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Brand Protection

Brand Protection: The Bigger you are, the Greater the Threats Brand Protection: The Bigger you are, the Greater the Threats April 28, 2015

Don't look now, but you're being watched. By lots of folks. It isn't only your target audience watching your ads and seeing what you are up to.

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Brand Protection: Violating your Domain Name is Violating your Trademark Brand Protection: Violating your Domain Name is Violating your Trademark November 26, 2014
The web is a place that is pretty much untamed. It's acronym, WWW, could stand for the Wild Wild Web. Hence, it is making it harder and harder for marketers to implement brand protection. In the context of the World Wide Web, a violation of a trademark typically occurs when:
  • The Trademarked name appears in a variation of the domain name
  • The Trademarked name is included in content on a web page
Litigation in courts revolves around whether a website owner who tried to register their domain name includes a trademark. The duty of the court is to try and deduce whether a site's domain name is a violation of a trademark. Those site owners who are found to have violated a trademark within the URL have been issued orders to give up their registered URL. During the dawn of the Internet, enterprising individuals took the opportunity to register domains of well-known companies, in order to hold it for ransom when the legitimate company decided it needed a website. They sometimes demanded huge amounts for the domain name and if they didn't get it, it could mean dire consequences in the scope of brand protection for the company.  

Choosing the Right Domain Name

At its most basic, choosing a domain name for your product or idea is pretty easy. You want it to be one that people can remember and be able to pronounce. It should be short, witty, easy to spell and provide an idea to the consumer with regards to what it is you are offering. When you cover these bases, chances are you have a winning domain name. Though, marketing and legality are way two different things and even if you think your domain name is a winner, from a legal standpoint it might not be so. Choosing a domain name that might conflict with any of the commercially trademarked names out there, might put you and your brand in hot water, and if found might lead to a lawsuit, you might never have thought would come to be. If brought before a judge, your domain name might be found to violate a trademarked name and you might be forced to surrender it. This might spell the end of your business, and if not the end, your business will suffer a painful blow. You need to understand the following before choosing your trademarked name. This will help you in the context of brand protection as well as making sure your domain name does not violate any existing trademarks.
  • When customers are confused by a trademark as far as the product, service or source, this can be seen as a violation by the latter user.
  • A trademark that is unique, suggestive and witty is legally protected (federal and state)
  • Trademarks that have come to be known and are successful via advertising and sales might also be legally protected under law (federal and state)
  • The first user of a commercial trademark is the rightful owner and the latter user will most probably be forced to stop using it and/or pay damages to the original user.

When choosing a domain name remember these basic rules:

  • Generic terms that describe entire industries of categories can never be trademarked. Names like Toys.com, cars.com, houses.com are a few examples
  • Domain names that utilize geographic location names or words which describe an aspect of the product or service such as homebuyinganswers.com for example, will not be protected by trademark law unless the domain owner can prove its success via a large number of sales and advertising. If the owner of a trademark is able to register their names with the US Patent and Trademark office, then they have probably proved it is distinctive.
 

