Amazon Brand Registry: File the U.S. Trademark Before Launch, and Decide Which Entity Should Own It

Amazon Brand Registry costs nothing, but it requires a registered or pending trademark issued by the government trademark office of a country with a corresponding Amazon store, and you must own the mark. For the U.S. store, the usual route is a USPTO application before launch: $350 per class in base fees, a U.S.-licensed attorney for applicants domiciled outside the U.S., and examination that takes months. Decide early who owns the mark, too. If a Chinese parent owns it and licenses it to the U.S. company, the U.S. company's royalties carry withholding, Form 1042-S and Form 5472 reporting; if the U.S. company owns it, moving it out later has tax consequences.

What Brand Registry requires

Amazon's Brand Registry page lists the conditions: a logo, with the brand name permanently affixed to the products or packaging; a registered trademark or a pending application (pending marks work in some cases, Amazon says); a mark issued by the designated government trademark office of a country with an Amazon store; a word mark or a design mark containing words, letters or numbers; and you must be the trademark owner, with agents added as users by the owner.

What to prepare. A standalone logo image, a photo of the logo on the product or packaging, the registration or application number, a copy of the mark for design marks (matching the record exactly), the brand name as it appears on the record, and the product categories where the brand should appear. Existing sellers use the same login.

The brand name must match exactly. A different space, capitalization or punctuation mark can mean rejection.

Pending applications. Seller forum reports say pending marks filed directly with the USPTO are sometimes accepted only when filed through Amazon's IP Accelerator, a network of Amazon-vetted law firms. Go by the Brand Registry page at the time you apply.

Why file before launch

Time. Examination takes months and may bring office actions to answer. Waiting until listings take off and hijackers or knockoffs show up is too late.

Cost. Since January 18, 2025, the USPTO base application fee is $350 per class, plus $100 per class for insufficient information and $200 per class for a free-form description of goods instead of the standard ID Manual entries. Attorney fees are separate.

Attorney. Applicants domiciled outside the U.S. must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney. Whether a Chinese registration works for the U.S. store depends on Brand Registry's list of accepted offices at the time; for the U.S. store, a U.S. trademark is generally the safer route.

What Brand Registry unlocks. A+ content, Sponsored Brands ads, brand analytics and infringement reporting tools, which matter a great deal to sellers building a brand.

Searching, filing and answering office actions belong with a trademark attorney. What follows is the tax and entity side.

Who should own the mark: three common setups

1. The U.S. selling company owns it. The simplest: trademark, Brand Registry and store all in one U.S. company, with no royalties and no cross-border withholding. Moving the mark later to a Chinese parent or another entity is a transfer of an asset that can produce gain, and between related parties it must be priced at market.

2. A Chinese parent or factory owns it and licenses it to the U.S. company. Common when a factory builds the brand and a U.S. subsidiary sells. Royalties the U.S. company pays the Chinese parent are U.S.-source royalties: 30% withholding by default, generally 10% if the parent gives a valid W-8BEN-E and qualifies under the U.S.-China treaty. The U.S. company is the withholding agent, files Forms 1042 and 1042-S by March 15 of the following year, and is liable for tax it should have withheld. If the U.S. company is 25% or more foreign-owned, the royalties also go on Form 5472.

3. The owner personally holds it. An owner who holds the mark and licenses it to their own company reports the royalty income personally if a U.S. person; a foreign owner's royalties face the same 30% or treaty-rate withholding. In most cases this adds complexity to Brand Registry and account ownership without much benefit.

Keep Amazon consistent. Brand Registry requires the applicant to be the trademark owner. If the parent owns the mark and the U.S. company runs the store, the parent enrolls the brand and adds or authorizes the U.S. company's account, with a written license agreement drafted by an attorney.

Pricing the royalty: the arm's-length standard

Royalties between related companies must meet the arm's-length standard of IRC §482, meaning terms close to what unrelated parties would agree. A royalty set too high strips profit out of the U.S. company and invites an IRS adjustment with tax and penalties; one set too low or never charged can cause problems on the Chinese side.

In practice: sign a written license that sets out the scope, the rate (for example a percentage of net sales) and payment terms; keep support for the rate; and pay, withhold and report on schedule. Purchase prices from a related Chinese factory follow the same arm's-length rule, and the cost basis of imported goods generally can't exceed customs value (IRC §1059A).

How trademark costs are booked

Application fees and attorney fees for a trademark generally aren't deducted all at once. A trademark is a section 197 intangible, and under IRC §197 even a self-created trademark is generally capitalized and amortized evenly over 15 years. For small amounts, the treatment depends on your accounting method, so check with a CPA.

Brand Registry itself is free; IP Accelerator law firm fees, trademark monitoring and enforcement costs are booked according to what they are.

Bottom line

Before launch, do two things: have an attorney file the U.S. trademark and prepare the Brand Registry materials, and decide which entity owns the mark. Ownership by the U.S. selling company is simplest; ownership by a Chinese parent calls for a license agreement, a market-rate royalty, withholding at 30% or the treaty rate, and Forms 1042-S and 5472.

Entity choice, the tax interview, fees and Brand Registry are covered in our guide, and related-party transactions between a Chinese parent and a U.S. subsidiary in the subsidiary guide. To review your trademark and entity setup first, book a free 15-minute call or reach us on WeChat at YCLUSA.