Hi everyone, I want to share a shocking and deeply unfair blackhat tactic that has completely crippled my business—and could easily happen to anyone selling on Amazon.

My direct competitor, who sells the exact same product as me, fraudulently stole my trademark by forging documents and submitting them to the USPTO. In just 7 days and with a $200 fee, they managed to transfer my trademark ownership. They did it twice—first to an unknown individual, and then to themselves—both transfers conducted by the same lawyer, Grace Zhang.

Once my competitor took control of my trademark, they filed two infringement complaints against my own Amazon listing. The result? Amazon shut down my account, froze my cash flow, and is now preparing to destroy all of my inventory.

We contacted USPTO immediately, however they told us we need to wait another 7 months (totaling 9)to assign an examiner to update “ownership”.

Meanwhile, Amazon has flagged my inventory as “inauthentic” and plans to dispose of all my stock within 30 days. The financial damage is devastating—we are already suffering a $200,000 loss, and with cash flow cut off, we are struggling to stay afloat and may be forced into bankruptcy. We can no longer afford to pay our employees.

Counterfeits & Reputation Damage

Since losing control of my trademark, my listing quality has plummeted because my competitor entered my listing and is now selling counterfeits —resulting in listing quality drop and permanent damage to my reputation. Meanwhile, the fraudster sits back and profits from my hard work while completely destroying my brand. Even taking legal action feels useless because my competitor is using a fake identity from China, making enforcement nearly impossible.

The Most Outrageous Part?

The USPTO approved the 1st transfer despite an obviously incorrect record of my citizenship. Then, they approved the 2nd transfer with the signature box left blank, with only a single page of text claiming that I agreed to transfer my trademark. Despite these clear and blatant errors, the USPTO still approved both fraudulent transfers. I have no idea how such sloppiness got through, but now I am the one paying the price.

Desperate for a solution, I hired an attorney for $550 per hour, who told me that I could file a corrective declaration—a process that shouldn’t take more than a month.

What can be even worse?

After submitting a corrective declaration, the same USPTO agent put my First and Last name wrongly, causing another 7 months delays in updating the trademark ownership because they need to “manual check”. At this point, with so many glaring mistakes—wrong citizenship, missing signatures, name mix-ups—it no longer feels like incompetence. It feels deliberate. At this point, it’s hard to believe this is just a series of unfortunate mistakes.

A friend who works in intellectual property suggested that this may involve an Insider Fraud within the USPTO assisting the fraudster—approving the transfer, deliberately delaying corrections, and giving my competitor just enough time to profit before the fraud is exposed.

As for now, Amazon is not willing to do anything because the USPTO still listing them as the “current owner.”

Still Fighting to Get This Resolved

This should be a warning for every business that relies on USPTO protections and Amazon’s brand registry—because if this loophole exists, no one’s brand is truly safe.

Has anyone else encountered something like this? Any advice on how to speed up the process would be greatly appreciated.