In general, you are free to resell any lawfully purchased item and you are not required to purchase from an authorized source, but doing so ensures the best chances that you are dealing in a legitimate product. If the products you sellturn out to be counterfeit you are responsible for that. Even if you have a written indemnification from the seller, which case depending may be worthless if they have no resources to help you or they are in a place where it is next to impossible to go after them, you will still need to defend yourself in court. Further, if what you have amounts to a grey-market good because it is “materially different” from what your target market would otherwise expect, this is also a form of trademark infringement. An example of this would be some electronics you purchase on close-out that are all Apple® brand legitimate, but perhaps made for the Russian market and therefore have different components and no warranty. This of course is not what your US market would expect to buy andwill likely be consideredmaterially different enough to cause a legal issue.
Further, if you are using third-party platforms to distribute your products such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, etc. know that many brand owners abuse the system and seek to mitigate unauthorized sales channels by claiming infringement even when no such trademark infringement exists. These platforms have no choice but to respond, which usually means that your listings are shut down, sometimes your accounts are closed and really with no recourse regards to the platform as you operate on them on their terms not yours. While you may have a legal action against the complaining party, many small operators will never pursue such a claim because of the expense and effort involved, which these large players are well aware and exploit.
Lastly, you should never assume you can use the copyright protected images of the manufacturer to promote the sale of their products. You need a license for that or just create your own.
You are likely to have a number of legal questions moving forward, so I suggest that you consult with a lawyer in private and discuss your objectives in more detail. You can start by calling around to several for a free phone consultation, get some insights then pick the best fit to work with.
