E-Commerce, Social Media, and Online Brand Protection

Having the right enforcement tools is a good start. This should mean having tools to facilitate monitoring and enforcement of intellectual property rights – whether that be in the form of potentially infringing domain names to the use of social media and/or marketplace platforms, such as Amazon and eBay, to market and sell counterfeit goods. Automation in monitoring and enforcement delivers increased efficiency, the capacity to handle higher volumes of data, and increases the swiftness of response.

However, even with the rights tools, a company should adopt and enforce a strategy, particularly since it not possible to tackle all brand concerns and instances of infringement. Taking the time to step back and consider your current brand management approach, your wider branding and business goals, and your main online challenges both today and in the future will inform the priorities, the jurisdictions, and the channels for action, as well as the varying levels of response.

Every move that a company makes online should be made with an eye upon its larger market goals and be proportionate to the threat and the tools that it has at its disposal. In the haste of acting against infringement, businesses can often overlook this important strategic phase