Secret Amazon Takedown Tactics: Crush Counterfeiters and Collect Cash With Hilton Hart

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Secret Amazon Takedown Tactics: Crush Counterfeiters and Collect Cash With Hilton Hart

Hilton HartHilton Hart is the CEO of Edison IP Enforcement, renowned for his leadership in combating counterfeiters and safeguarding brands. Under his guidance, the company has successfully litigated against over 80,000 counterfeiters, recovering more than $61 million in damages. With a background as a software engineer, Hilton transitioned into entrepreneurship and investment, leveraging his technical expertise and business acumen to drive success in the intellectual property enforcement sector.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • How Hilton Hart became involved with e-commerce IP enforcement
  • What is a counterfeiter, and what are the most common types in e-commerce?
  • Copyrights, trademarks, patents: examples of IP protection
  • Hilton explains the copyright infringement report process
  • Using legal action to combat counterfeiters
  • Hilton shares his personal legal experience with suing infringers
  • Legal strategies for dealing with overseas Amazon sellers infringing on intellectual property

In this episode…

Counterfeiting poses a significant threat to brands, causing financial losses and tarnishing reputations. However, with the right approach, businesses can protect their intellectual property and hold infringers accountable. What are some permanent solutions to combat counterfeiters and recover damages?

Hilton Hart, an IP enforcement expert, urges e-commerce entrepreneurs to take proactive steps to protect their brands. This includes registering trademarks and securing copyrights for images and designs. Vigilantly document instances of infringement and hold counterfeiters accountable by seeking financial compensation; these actions deter future infringements and reinforce respect for intellectual property rights in the marketplace.

In this episode of the eComm Breakthrough Podcast with Josh Hadley, Hilton Hart, CEO of Edison IP Enforcement, discusses definitive strategies for thwarting counterfeiters and recouping losses. Hilton shares his inspiration for entering the e-commerce IP enforcement realm, the common types of counterfeit infringements, and practical steps to combat this pervasive issue.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special Mention(s):

Related Episode(s):

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Ecomm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure ecommerce owners grow to eight figures. Of course…

I started Hadley Designs in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.

I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.

If you’ve hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then go to www.EcommBreakthrough.com (that’s Ecomm with two M’s) to learn more.

As a special bonus to my podcast listeners, this month I’m giving away one $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit session at no cost. Email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com with the subject line “Strategy Audit” and tell me why your business should win the free audit for the chance to win and don’t worry, if you don’t win the free strategy audit this month, you’ll automatically be entered for future months.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the eComm Breakthrough Podcast. Are you ready to unlock the full potential and growth in your business? You’ve already crossed seven figures in sales, but the challenge is knowing how to take your business to the next level. Join Josh Hadley, an eight-figure e-comm business owner and investor, as he interviews highly successful business owners. Get ready because you’re going to learn specific actions you can take today to help your business reach its full potential and leave a lasting impact on the world.

Josh Hadley 0:37

Welcome to the eComm Breakthrough Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Hadley, where I interview the top business leaders in e-commerce. Past guests include Kevin King, Adam Heist, and Michael E. Gerber, the author of The E-Myth. Today I’m speaking with Hilton Hart, the CEO at Edison IP Enforcement. And we’re going to be talking a lot about the permanent solution to stop counterfeiters and actually collect money from them. This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting, where I help seven-figure companies grow to eight figures and beyond. Listen Hilton, I started my business back in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years. But it took a lot longer than it really needed to, I wish I would have had a mentor along the way that would have helped me overcome a lot of the stumbling blocks that I ran into, such as you know, having counterfeits knock off my products as soon as we put them up online. Number two, having cashflow issues, hiring the wrong people at the wrong time. Right, I wish I would have had somebody to guide me. And so to our listeners that are hitting similar stumbling blocks or obstacles and want to know the next steps to take their brand to the next level, go to ecommbreakthrough.com. That’s e COMM With two M’s to learn more. And as a special bonus to my podcast listeners, this month I’m giving away one $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit session at no cost. All you need to do is email me at Josh@ecommbreakthrough.com, and in your subject line, say strategy audit, and then plead your case as to why I should choose you and your brand to work with for this month strategy audit. But today, I am super excited to introduce you all to Hilton. Hilton is the CEO at Edison IP Enforcement, where he has helped brands sue over 80,000 counterfeiters and collect over $61 million from them. He’s a former software engineer turned entrepreneur and investor. So that introduction Welcome to the show, Hilton.

Hilton Hart 2:39

Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Josh Hadley 2:40

Hilton, I am super excited to have you on the show. Because as we talked prior to hitting the record button, this is something that I have dealt with all of 2023. Really trying to like scratch my head trying to put together an IP protection strategy for our brand, because we have over 1300 SKUs. And from day one, all the way back in that 2015 era. As soon as we’ve launched products on Amazon, it was six months, three months later, and somebody would be knocking us off. And back in the day when I first started. I was like, well, there’s not really a whole lot I can do, just let it happen. Right. And I kick myself in the rear end for that type of thinking back then, because I think about the millions of dollars that we’ve lost, because I didn’t take IP enforcement and infringement seriously. And I let people you know, counterfeit, make derivatives of our products, and let him get away with it. And you know, we’ve we’ve paid the price, and I don’t want to know what that monetary price is most likely. But, Hilton, I would love to hear kind of your background of what got you into this space of doing IP enforcement for e-commerce sellers.

Hilton Hart 3:54

Well, it started in 2016. And not actually with me, but my brother, Molson Hart. He had and continues to operate a toy business. And I believe at the time, he had 23 counterfeiters on Amazon that he found. And he linked up with an attorney. And he sued them using a very less known legal strategy. And I think all in his legal bills were $8,000. And he collected almost $120,000. So he permanently stopped the counterfeiters, and he 10 times his investment or his money in the process. So he was pretty happy with that result. And he thought to himself, I think he actually was in the shower when he had this idea. But you know, how do I help other e-commerce brands and businesses do that exact process? And so that’s actually how we started the business that I operate today. And since then, I think we’ve done that exact same thing, legal strategy for them. was 200 Different companies.

Josh Hadley 5:02

That’s amazing. I love a good business idea that starts in the shower. So Hill and I love kind of what you touched on right there was super important that I want to like highlight for our listeners, you said, instead of just filing a takedown notice on Amazon, which I think we’re all very familiar with, if you’re brand registered, you can go to your, you know, brand registry and IP violation tool, right. And you can file, you know, notices whether somebody’s using your trademark or for copyrights or patent infringement, etc. But what I think you said that really stuck out to me is, instead of just taking them down and filing that infringement notice on Amazon, you’re suing them, which then allows you to actually collect money from them. And in your brother’s example, that was a six figure number that he was able to collect. And I would assume not just from one seller, that was from multiple counterfeiters, that, then you know, they might have all been relatively small, maybe a couple $1,000 for each of them. But like in total, a six figure some is no small feat. And I think that when you sue somebody, and you also collect money from them, they’re going to make sure that they steer way clear of you in the future, because they’re like, Okay, these guys take their stuff seriously, it’s not even worth rattling that cage. Whereas if you just do an IP infringement, I mean, Amazon, you know, does a little, you know, hey, shame, shame, don’t do that again. But there’s no like teeth to it. And so it’s like, I’ll try it again, because I got away with it for six months, and I made all this money from it. So does that sound right? And, you know, is that kind of logic, the way you’re approaching this?

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