Online brand impersonation is today’s version of going onto someone’s property and rounding up their branded cattle a hundred years ago. The World Wide Web has frequently been called the Wild West. If it is, then we’ve certainly got our frontier martials taking on the outlaws.
Copyright and trademark infringement and other forms of counterfeiting can be very lucrative businesses. And in the early days of the Internet it was pretty easy to get away with them in the absence of regulation or skilled bounty hunters. But now-a-days there are agencies adept at tracking down counterfeiters and taking them down.
Online brand protection has become a big business in its own right. These companies specialize in trademark investigations, domain acquisition, anti-counterfeiting investigation, and even reputation management. They’re out-weaseling the weasels.
Trademark investigations are pretty straight forward. These agencies track trademark and other intellectual property infringement, stake out and gather evidence, and set the stage for legal action against the identity thieves.
Domain acquisition is a service that allows companies to avoid dealing directly with opportunists who buy up strategic online domains in order to resell them at exorbitant prices. The buyer remains anonymous as a third party approaches the domain owner and negotiates a fair deal.
Reputation managers monitor search engine rankings for negative and libelous content about their clients. If they find it, they take action to get it removed or changed. They also guard personal information from being disseminated to spammers and identity thieves.
Although the World Wide Web is still pretty Wild, online brand protection agencies are bringing some of the outlaws to justice. The strength of the Internet is its freedom. Most of us don’t want it becoming over-regulated. But neither do we want it overrun by lawless elements. Maybe these hired guns can help make the Web a better place for everyone.
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