage rating and the car represents your device. Just like how the car can only go as fast as its engine allows, your device can only draw a certain amount of current. So, if you use a charger with a higher amperage rating, it's like driving on a highway with a higher speed limit - but your car won't go any faster than it's supposed to, just like how your device won't draw more current than it needs. As long as your device is made for the charger and the voltage matches, there won't be any danger.."

[@cameronsitton501]

@@guilherme94 "I understand it so well, I asked an AI to write this comment for me." Truly, we live in a golden age of technology

[@guilherme94]

@@cameronsitton501 who?

[@gladitsnotme]

You're nice for not telling us that 100% of these "companies" are just Chinese factories. They are the same people selling on aliexpress, wish, and temu.

[@nataliegrn17]

@@EyeMWing grindset or grindr?

[@Djuntas]

yep, like 10 sellers for same drop shipped crap.

[@Ducky69247]

I'm honestly surprised he didn't mention it. It's hard to believe he was being nice.

[@MrTylertherockstar]

Nice, or willingly choosing not to mention that fact?

[@jonytube]

​@Adam hmm. FFDGEEGBBLE Peanut Butter is the best! GKBFFBALTBE is another personal favorite.

[@DarkLink18819]

You forgot to mention the part where Amazon takes any products doing well on its site and then tries to buy it. If they can't buy it they make a competitor and run the company out of business even if it causes them to take a temporary loss.

[@M33f3r]

This is why I have moral issues using amazon basics even id they are at least not scam products usually

[@terryflopycow2231]

Didn't they open a pharmaceutical branch in America for the same reason?

[@KarltheBarl]

Sounds an awful lot like standard oil

[@tacticallemon7518]

Well, no, they don’t run the competition put of business, they get kicked off the platform

[@Kevinjimtheone]

Amazon is terrible in every single way at this point. Terrible products, fake reviews, no support or just a bot answering the same way. And it's even worse if you are seller there.

[@vaiyt]

They've pivoted from a company that connects you to things you want to buy, to a shitty middleman that holds both seller and buyer to ransom from each other.

[@pukovnikklefeld]

So grateful that Amazon never caught on in my country due to problems shipping from Germany.

[@cooperised]

And all the while, its founder gets richer and richer...

[@honkhonk8009]

Yep. The only saving grace is the shipping. Eventually were gonna have a new "frontend" for Amazon, where its just sharing links to items lmfao

[@Djuntas]

3rd party seller BS is stupid, Denmark has many e-retailers competing

[@oscillator72]

I’m a trademark attorney, and this is…. actually pretty much spot on, well done

[@guardrailbiter]

Trademark attorney, huh? Glad you fulfilled your childhood dream.

[@Skiballer]

@@guardrailbiter and the man can probably afford to do whatever he wants, so... lol

[@krashd]

@@Skiballer He's probably also intelligent enough to recognise an obvious joke too...

[@2adamast]

You mean the USPTO does the work of CPSC

[@ibrahimmahrir]

From using the US Postal Service to do its shipping for free, to using the US Patent and Trademark Office to do its vetting for free. Amazon is riding on the government offices coattails.

[@JodyBruchon]

They don't get shipping from USPS for free.

[@eminatorstudios]

​@JodyBruchon but they damn sure work out some sweet discounts

[@wardsdotnet]

If it's shipped from China the only postage paid is the very cheap Chinese international postage and then thanks to international treaties the USPS does the rest for free

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@wardsdotnet No it doesn't. The U.S. is in the Universal Postal Union, which sets fees for international shipping based on a number of factors, including the GDP per capita of the member states. Up until 2015, it made a large surplus and supported low terminal dues, because it was a net exporter of mail. After 2015, it became a net importer, and began to support high terminal dues. Trump almost left the UPU in 2018 over this issue, but the UPU agreed to various concessions to keep the U.S. in the union, including increasing terminal dues across the board, allowing self-declared terminal dues up to 70% of domestic rates, and allowing the U.S. specifically to phase this in immediately in 2020. So since July 1 2020, shipping packages from China to the U.S. has been much more expensive.

[@benjamindesjarlais5713]

Don't forget they pay their workers so poorly that many rely on food stamps and other tax-funded programs, then with the extra profits Amazon pays out its shareholders even more from this tax burden on labor. Amazon should frankly be nationalized for its importance in so many industries and its reliance on subsidies.