Avoiding Trouble

The way to avoid any legal trouble is by choosing a domain name that meets your needs as far as marketing and does not conflict with any existing trademarks. You need to search as many trademarks in the trademark database as possible to be able to identify any possible conflicts and ensure you are not violating someone’s brand name. This also holds true for yourself in the area of brand protection. What ways are you protecting your brand? What can you contribute to help readers understand what is best for them in protecting their brand? Please feel free to chime in and share this post.
Protect Your Brand by Building a Successful Anti-Counterfeiting Strategy Protect Your Brand by Building a Successful Anti-Counterfeiting Strategy October 29, 2014
The proliferation of counterfeit goods throughout the real world is on a constant rise. From the streets of Bangkok to Beijing to the streets of Manhattan, you can see street vendors hawking fake Gucci handbags, Rolex watches and Calvin Klein T-shirts. There is no end. (more…)
Protect Your Brand with Online Brand Protection- What you Need to Look out For Protect Your Brand with Online Brand Protection- What you Need to Look out For October 27, 2014
As a brand marketer you face numerous challenges to promote and protect your brand. The threats to your brand's digital presence are mounting with each passing day. With those threats is the highly probable damage to your reputation and most importantly, your brand's bottom line. (more…)
Protect your Brand- Mobile Apps and Social Media Protect your Brand- Mobile Apps and Social Media October 23, 2014
With the growth of mobile apps comes the increasing threats to your brand. Yes. The necessity to protect your brand has spread from the desktop and brand websites to mobile and apps. Protecting your brand on Social Media has also become a key issue. (more…)
Implementing Brand Protection: Defeat Online Counterfeiting and Increase your ROI Implementing Brand Protection: Defeat Online Counterfeiting and Increase your ROI September 22, 2014
In today's dynamic online world, the threats to your brand mount with each passing day. The threats from PPC (Pay-Per-Click Ads) violations, counterfeiters, typo squatters, domain squatters and the like are all out to profit at your expense  . So what can you do? Sure, a small business getting by with just using free monitoring tools is a way to go, but it could be time consuming as well as spotty in identifying and assessing the level of risk that each of these threats represent to your brand. The global-wide practice of producing counterfeit items and distributing them is a threat to brands across all markets. Every industry is targeted, from Fashion to Auto Parts to Baby products.. Somewhere down the road, you will decide that implementing a brand protection tool is in the cards. With marketing budgets fluctuating as new initiatives come to fruition, you need to take a look at the ROI you would most definitely realize by implementing a brand protection tool. Do the benefits outweigh the costs?   All signs point to YES as benefits do indeed outweigh the costs 99% of the time. In this post, I will discuss how identifying lost sales due to counterfeiting can right there justify the implementation of a brand protection tool.

Traffic Diversions

Along with strong popular brands, comes literally thousands of websites that are set up and designed just so they can steal traffic away from a brand's rightful owner and cut into your profit, piggybacking on the brand that marketing folks have invested so much time and money in building. In a lot of cases, these sites use a trademark in their URL such as CheapNike.com or via the use of trademarked words within PPC ads that drive unsuspecting consumers to these counterfeit sites. These shady practices can cause large amounts in stolen traffic and within that - stolen sales. It is fortunate that these tactics can be measured, and you can estimate the number of visitors navigating to those counterfeit sites. This will enable you to see which websites are stealing the majority of your traffic and to come to a monetary figure as to how much money you are losing to online counterfeiting. When assessing how many of the visits  to these websites appear to be stolen, you can calculate how many of those visits would have turned into paying customers, based on your conversion rate history and average purchase amount per visit. This is also a terrific opportunity to rally all stakeholders involved and show them how these consumers could have been yours if you used a brand protection tool while providing them with the numbers. This is just one number that will be part of your realized ROI when implementing brand protection.

