Introduction

The internet and digital technologies have made sharing information, marketing, and ecommerce easier than ever. But they‘ve also enabled rampant copyright infringement at an unprecedented scale.

According to the International Chamber of Commerce, the projected global economic losses from counterfeiting and piracy could reach a staggering $4.2 trillion from 2017 to 2022. This represents an estimated 2.5 million legitimate jobs lost and nearly $1 trillion in lost tax revenues for governments.

Despite these astounding figures, many businesses are unaware of the diverse ways their brands can be infringed online, whether they should worry, and what steps to take.

In this comprehensive 4000+ word guide as a digital brand protection expert with over 10 years of experience in technologies like web scraping and proxy services, I‘ll walk through a 4-phase approach any business can employ to protect their brand from modern copyright infringement threats.

The first step is identifying potential areas where your brand is vulnerable. Copyright infringement refers to using copyrighted content, trademarks, patents or other intellectual property without authorization.

Obvious examples are reproducing artwork, music, videos, literature or website content. But risks extend further:

Domain Name Abuse

• Malicious actors can mimic your site‘s name and steal traffic. This is accomplished by using a different domain extension (like .net instead of .com) or misspelling the name.

• According to an Optimal IdM report, typosquatting impacts as many as 1 in 5 internet users annually.

• 36% of companies surveyed had encountered typosquatting against their brand. It was the leading cause of brand infringement.

Counterfeit Products

• Outright copying products, goods, and marketing materials, then selling them.

• The OECD estimates counterfeit trade was as high as $509 billion in 2016.

• Top counterfeited categories are footwear (22%), clothing (16%), leather goods (13%), and electronics (12%).

• Consumer research found over 40% had unknowingly purchased a counterfeit product online.

Brand Impersonation

• Individuals create fake social media accounts, sites, communications channels posing as you.

• 45% of businesses surveyed by the Global Brand Counterfeiting Report had experienced social media brand impersonation.

• High risks for brands with popular social media pages and follower bases.

Pinpointing where your brand is vulnerable is critical for targeted protection. Some key risk factors include:

Recognizable Brand Name

• Well-known brands like Google, Apple are certainly prime targets.

• But even less famous names can be vulnerable if short or easily misspelled.

Physical Products That Are Easily Reproduced

• Apparel, jewelry, packaged goods, electronics commonly counterfeited.

• If your product can be reverse engineered and mass produced easily, it‘s at risk.

Digital Content That‘s Easy to Steal

• Media brands with large digital libraries and software companies with valuable code face high piracy risks.

• But even smaller brands can have marketing assets, product photos, pricing guides stolen.

Ecommerce Presence

• Brands selling through their own ecommerce sites or third-party marketplaces are vulnerable to cybersquatting and sale of counterfeit goods.

Active Social Media Followers

• Popular social media pages enable fraudsters to impersonate brands more easily to customers.

Carefully assessing your exposure using this framework is the vital first step to a tailored brand protection strategy.

Once you‘ve pinpointed areas of potential risk, enacting ongoing proactive defenses becomes crucial. Taking steps to authenticate your brand through official channels is critical:

Register Domains

• Don‘t just secure yoursite.com. Also register common typos or variations like yoursides.com, yousites.com.

• A MarkMonitor study found the majority of its clients registered 10+ related domains defensively.

Trademark Your Assets

• Federally register trademarks through USPTO to gain additional legal protections for your name, logo, and brand assets.

• Under the Lanham Act, registered marks are entitled to presumption of ownership in infringement lawsuits.

Create Verified Profiles

• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon all offer official brand verification options. Leverage them.

• Verified profiles make it harder for impersonators to create legitimate looking fraudulent accounts.

Publish on Google Search Console

• Google Search Console allows you to prove site ownership. This prevents copycats from impersonating you in SERPs.

• Enrolling makes it easier to detect and remove phishing sites and content scraping.

Proactively monitoring for potential infringements using today‘s digital tools is also a must:

Leverage Ecommerce Tools

• If selling on Amazon, eBay or Alibaba, use their integrated brand registry and infringement reporting tools.

• For example, Amazon Project Zero combines automated monitoring with a self-service portal to detect and report counterfeits.

Monitor Social Conversations

• Stay highly engaged on social channels. Respond quickly to follower complaints about fakes or impersonators.

• Social listening tools can automatically flag such complaints for immediate response.

Conduct Web Searches

• Routinely search for your brand name on Google to uncover impersonator sites, content scraping, etc.

• Google Alerts also automatically notify you when keywords appear in new web content.

Maintaining rigorous defenses is critical, because legal recourse can be very difficult once misuse occurs:

Document Suspected Infringement

• Screenshots, order receipts, product samples, or other proof of misuse is vital to build affirmative legal cases.

Understand Limitations

• Laws differ internationally and may not cover newer digital tactics like bots, limiting your options.

Identify Source Companies

• Uncover who owns infringing sites and accounts. While platforms have protections, individuals can be sued.

For larger brands, manually monitoring for infringements across the vast internet quickly becomes impossible. Automated solutions become essential:

Web Scraping/Crawling

• Scrapers automatically scan pages, sites, networks, and apps to identify unauthorized usage of brands, logos, products.

• Advanced scrapers can securely crawl both open and closed platforms at scale.

Image Recognition

• AI-powered image recognition identifies improper uses of product images, logos, brand visuals across the internet.

Cybersquatting Detection

• Specialized tools identify recently registered domains containing your trademarks to reveal malicious typosquatting.

WHOIS Tracking

• Monitors domain ownership changes and alerts when trademarks are referenced in new registrations.

Reporting Systems

• Robust systems centralize findings across various monitoring sources into automated anti-piracy workflows.

When evaluating solutions, focus on key capabilities:

Comprehensive Coverage

• Prioritize solutions that scan across open web, ecommerce sites, social networks, mobile apps, dark web.

Customization Options

• Seek out solutions allowing configuration for unique brand names, regions, platforms.

Speed and Scale

• For large brands, tools capable of scanning/tracking millions of domains and images daily are a must.

Actionable Reporting

• Clean, centralized reporting and anomaly alerts to focus anti-piracy efforts.

The most effective tools combine detection with swift remediation workflows to accelerate takedowns and limit reoccurrences.

Once illegitimate domains, accounts, or counterfeit products are identified, promptly eliminating these threats is imperative:

Verify Infringements

• Confirm suspected cases are in fact unauthorized uses before taking legal action. Mistakes can damage reputation.

Issue Takedown Notices

• File DMCA or trademark notices requesting removals from platforms hosting illegal content.

Pursue Court Orders

• For pervasive abuses, sue in court to compel disabling of counterfeit accounts, sites and listings.

Partner With Marketplaces

• Request ecommerce platforms like Amazon and payment systems like PayPal shut down seller accounts selling counterfeits.

Submit Customs Seizures

• Register trademarks with customs agencies globally to block import shipments of counterfeit goods.

Effective strategies also include internal and external education on identifying fraudulent sites, listings and accounts misusing the brand. Empower all stakeholders to report potential infringements.

In summary, protecting brands in the digital age requires:

• Proactively identifying potential areas of brand infringement risk.
• Executing core strategies to authenticate and protect your online brand presence.
• Leveraging automation technology to monitor threats across digital channels.
• Acting swiftly to eliminate confirmed unauthorized usage through legal means.

With constant vigilance, brands can manage infringement risks, maintain marketplace integrity, and protect their invaluable intellectual property.

What specific steps will you take to protect your growing brand? Feel free to reach out for guidance implementing an automated brand protection strategy tailored to your business‘s unique needs and risks.