[@johnnyboi5003]

I think it's hilarious that sometimes the fake companies will have promotional images on their listings with like people wearing "Asdfghjkl" brand merchandise. Like it's a normal thing. Like they live in a dimension where everyone knows that phonetic diarrhea by name and they all love it.

[@Woodledude]

I mean, who doesn't love the home row on the keyboard?

[@WintersMinion]

Makes more sense than people that bought the Kanye West t-shirt. It was pure white with not even a logo and cost over $120

[@mandolinic]

I love "Asdfghjkl" brand clothes, and I recommended the brand to anyone. As long as you don't go near any flames or hot surfaces, and you take a daily antihistamine for the itching, you'll be fine.

[@Efflorescentey]

Phonetic diarrhoea 😂😂😂

[@MrDogfish83]

@@Woodledude I love my qwerty sandals

[@scottmac]

I was trying to buy an alarm clock on Amazon just yesterday and literally gave up because it’s just the same 7 junk clocks over and over and over again under different made-up brand names

[@dvuemedia]

I know what you mean, I did get one and it was junk. So, I went to Goodwill and got me used SONY radio alarm clock for $6.00.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

@@dvuemediaI second this plan.

[@SoulDelSol]

Use your phone

[@TitaniumTurbine]

@@SoulDelSol Phones aren’t always as loud as alarm clocks. Plus, some of us with fatigue disorders need multiple alarm clocks.

[@billboyer8897]

Yep. I have noticed that as well. Same photo of product with different brand name photoshopped in.

[@Sal-T]

Also: Some of these 'companies' will sell simple products for a while, get lots of good reviews on those products, then change the product listing to something completely different. This has the effect of keeping all of the ratings and reviews, but now the product is a cheap thing that appears to be an expensive thing, has a high markup, but is garbage, and all of the ratings show a 4.5+ star rating. They make a bunch of these sales and then ship the garbage, then disappear when the bad ratings start coming in.

[@dieseldragon6756]

To be fair, I don't think the _Bait & Switch_ tactic is confined to scammy no-name sellers. I've had a few big-brand products that have been reviewed/torn-down in YT videos where a high quality product is shown, yet the product I've purchased directly from the manufacturer very soon after those reviews went live is a notably cheaper build, different materials, and performs quite below what's shown in those videos. 💻🛍📱 Case in point: The Sandisk _Extreme 900_ external SSD. All of the reviews & teardowns I saw (And based my purchase on) showed the device as having a cast alloy or steel case. The ones I've purchased (And haven't had cause to use yet, so still in sealed packaging to retain warranty commencement) feel much lighter than an alloy-shell product really _should_ ... 💾☁🤔

[@onebear6504]

"Breaking the e-commerce system via economy of scale", can I say it that way? I kinda admire it tbh

[@GasparLewis]

Tired: ghost kitchens. Wired: ghost companies.

[@jakemoawad1300]

Great video! But just want to point out that the “patent” and “trademark” parts of the USPTO are separate “departments,” if you will. So the thumbnail’s “patent spam” is a little misleading because there is no patent work going on!

[@tc2142]

I was expecting to lean about Amazon flooding the patent office with patents for random ordinary objects that have already been invented, not third-party throwaway brand trademarks, actual clickbait

[@nickwaters9869]

I found reasons to back to brick and mortar stores. It’s nice to just see and feel the darn packaging and peek in the box to make sure I’m getting top shelf Chinesium rather than the bottom of the barrel crap Amazon will slam against your front door in a soft package.

[@josephkanowitz6875]

ב''ה, you'd think technology could have improved this, but between costs of living and businesses being loathe to make capital investments on stuff that employees can break, lose, or sell... Maybe USPS/FedEx/USPS can't stop you showing up in your own Tony Stark suit but it still looks like 20 years ago or has gone backwards. Gross that much of US labor culture is just working to get injured.