Keeping Online Counterfeiters Away

Just one big brand, implementing a brand protection tool can cut into the damage that counterfeiters cause a particular market. Going beyond, brand owners would quickly realize that they would hold an advantage over their competitors by implementing brand protection, and hence increase their market share, and ROI. In the course of protecting the assets that make up your brand, you will face many threats that can erode your brand's reputation and the relationship you've worked so hard in building with your customers. Besides financial, this is one of the top threats that online counterfeiting poses. Implementing a brand protection tool that will monitor the web round-the-clock using sophisticated algorithms will make it harder for these online counterfeiters to operate, and hence allow your brand's identity to flourish and thrive Without a brand protection mechanism in place, your brand's identity will suffer.
The Cyber Threat is Evolving. Is your Brand? The Cyber Threat is Evolving. Is your Brand? September 18, 2014
In the world of online commerce, the environment is becoming more threatening with each passing day. The threats are in a constant state of evolution and so should your brand protection strategy. Is your brand ready to face the challenge these threats pose? If you haven't yet, you will want to consider a brand protection plan sooner, rather than later. The characters behind these threats are in a constant state of evolution, The threats are becoming more sophisticated and they are becoming harder and harder to predict, let alone anticipate. It's not enough to utilize free tools that are disconnected, time-consuming and are simply not thorough. You've worked long and  hard on building your brand, customer loyalty and commitment to excellence. Just one of these threats can cause damage to all of this. The Internet is ever-expanding. Adding to this constant growth is the recent gradual release of over 1500 gTLds. This alone has caused a digital earthquake, not witnessed since the launch of the World Wide Web. Domain Squatters are out there, looking to steal your brand's glory by registering your trademarked domain and there is very little being done to stop them from doing so. Just think of all the variations of a global brand like Nike has to contend with. NikeSale.Buy, BuyNike.Shop are all fair game to these CyberCriminals. And sometimes, they can cause enough damage to a brand that the authentic brand will wave the white flag and pay a ransom fee to the cyber thief. There are Typo Squatters taking advantage of the way people, especially in foreign countries misspell brand names, and driving them to their bogus and fraudulent sites, selling them a cheap counterfeit or perhaps getting them to buy something entirely different, cutting into your good name and profits all at once, within seconds. Just think of the many ways you can spell Adidas. Last year, online commerce saw a spike in phishing attacks, after a relative lull. Cyber thievery continues to refine ways in developing techniques ever more sophisticated. These attacks are used to steal information that most deem sensitive, such as passwords, usernames and account information. Now, with the use of mobile devices taking off, these attacks are predicted to increase by 22% each year. The threats are always evolving, as Cyber-criminals are becoming more savvy. Besides the damage to a brand's bottom line, these online attacks can damage the trust you worked so hard in building. Are you ready to protect your brand against these threats? There are a lot more. The World Wide Web is the primary channel for brands to stay in touch with their Internet savvy and always-connected customers. With more sales online being conducted, your brand's credibility can take a huge hit, if any sensitive info winds up in the wrong hands. This can destroy trust. Online marketers and other stakeholders at a company need to create a plan to face these ever-mounting risks their brands face. Brand owners, for the most part only are aware of roughly 10% of the threats their brands face online. Being what it is, it is of paramount importance, and I will add critical, that brands need to adopt a strategy to combat these threats while keeping their digital brand in top health. The main challenge for brands is being able to identify the risks facing their brand online and taking action to protect against the threats they are facing. Currently, brand owners only know about approximately 10% of the threats they face online. As a result, it is imperative that organizations adopt a proactive, precautionary attitude and introduce measures to expose the threats targeting their brand. For example, you might want to look into the implementation of SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology to ensure that your customers feel confident they are coming to your site and not to some bogus site. This will also enable you to discover any malware or viruses in advance of them doing any considerable damage. As the aforementioned threats continue to wreak havoc in the world of digital commerce, you need to be ready. Do your homework. Choose an online brand protection tool that evolves with these threats and you will make sure your brand is ready to take on the threats out there.
Online Counterfeiting in the Fashion Industry Online Counterfeiting in the Fashion Industry September 1, 2014
In the world of fashion, the answer to the question “How does one gauge the success of a brand?” is usually, just to look how many want to copy you. There are some that argue that fake goods is the highest form of flattery. (more…)
Brand Protection: A Collection of Infographics Brand Protection: A Collection of Infographics December 18, 2014

Every entity doing business online today needs a solid brand protection system. Whether it be your business or personal brand, you need a brand protection tool to combat the threats that are out there.

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Protect your Brand by Averting the Risks of Social Media Protect your Brand by Averting the Risks of Social Media May 21, 2015
The benefits that brands gain from being active on social media are undeniable. However, so are the risks. In order to protect your brand, you need to get a handle on what the risks are and have clear cut ways on how to deal with them. (more…)