The notice arrives, the listing goes dark, and the first instinct is to explain. Explaining is what kills most appeals.
Amazon's performance team reads hundreds of these a day. They are checking two things: did you identify the cause, and did you fix it in a way that prevents a repeat. Everything else is noise, and noise gets a template rejection.
Before you write anything
Find out whether the complaint is valid. The notice names a trademark or a registration number. Look it up. Paste the mark into the checker above, or paste your own listing and see which phrase it flags.
Three outcomes. The mark is live, in your goods, and your listing uses it: the complaint is valid, and your appeal is about removal. The mark is live but your listing never contained it, or it covers unrelated goods: the complaint is wrong, and your best move is a retraction request to the rights owner with the register record attached. The mark is dead: same as wrong, and say so.
Do not skip this step. I have seen sellers write a full plan of action admitting fault for a mark their listing never used.
The plan of action, in three parts
Root cause. One or two sentences. Name the exact element: the word in the title, the backend keyword, the logo in image three. Not "we were not aware of the policy". Amazon reads that as "we will do it again".
What you did. The concrete removals, with dates. Removed the term from title and bullets, deleted the backend keyword, replaced image three. If you contacted the rights owner, say so and attach the reply if you have one.
What prevents it next time. A process, not a promise. Every new listing is checked against the trademark registers for the markets we sell in before publication; the checker report is kept on file. A named person owns it. This is the part that separates accepted appeals from rejected ones.
Keep the whole thing under three hundred words. No history of your business, no mention of how much revenue you lost, no complaint about the rights owner.
The sentence that gets appeals rejected
"We did not intend to infringe." Intent is irrelevant to Amazon and reads as an excuse. Cut it, along with "we are a small business" and "this is unfair". Replace them with what you removed.
When to push back instead
If the check shows the complaint was wrong, do not write a plan of action that admits fault. Write to the rights owner first, then to Amazon with the evidence. Sellers who accept a wrong complaint to get reinstated quickly carry the strike on their account, and the next wrong complaint from the same owner is the one that closes it.