[@LongHairedTom]

How did Amazon expect the USPTO to “sift out” dangerous products? In this model they are just registering the company trademark - they won’t even see the products…

[@danbance5799]

The idea was that only legitimate companies would have trademarks. Except... a trademark only costs $250. And these scumbags register dozens at a time so if Amazon takes down one, there's another one ready to go immediately. And why wait, more listings means more sales. This is paired with the other problem - none of these "companies" actually make anything. There are dozens of vendors selling the same thing from the same factory. In a lot of cases, the factory can customize the product to the vendor's specification - color, features, etc. I see that more in power tools than kitchen gadgets, but whatever. Anyway, 8 times out of 10, the cheap crap is all you're really looking for, so that's fine. The harder part is limiting your search results to things that can ship in 3 days or less from a company that isn't a complete fraud and finding legitimate reviews so you know if it will last more than 2 weeks. The net result of all that is a purchase that should take me 5 minutes now takes 2 hours. Ugh.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@danbance5799 so it’s the same logic as “Twitter verification will stop bots” lol

[@pierregravel-primeau702]

Amazon never expect nothing. They just do thing to avoid causing riots or being sued. They pledge something that we will only sell product from proudly American's companies and the Donald let them sell killer pyjamas...

[@StefanoBorini]

they did what american companies do. offload risk to someone else.

[@polyspiel]

It is important to note that the Chinese government is actually issuing subsidies to Chinese individuals that obtain a U.S. trademark. The subsidies are high enough you can make money ($50-$400) just by filing trademark applications as a Chinese citizen.

[@jhonbus]

Surprised there are still any alphanumeric strings less than 50 digts still available if that's the case 😂

[@polyspiel]

@@jhonbus The U.S. patent and Trademark Office made recent changes and now requires trademarks to be filed via a U.S. attorney, which increases trademarking costs and decreases the profit from subsidies.

[@polyspiel]

@@jhonbus Some U.S. attorneys will file them for $100, which is stupid imo

[@anivicuno9473]

Do you have literally any sources to back this up that doesn't point back to something like RFA? Because I can't seem to find anything on this.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Looks like I'm moving to the PRC.

[@darthrainbows]

These are essentially virtual brands, the same horrible business strategy that pollutes the restauant delivery industry. Make some cheap knockoff of a real product, market it under a throw-away brand name, sell as much as you can until accumulates enough negative reviews to affect sales, kill the virtual brand and create a new one selling the exact same product. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's a deceptive marketing practice that we ought to have consumer protection regulations to prevent.

[@ArdyIRL]

That said, some Amazon brands are able to become REAL brands if they care enough. Govee for example started as a cheap LED retailer, but now they are one of the best RGB LED ecosystems on the market.

[@M33f3r]

At least until the inevitable Amazon Basics version cuts into them. But maybe they’re actually good enough to make the jump to Name Brand status.

[@ArdyIRL]

@@M33f3r they can't be replaced by Amazon basics, they have a line of unique RGB products and a really good app ecosystem. They also integrate with Alexa.

[@ooooneeee]

I have a Govee thermometer/hygrometer I can synch with my phone. Great to monitor air moisture at home.

[@codyrap95]

Same goes for Ugreen, Baseus, KZ/QKZ and even Neewer

[@Rot8erConeX]

Path to riches is laziness, path to fame is empathy.

[@2x2is22]

Ten years ago, as it became apparent that Amazon would rocket itself to the front of the retail space, I never thought for one second that I'd find myself preferring to shop at Walmart

[@Hexagonaldonut]

Walmart may also suck, but at least you know what you're getting because it's *literally right in front of you.*

[@darthparallax5207]

I saw that coming a mile off. It's like Republicans and Democrats. We kind of all KNEW Trump was a dumpster fire on the face of things. But he was a normal mom and pop good ol days good ol boys dumpster fire made in the USA, not this new Chinese PokeDigiYugi California Valley stuff that's not just a dumpster fire but also a timespace wormhole. Trump you just keep pouring water on it and check that your water truck isn't gasoline. Timespace Shares Avengers level bullshit is......ugh. exhausting. Ain't nobody got time for that. And I spend all my unvaluable free time on KZbin looking up nerd crap. Literally nobody has time for timespace bullshit. Trump went to jail eventually just took a while. Nice and boring and normal. XD

[@LazyBoyA1]

@@Hexagonaldonut True, at least I know the Walmart garbage will probably work and not kill me

[@Jake-bt3fc]

That's how all of these companies work. They start out by making an amazing product that loses them millions of dollars a year and then they slowly make it worse and worse as they try to make it profitable.

[@GoatTheGoat]

I didn't even know that string of letters that generic products on amazon have in their page title was supposed to be a brand name. i thought it was a SKU or database index or something.

[@aromaticsnail]

Let's also not forget those products have high marked up prices. I've found similar products at local stores at half the price and even less. Amazon isn't really the best option any more, except for the more well-established but not in all segments.

