According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), intellectual property (IP) “refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” Patents, copyright, and trademarks are all legal vehicles that enable IP owners to earn recognition or revenue from their inventions or creations. Unfortunately, IP owners are not the only ones who want to make money from their IP creations; bad actors use online methods, including brand impersonation, counterfeiting, phishing, and malware distribution, to take their cut.
Big brands are particularly popular targets, as they have the brand reputation, customer base, and healthy sales that are attractive to fraudsters. That’s why it’s important for brand owners to protect their IP online effectively. And there are several ways to do so with enterprise brand and fraud protection solutions.
This World IP Day, we share our top three ways to protect your intellectual property online.
1. Register and protect your digital assets
Domain names are the starting point for a significant number of online infringements—cybercriminals set up bogus websites either to redirect traffic, sell counterfeits, or conduct phishing attacks, all of which abuse a brand’s IP. By registering or blocking domains with your brand name(s) with an enterprise-class provider, you take this first step away from fraudsters trying to abuse your brand.
2. Monitor your external attack surface
Monitoring your brand’s presence in the online space is key to ensuring that if any nefarious activity infringes on your IP, you have visibility to stop it quickly. Be sure to monitor key channels like social media, mobile apps, eCommerce marketplaces, and internet content. Additionally, clustering technology can bring together infringements with similar characteristics or origins to enable bulk takedowns, saving time and money.
3. Enforce against infringements
Once you’ve identified online brand infringements, it’s time to enforce upon them. Enforcement options range in complexity, cost, and time to complete—from phishing takedowns that take mere minutes, to Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution policy (UDRP) cases that can take weeks. Use a provider that allows determination of takedown methods case-by-case. It means that you can protect your online IP in the most cost- and time-efficient ways.
We’re ready to talk
If you’d like to talk to one of our experts about our monitoring and enforcement options for your brand, please complete our contact us form, and one of our team will arrange a call.
