Brand Protection: Tools and Tactics

Billions Lost Each Year Due to Trademark Counterfeiting, Infringements, Knockoffs, Fake Goods, and Fake Websites

The type of losses experienced by businesses due to knockoffs is widespread and tends to evolve over time as technology progresses presenting new opportunities for ill-gotten profit.  Examples of losses include lost sales, leads diversion, initial interest confusion, angry customers, misdirected complaints or reviews, confused customers, damage to goodwill and reputation, misdirected product returns, higher pay-per-click bidding costs, reduced margins, and even theft of customer credit card numbers. 

Generally, for most businesses, a specific pain point leads to a discussion of how to stop the losses.  For example, this could be infringing use of trademarks to divert leads and sales by potential customers seeking a brand online.  In other words, this is a “lost sales” scenario.  A closer investigation may reveal misdirected reviews or complaints about the infringer’s knockoff product by third parties believing to have purchased the brand’s authentic product.  While this type of harm is harder to “quantify,” it is real nonetheless. 

** You can find a detailed discussion of Losses Caused by Knockoffs and Infringement in our blog series. 

Practical Steps for Brand Protection

How to fight counterfeiting and knockoffs?  Through handling thousands of IP disputes and implementing numerous intellectual property enforcement programs, we recommend that brand owners take the following six steps to eliminate harm to their brands:

Step 1:  Identifying and Quantifying Losses Caused by Knockoffs and Infringement

Step 2:  Marshaling Intellectual Property Assets to Combat Knockoffs and Infringement

Step 3:  Designing the IP-Enforcement Program to Increase Market Share by Stopping Knockoffs and Infringement

Step 4:  Implementing the IP-Enforcement Program

Step 5:  Optimizing the IP-Enforcement Program with Metrics

Step 6:  Growing Future Market Share through Proactive IP Strategy

** The above posts are part of our Importance of Intellectual Property Rights blog series. In addition to these resources, the United States Patent and Trademark Office provides a free guide for enforcing your trademark rights/trademark litigation.

Access Our Complimentary E-Book for Brand Protection Strategies and Techniques 

Still Have Questions About Brand Protection Strategy? Let’s Talk.

Additional Anti-Counterfeiting and IP Enforcement Services

We offer a full suite of anti-counterfeiting measures and IP enforcement services. Click below for more information about these services.

• Brand Protection

• Anti-Counterfeiting & Trademark Piracy

• Trademark Counterfeiting Enforcement

• Software Counterfeiting Enforcement

• Copyright Counterfeiting Enforcement

• Online Seller Enforcement

• Luxury Brand Protection

• Illegal Gray Market Goods Enforcement

• Customs & Border Protection IP Rights Enforcement

Blog Posts on Brand Protection Strategy that may be of Interest

You may also be interested in the following posts on the importance of intellectual property in enforcement programs:

• 8 Steps to Structure Effective and Efficient IP Enforcement Programs

• Reducing Costs for IP Enforcement Programs

• Protecting Brands From Knock Offs and Infringement – Part I

• Protecting Brands From Infringement and Knock Offs - Part II Advanced Techniques

• Brand Gating on Amazon: A Way to Help Prevent Counterfeiting

• Does Your Amazon Package Include Counterfeit Goods? Preventing Organized Retail Crime

• Counterfeit or Unsafe Product on Amazon: Unauthorized Seller Tactics