[@briant7265]

I was looking at a trail cam a few years ago. Amazon had the base version listed for $10 over retail, gave the retail prove for the deluxe package, and claimed you were saving a bunch of money. I also bought a "pair" of scope rings for a .22. The site clearly showed A PAIR of rings. You need A PAIR of rings to mount a scope. I received a package with ONE ring. I contacted them, returned the package and they sent a new package containing ... ONE ring. I contacted them again, including a snip of the product page with the image of A PAIR of rings and an explanation of why I expected a package that matched the image. I refrained from vulgarity. They finally sent a second ring. So I might have some trust issues regarding Amazon now.

[@jdkgcp]

I knew this was coming years ago because Amazon invited me to be a "tester" for no name products and send them feedback. For about 2 years they would send me the most random stuff, always in pure white generic packaging with just some codes on the box/packaging and no branding at all. It was fairly obvious what they were planning to do.

[@DeltaDemon1]

Yeah, Amazon used to be my go to for a wide variety of products and they were almost always cheaper than in stores but now 99% is just junk from China that is pricier than buying in stores. Hell, books and media used to be from Amazon but now they're from a used CD company somewhere else. It's become a mix of ebay and dollar store but expensive dollar store.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Five Below, but only online.

[@joermnyc]

Be careful buying from 3rd party sellers on Amazon, they may ship from overseas. Tried to return a cabinet door pot-lid rack that didn’t actually hold my pot-lids (the thing seemed to only hold ultra thin glass lids, not stamped metal lids), and the return address was in CHINA. It cost almost as much as the item to ship back! 🤦‍♂️

[@DMahalko]

This is the scam of the Universal Postal Union ePacket service. "Small" multi-million dollar companies like TEMU in the "poor" 3rd world country China can ship to the USA for next to nothing, and we Americans are paying for it through higher taxes. If it's junk, good luck getting a refund because the cheap shipping doesn't extend back the other way to China.

[@bet8467]

I thought Amazon paid for the return shipping.

[@patrickwilliams3108]

@@bet8467 Only if it is an item whose order was fulfilled by Amazon. If it came from one of their warehouses, they will pay for return shipping (or just have you drop it off at a return center). If it was shipped any other way (I have purchased items from Amazon that were delivered by USPS, FedEx, etc and came directly from the company I bought them from) then returns are between you and the seller.

[@josephkanowitz6875]

ב''ה, the China Post one way shipping subsidy for their exports is worth a video.

[@Jake-bt3fc]

It costs me $10 to ship something to my house and then it costs $80 to ship it back to the same place in the same box. It makes literally zero sense.

[@lukestoolbox]

Did you just brickbait us all?

[@bgl864]

Would you like a example

[@therealinak]

And that’s why I went back to eBay after all these years. More likely to find name brand products, seller review system functions well, and because that review system functions so efficiently, shipping is usually significantly faster for me anyway.

[@jmac356]

You're not guaranteed to get them though.

[@TruthFiction]

@@jmac356 Only with Ebay you are guaranteed to get your money back.... after a long and arduous fight through customer service. I ordered a $250 item that was listed at $70 by a seller with 4000 positive reviews on Ebay only for it to never make it to US customs before being returned to the seller. Contacted ebay, was told they would give the seller 2 weeks to respond, contacted ebay 2 weeks later when they didn't respond was told by ebay they would give the seller two weeks to explain why they never responded, and on and on for 3 goddam months before i contacted them and said if they told me two weeks again I was filing a fraud claim with my bank naming Ebay and Paypal as the perpetrators since I paid through Paypal and Ebay owns Paypal. I got my money back that night.

[@doublepinger]

Ugh, I work somewhere which does a lot of sales through ebay, and one thing that can be said is "they're trying". We lose a lot of sales because of scam purchasers, including some who are clearly nutso, like saying we put cryptominers on their laptop and whatever.

[@Norman_Fleming]

but some of us DO CARE. It is impossible to find a real brand/seller anymore.

[@attheedge9000]

Just stop using Amazon and buy from specialized online shops. The shopping experience is much better and it's usually not significantly more expensive.

[@ooooneeee]

Yeah only buy stuff on Amazon that you can't get anywhere else.

[@thomasmaughan4798]

"It is impossible to find a real brand/seller anymore." I usually purchase technology through specialized retailers such as Adorama or B&H Photo (cameras, video, audio).

