Brand Protection on the Internet

Brand Protection on the Wild Web Because of the Internet's vast size, it can be difficult to assess exactly how prevalent cybercrime really is. According to the International Trademark Association, U.S. companies lose an average of 23 percent of potential sales due to trademark infringement and counterfeiting. And according to GoDaddy.com, a domain-name registrar, 32 million out of 35 million registered domain names in April 2006 appeared fraudulent. It's very easy for anyone to create a website that mimics a popular brand by using tools to copy it. There are huge networks of computers that criminals use to hide their work as well. This can make it tedious for corporate counsel to find them. However, what might seem impossible for in-house and especially off-line counsel is routine for brand monitors who patrol the Internet like bounty hunters and know how to use the technology to root out even the cleverest infringers. Before searching the Internet, brand monitors, legal counsel, and brand owners discuss logistics. Does the client need a constant watch on the Internet for brand infringements? Does the client require real-time reporting? What terms, such as brand and product names, design elements, copy, etc., should the Online brand monitor use to hunt down infringers? Brand-tracking services employ sophisticated knowledge and search technology that surpasses the tools of most in-house IT departments and past legal researching resources. Bots can be sent out to crawl the Internet. Brand searching "bots" can go from one site to the next, traveling through links, looking for mentions of the brand, terms, copy, keywords, meta tags, etc. Nothing evades modern technology. Brand bots can even search through blogs, chat rooms and message boards. Compiling Data on Brand Infringers As brand searches uncover copyrighted and trademarked material, the brand monitoring companies can build a report, which is accessible to the client and their legal department. The report can cite all the incidents of infringement and breaks them down by type, such as auction fraud, copyright theft, domain infringements, links, priority and even brand design in some cases. WorldsLargestNetwork.com uses additional techniques to remove irrelevant results and deprioritize things we feel there is no need to take action on. It is just a waste of time and resources to enforce everything because in-house counsel doesn't have enough time in a day to attack everything. It does not make good business sense to go after brand infringements that no one will ever see. In addition, brand infringements that will not effect the brand being protected can simply be a waste of time. Clients pick priority settings, however, which will vary depending on the company and type of infringing activity. Monitoring those with past relationships and business conductivity may be a priority that may not have otherwise been identified as a priority. Brand Priorities - If you are a drug company for example, and your products can cause serious injury, you have a much greater interest in tracking down infringers than you do if you're selling drink coasters. Brand monitoring services also help companies put infringers out of business. With a click of a button, counsel can automatically send a boilerplate cease-and-desist letter to an infringing person or business. Stress-free Brand Protection Company lawyers' involvement in the process can be minimal. All they have to do is supply the brand terms to be protected, check the list of infringers and take action. All Internet and computing power and searches are done within our IT department, which allows legal to use our provisions without having to worry about onsite software or installation issues within their own branded company. Today, brand protection services don't have to break the bank. For companies looking to just get a sense of what's out there, we can provide temporary services for a few weeks or months to see what kind of infringing activity is taking place. Many companies' probably don't know what's going on with their brand at all, and we can provide a foundation to help them understand. A company can ask us to perform research for a pre-determined time. Brands experiencing serious growth for example, may require infringement monitoring for 2 to 6 months. WorldsLargestNetwork.com can help your Brand be protected by actively going after infringers instead of just finding out after-the-fact. We can certainly save you time, money and possibly even your Brand! A Few common Web-Based Terms Cybersquatting – the unauthorized registration of domain-names using a form of a brand name. This is a cheap and simple method to take advantage of any Brand's reputation. Passing off – web sites that deliberately pretend to be a specific legitimate company in order to commercially gain through trading on that company's name. Such web sites commonly use copywrited text and images; including logos – of the company that they are pretending to be. Brand abuse – the practice of using web sites' common trademarks and well-known brand names of other companies in order to attract the unwary visitor. Once snared, a visitor can be presented with a range of replica or similar goods to that sold by the legitimate company, or in some cases obscene pornographic content. Logo and Trademark abuse – the unauthorised usage or disfigurement of a company’s most prominent symbols is easy to do, yet can lead to considerable brand dilution or harm. Piracy and copying – copywrited music, software releases, the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and even books, are all available for free download in many places around the Internet. Copying and distribution often takes place within hours of – if not before - the products official release. Hacking and cracking – from simple web page defacements to major cracks of credit card information and databases, the activities of a few hackers and crackers become more relevant as the Internet grows ever larger. There are many areas and descriptions of infringements out there that can and are being handled by today's legal and web-based partnerships. There is a time-frame of education taking place right now that means leniency is often offered, but those that think there is a difference between off-line and online business compliance should be aware that many are taking action with real support behind their cause. ...Paul Hamilton Administrator