Online brand policing

Protecting your Brand in the Online Age

You have spent many thousands of pounds and often years of hard marketing to develop your brand. Your Trademarks and Logos are known and respected around the world. You have supported your retailers and ensured that your brand is a sign of quality and something that can be trusted by consumers.

How galling then to see unscrupulous companies ‘borrow’ these valuable resources and use it to sell unauthorised products and services.

The Internet is a wonderful place to promote your branding but unfortunately some companies think your logos, slogans and images are ‘fair game’ to be copied illegally and used on their own web sites or to sell discount copies of your products on EBay or other web sites.

The ‘Public Domain’ myth

Many individuals and businesses still believe that anything on the Internet is ‘in the public domain’ and so they can borrow images, logos and sometimes text from your web site. This is not true and all web sites and content is copyrighted. However by making an explicit statement of copyright you can then confer rights to authorised users without confusion and conflict.

Abuse of Your Copyright

In some cases businesses will be selling your products (either with or without permission) but many of them will be using your trademarks to sell copies, stolen goods or factory rejects and trying to pass them off as genuine. This can be hugely damaging to your business’ reputation. In areas where safety is a concern (Food/Drink, Medicines, Electrical Goods, Children’s Toys etc) this could result in costly and time-consuming legal action to resolve problems.

Until now it has been hard and time-consuming to monitor and control unauthorised use of your brand but now Smith & Saunders can help you get back control of your trademarks on-line.

Brand Protection

The most important step you can take in protecting your on-line branding is to monitor and record who has permission to use your brands and trademarks. This will enable you to:

1. Control who has permission to use your trademarked and copyright material
2. Explicitly agree where and how these trademarks and copyrights can be used (Both venues and territories)

This will enable you to enforce controls over your rights.

We have developed two systems which will help you control trademark use - Retailer Certification and IPR Management

Retailer Certification – we will develop a retailer certification site for you to register all authorised retailers of your products. Authorised retailers will be listed on your own directory detailing the level of certification they posses, what products they are permitted to sell and what venues they are allowed to sell on (i.e. their own sites, and/or auction sites). Each authorised reseller will have a digital certificate that they can display on their site demonstrating their skills. This scheme will rapidly weed out unauthorised resellers and show the public your commitment to good service.

Consumers will benefit by knowing that they are buying genuine products from reputable sellers.
Retailers will benefit by being able to sell in the knowledge that there is a level playing field and they are not in danger from illegal sellers.
You will benefit by increasing loyalty and satisfaction within your reseller community.

Note: It is now illegal to set and control selling prices of items however there are techniques that can be used to ensure that products are sold and priced appropriately and are not sold in a way that is detrimental to your business.

Intellectual Property Rights Management – In conjunction with the retailer certification we will proactively monitor on-line retailers and quickly identify unauthorised sellers. We will then use existing Trademark legislation to remove offending content and products from web sites and auction sites such as Ebay. The level of control and sanctions you impose will be entirely under your control. For example:

1. You can allow customers to sell used and unwanted items on EBay provided they are not using your images.
2. You could allow retailers to clear discontinued lines through on-line auction sites or
3. you could effectively prevent any use of your tradenames outside strictly controlled limits

Existing legislation gives you wide powers to control use of your trademarks and imagery but few businesses have the time, skills or resources to manage offenders. Smith and Saunders have the experience and skills to provide effective and efficient control of your valuable trademarks and copyright – protecting both you, your resellers and ultimately the customers.

For more information on how Smith and Saunders can help you protect your on-line reputation, contact Karl Meyer, at karl@smithandsaunders.com on 07950 695959 or fill out our contact form.

Customers trust you don't let unscrupulous sellers harm that relationship

Protect your resellers, their business and ultimately your customers

For more information on how Smith and Saunders can help you protect your online reputation, please contact us.