[@kingplunger1]

Just purchase most stuff elsewhere

[@Poldovico]

Gotta look for them outside amazon

[@carlwolf5923]

Wait.. Is that story about Amazon ordering books about lichen for refunds true? Edit: just googled and it IS true holy crap

[@MozartTheGOAT]

Don't wanna know how this would look like for Wish or AliExpress

[@pukovnikklefeld]

"Ching Chong Semiconductor".

[@PhillipLoughney]

It's the same companies

[@huntno]

@@PhillipLoughney nah wish and AliExpress aren't the same lol, Amazon defo ain't

[@landlordize]

​@@huntno If this is bait then i fell for it

[@huntno]

@@landlordize the owners of the companies are obviously different, but the aspect of copy paste random Chinese products is even worse for them

[@Loise96]

Love my HMBGSFD pacemaker

[@nograe]

That proves that my approach of searching for a product I want on Amazon and than typing the brand name into the Google search bar to purchase the product directly from their site was a good idea. If I can't find one, I deem it too sketchy and look for something else.

[@carpemkarzi]

Ah yes. I really love companies that buy US products then resell them here (Canada) at a 200 tp 300% markup.

[@plazasta]

the one that immediately jumps to mind for me is Hydrox cookies. Forked up the money once to try them, and to their credit, I love them, but seriously in the US the price is supposed to be $30 USD for a pack of 6 boxes, meanwhile a single box in Canada is $17 CAD, or $12.50 US

[@patrickmeyer2802]

Excuse me, I am extremely brand loyal when buying HDMI cables, I only buy Kondor Blue's Gerald Undone Collection. Truly the best HDMI cables out there, I would highly recommend them.

[@MotoDash1100]

Can't tell if you're serious or not lol.

[@ChurchHatesTucker]

I swear by DRFCVGT.

[@kbieniu7]

​@@MotoDash1100 Never heard of "HDMI" brand, but still a string of letters

[@jameshoiby]

Considering how exacting Gerald's reviews and critiques are, I'd buy his products!

[@bcftr]

My biggest gripe with nebula is no comments on the videos I dont wanna go to Reddit

[@athirkell]

Your name is a ready-made Amazon brand, just needs capitalising. Get your ice cream scoops on the market!

[@ooooneeee]

Same, they need to implement that.

[@bcftr]

@@athirkell true!

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@ooooneeee they don’t need the moderation workload tbh

[@peperoni_pepino]

0:20 and 0:48 Actually, your example Bonsenkitchen also sells via Walmart and has a site, although the site implies the name is really just 'Bonsen' selling kitchen stuff, while Amazon and Walmart call them 'Bonsenkitchen' consistently.

[@billy00001]

Looks like the thumbnail needs to be added to the yearly mistakes video, since this video is strictly about trademarks and not _patents._

[@fredinit]

It's the USPTO - Patent and Trademark Office - Sam wasn't wrong - he was just lazy.

[@Hans-KRC]

@@fredinit Which was kinda the point.

[@ovni2295]

Another thing I've noticed is a lot of these alphabet soup brands do is they fill niches that *aren't* being filled by companies in the US. If what you need is esoteric or relies on solar panels, odds are it's sold through Amazon by alphabet soup companies only. Alternatively, any small American startups you might find are sourcing their products from the same Chinese company that makes Obscure Product, which is often the same supplier for the alphabet soup companies, so you can find the same product being sold by 20 different companies.

[@michaelrivera8923]

This strategy is probably horrible for the environment. People will buy shitty drop ship products that break easily or don't work how they expected. Then they either have to return it and get a refund or the product goes straight to the landfill. I went to the UPS store to do one of these returns and most of the line were people returning Amazon products. I asked the employee how many returns they had to process in one day but she couldn't give me a number she only said too many.

[@Donn29]

This is basically what I thought was happening with Amazon product brands, but I really didn't need confirmation, ugh.

[@icejamevents]

The stock footage in these videos never fails to amuse me

[@BelchingBeaver69]

I find it extremely lazy

[@DAmelonwolf]

That's hilarious I just ordered some jeans on Amazon and went to check the company, and it literally is some random capital combo of words

[@hiphopgrinch]

I love all these fake companies

[@ccjesper]

I'm so sorry but Amazon is a real company. I'm so sorry

[@Lizard125]

You mean hriegsjuevejgsjwbsugebeuvsishevjdvdugebejwv? That one’s pretty good

[@TakeWalker]

Great video. I've been wondering about this ever since I started noticing more and more 'brands' on Amazon selling what seemed to be the exact same items under more and more convoluted 'names'.

[@mattdelaney7221]

This video misses a huge part of the issue. China started giving a bounty to any Chinese company or person who got a US trademark registered. So a lot of the trademark filings are just to try to get a bounty fee from the China government.

[@the_reconnaisant]

So that’s why my chainsaw from Amazon exploded…

[@heidirabenau511]

Wow, you actually got what you ordered on Amazon! My order was sent to Hamhung, North Korea for some reason.

[@robotorch]

Check out Project Farm's latest video - Stihl vs. Chinksaw

[@WhiskeyNixon]

Amazon also picked books to start with because the cost to ship them is subsidized by the postal service via their media mail postage class. The average cost of postage on media mail is far less than the actual average cost to ship. The USPS is on record stating that media mail is shipped at a loss to the postal service. The postage class exists to promote education and the arts, which it does, but then Bezos used it to do what he did. I don't think the postage class should have applied to for-profit sales, but I wasn't around 100 years ago when it was created. The regulation is on the material shipped and the recipient's intent, not the sender's intent. This abuse of the spirit of media mail continues in all online market places that sell books and movies.

[@Jake-bt3fc]

What? So you're saying if I buy a book to educate myself I shouldn't get a deal on shipping? only if I get a friend to ship a book to me for free? Who tf ever does that?

[@WhiskeyNixon]

@Jake-bt3fc If it means Amazon doesn't exist, yes. However, I can't agree with your premise. I did not say those things. The spirit of the law is meant to encourage sending media for educational purposes. Your hypothetical would be one the law was meant to promote. The abuses come from companies who sell material that fits the physical restrictions of media mail but not the restrictions on intent. This is easy to do when the law regulates intent. Intent is hard to prove. What's not hard to prove is, money. The easiest solution is to disallow for-profit companies from using the class. That still allows anyone else engaged in disseminating information through media with the intent to educate or promote the arts, to use the discounts. It would, however, increase the costs to ship books by for-profit companies, and if they chose to increase the price of shipping because of this, and if that resulted in you not receiving a deal on shipping, I would be sorry for you but happy that we are no longer subsidizing Amazon. Unfortunately, we're all too late to stop Amazon because Amazon sells way more than just books, now, thanks in no small part to our subsidies.

[@joshk1026]

1:06 "YUIOP" is the worst culprit because the name of the brand is just the last letters on the top row of a keyboard.

[@rolfathan]

Since this didn't work for Amazon I wish they would just release the requirement. The silly names are absurd, and the companies keep PRINTING the names on their products for some reason.

[@05Matz]

Apparently the USPTO started asking for (non-CGI) pictures of one of their products to prove the brand actually exists fairly recently, or so I've heard? So they need to make at least one order from a factory that offers custom logos, and then get through that batch of products before they decide whether to keep or get rid of the markings. At least that's how I understand it.

[@guilhermetavares4705]

When Amazon arrived in Brazil it had very fast delivery. But since it doesn't have its own fleet like in the United States, it depends on third party companies for logistics. Now the e-commerce company with the fastest delivery is Mercado Livre (Mercado Libre)

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

Mercado Libre foi de matar.

[@monkeywrench1951]

How about Amazon changing the default credit card on file and causing havoc to its own customers that find months afterwards that a card they hardly use has ruined their credit ?

[@lxndrlbr]

0:32 "Are you out of touch ..." I ROTFLOL so hard on this joke it was like I was back in the 90s and a friend told me to just wait for Duke Nukem Forever !

[@redgreen2453]

Imagine dedicating your life to branding and marketing, spending huge amounts of time and money learning all the history and psychology behind it, working every day building cohesive and coherent brands for companies trying to get every single detail just right to deliver the most perfectly curated experience to each customer only to loose out to a company called fggghjhklmbbmn, a subsidiary of Pukebutt Acquisitions, that sells rubber dildos, overstocked car parts, and unbranded children’s Halloween costumes

[@douglasboyle6544]

This is a great addendum to a video Linus Tech Tips made a couple of weeks ago about this problem as well, the two videos dovetail together well as the LTT video explains why for Amazon it's a costly headache but something they can't really crack down on without hurting good retailers too.

[@ajc5869]

Watching this on my phone that is currently wrapped in the safety of a high quality MKEKE phone case.

[@yetanotherjohn]

Congress could fix this... but corporations are people and cash is speech.

[@kwaitefuni9152]

classic Amazon random letter companies lke: TTLW, GGOS, WOJF, OAND, OMAU, INUI It's really easy to spot, since the same product design is present. For example, a usb-c charging brick can look the same in 10 different products by "different" companies.

[@ichaukan]

Back in the 2000s people would get weirdly defensive when I'd tell them I don't shop at WalMart. Nowadays people get weirdly defensive when I tell them I don't give money to Amazon, though these days I also explain that the reason I don't give Amazon money is because they steal enough of my money already through corporate tax welfare, I mean "incentives".

[@Orinslayer]

I'm pretty sure this is a solution to the question of whether or not consumers make rational informed decisions or if they are simply irrational.

[@timh2356]

I'm actually pretty loyal to my dog wig manufacturer.

[@Google_Does_Evil_Now]

Amazon is now selling products at higher prices that high street stores. Today i looked at tools and washing liquid. Both were cheaper on the high street. Amazon's prices are a rollercoaster, and you never know when to buy. They had a tool at $80-90 2 months ago and now they want $120-130 for the same tool, exact same product code. Can't rely on Amazon when it comes to prices.

[@thawhiteazn]

Lmao the way Amazon scammed book wholesalers sounds really similar to what my wife does to Instacart

[@MikeWiesenberg]

If this is/was true, obviously Amazon has noticed the patent /trademark office strategy didn't work and would have stopped it. I think it's continuing for other reasons.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

Its Amazon, they will treat their employees bad just to cut coners.

[@TruthFiction]

Too lazy to come up with a better solution.

[@freyjasvansdottir9904]

The funny thing is that Buxkr is extremely close to the actual Icelandic name for pants: Buxur

[@skeggoxoverland4824]

HAI: Without hesitation, insults the audience for being out of touch... Us : Yup, that tracks. We are.

[@marsgal42]

This likely explains the improbable names on two of my recent Amazon purchases. The engineering and technology are solid, but Jackery and Nooelec wouldn’t be my first choices for company names…

[@BelchingBeaver69]

Jackery is a legitimate brand, though.

[@JoshuaC923]

So they got the taxpayer to pay for filtering 😂😂😂

[@CharliMorganMusic]

I bought this for my husband and he loves it.

[@MrHack4never]

Item was here the next day 5/5🌟

[@TryAgainPlease]

Very satisfied, good product!!

[@circuit10]

Is this a bot scam thing or a joke about the fake reviews?

[@ooooneeee]

Yeah, remember when reviews where longer and written by actual customers.

[@TryAgainPlease]

@@michaelmurdock4607 Quik deliver, low price

[@chrismullin8304]

I recently purchased a new, high quality electric kettle from one of those weird companies. It arrived in a foul, dirty, and abused condition. I had to wash my hands after handling it. I just won’t take the chance anymore, especially with my ice cream scoopers!

[@benjyp1223]

Can confirm 100%. I was an amazon seller for about 3.5 years. I did consulting for brands looking to launch on amazon as well and ALWAYS recommended that they trademark. But the video doesn't really get at the why. The single biggest reason brands register their trademark (or come up with a new one) is that it alows them to have sole ownership of the listing/buy box. There could be 45x sellers of a product all competing for the buy box.. and they may all be legit resellers... but if you trademark an independent product you compete with other products/listings... not other sellers on the buy box. You dont even have to trademark or pattent the product... just your brand.

[@sayuas4293]

What is a buy box

[@Lumi_nance]

Thats the answer, makes sense

[@mattheweburns]

Am I the only one who remembers Amazon and Barnes and Noble? Where you could buy physical inventory from Barnes and Noble and buy online from Amazon through the store somehow? This is where I originally saw the very first Kindle.

[@M3h3ndr3]

Actually this is the reason i cancelled my prime membership because amazon is actually not the cheapest on the market its just convenient and mostly trash these days, i dont support that or fast fashion. I want the tech i order from a company that knows what they are doing. There is no quality on amazon anymore

[@soundrogue4472]

5:20 YOU didn't jump start nebula; the venture capitalist did.

[@longislandlegoboy]

If I remember correctly they never got venture capital investment

[@soundrogue4472]

@@longislandlegoboy they did, look it up.

[@mheermance]

My company will be called TwoDeadWhalesAndAPenguin.

[@jmanj3917]

3:33 Lol...Love those trademark names

[@Maxime_K-G]

Lol, that's actually genius. They found a way to outsource all of the work to the government 😂😂

[@caseysmith544]

Problem is that the name brand products even from own online store are crap lately that just got worse after the coronavirus lockdowns to where only the one most expensive top of the line item in that category is going to last more than one year. This being for most products even from small custom/craft makers because most of the materials they have to use are lower quality now, only a few exceptions for items 😢

[@4akaimalko]

It's true, but only affects small percentage of ppl in the US. Most muricans love cheap crappy junk.

[@andrewwerner5992]

0:35 ooh self burn, those are rare

[@anbbha9864]

HMBGSFD pacemaker? Hmmm ... Sounds Legit!

[@pjay3028]

Why would the Trademark and Patent Office check whether the pyjamas are flammable? I just don't see how this was a solution to the problem identified??

[@danoconnell1833]

It's gotten so that even if you type in a *brand name* the results are the same mess of bogus companies.

[@deadringer-cultofdeathratt8813]

2:50 yup that sounds like a hair dryer to me.

[@alyssa2796]

You know it’s gonna be a good video when it starts out with bricks

[@penitent2401]

so the kids pyjamas still catches fire, the brand names just changes every couple months.

[@michaele8347]

Amazon allowing these pseudo-companies to sell on their platform should be banned. They can avoid all legal repercussions and customer service/warranty commitments by doing this.

[@repairdrive]

See THIS is why I keep coming back to this channel, for bad ass info like this!!!

[@Enemy_Birds]

I can't remember the last time I bought something on Amazon. I try to avoid it at all costs.

[@bazoo513]

1:32 - Is this real? I never heard of that trick - pretty ingenious. Of course, only worked at the very beginning of Amazon, even before they bought CDnow.

[@state_song_xprt]

3:20 Ah yes that classic free-market capitalism strategy of forcing the government to perform the tasks for your business that cost money, so you can collect profits without any of that pesky "work" or "innovation".

[@FindTheFun]

Literally will never buy anything of Amazon again. I tried to buy a book for my girlfriend (The King in Yellow) and after like 5 tries I gave up. The words in the book are all just jumbled characters of nonsense to make it look like a book, but there isn't actually any real writing inside. The amount of straight up fraud and 0 quality control makes the site unusable. I just went to my local library and they ordered a copy for me for much cheaper than the amazon books. It was a nice hardcover too. Funny how technology is working backwards nowadays.

[@floorpizza8074]

Completely agree. We no longer order *anything* from Amazon. Not only are the third party sellers bad, but I *consistently* used to receive used merchandise sold as new from listings that said "Sold and shipped by Amazon." I absolutely *hate* class action lawsuits (the only people that usually benefit from them are the lawyers), but at this point Amazon seriously needs to be hit with a class action for shipping used/returned merchandise when the buyer is purchasing new merchandise from the product listing page.

[@HalIucinations]

Take a step back and think about this concept for a second and tell me this isn't some end-stage capitalism black mirror bullshit

[@jplayzow]

The urgency of a new kidney is not urgent lmao poor amazon

[@Pitusha]

The thing with nebula is that you guys don't have a space for comments 🥺 Some of us just love browsing through comments But I understand how it could quickly become a nightmare place...

[@zukaro]

At least some of the rebranded junk turns out decent, albeit most of it turns out to just be trash. Sometimes you get lucky and find a genuinely good version of what you're looking for at a reasonable price, but shopping on Amazon is really just a gamble at this point.

[@sophiaisabelle027]

Amazing video. Keep up the good work.

[@mikemartin6748]

Next video: airplanes

[@timh2356]

@@mikemartin6748 Has he done one on airplanes yet? I'm new to the internet, so I don't know. Thanks for reading!

[@kafkaesk3449]

Buxkr and other fake amazon companies names is like as if a fashion designer got drunk and came up with them all in one night.

[@dmitripogosian5084]

You mean like FCUK ?

[@dannydaw59]

Simple solution: Don't buy products with those names. Even cheap stuff.

[@jhonbus]

Well, that's great. I have often thought in the last year or so "I wonder what the deal is with all these weird nonsense brands that are all over Amazon lately?" And now thanks to this video I know exactly what the deal is with all these weird nonsens brands that are all over Amazon lately!