Page 32 - index

LEGISATION

Proper brand protection on

the Internet is pivotal in

eCommerce

The Internet is continually evolving. Unfortunately, this disabled, rather than proceeding only against individual
is also true for the risks that threaten the reputation of sites. This means accelerated research, better legal
a brand and therefore revenue. In the digital world you success rates and increased ROI for the brand protec-
feel the business impact of trademark infringement tion investments.
immediately and in full force.
3. A blessing in disguise: Learning from crooks
Research shows that one out of five online shoppers is
lured to a page with counterfeit products when looking A targeted online monitoring has other advantages as
for reliable offers. What many providers do not know, well: Brand protection in times of "Big Data" can provide
however, is that the crooks with their scams even com- additional business intelligence advantages. From the
promise those companies that do not sell their prod- knowledge of what drives customers to the offers of
ucts over the Internet, which in turn suffer sales losses brand counterfeiters, you can answer questions about
that way as well. their customer loyalty.

In plain language this means: Online brand protection Tip: Use data from brand protection monitoring to de-
actually has to concern all traders and businesses, no tect market gaps. Customers buy, for example, from
matter via which channels they distribute their goods. brand counterfeiters, mainly because the original prod-
Hence, to protect a brand effectively, the person in uct is not available. Brands have to close such gaps in
charge should consider the following tips: the market. The online findings are by all intends and
purposes an occasion for new marketing campaigns,
1. Avoid exposing weak spots price structures or service and distribution strategies, to
better respond to customer demand, retain existing cus-
Brand pirates use different attack strategies. Their tomers and win new ones - rather than to accept loss in
most common weapons include the feigning of sites, revenue.
copying of apps, or redirecting of data traffic. A target-
ed brand protection strategy must therefore take into 4. New top-level domains - new chance and field of
account all the gateways and act globally to stand the attacks at the same time
test in the fast-paced online world.
A top-level domain (TLD) is that portion of a domain
Tip: Include all channels in your online brand protec- name, which is to the right side of the dot. Until recently,
tion and remember to monitor social networks or apps there were only 22 TLDs, whereby .com is probably the
that have newly entered the market. In today’s dynam- best known worldwide. In June 2012, however, the or-
ic environment it is possible that they gain a dominant ganization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
market position in a short time. Names and Numbers), which coordinates the assign-
ment of names and addresses in the Internet, has pub-
2. Try to track fraudsters all the time lished a list with 1,930 new top-level applications which
include approximately 1,400 new top-level domains.
Even pirates’ websites need to be financed. The scam- The current expansion of the gTLD (generic TLD) opens
mers usually opt for unsuspecting customers who pay brands, community groups or entrepreneurs, the possi-
for advertising space on the illegal online sites. bility to operate their own top-level domains, such
as .amazon, or .auto, and around 650 brands have in-
Tip: It pays off to work with ad networks, marketplaces deed requested a TLD for their own name.
and payment service providers, as ads on faked web-
sites can be identified and removed quickly that way. Tip: Companies should define in any case how they
Besides, new technologies can help to scale the per- deal with the changed and more complex Internet land-
secution measures and to perform them more efficient- scape. It is advisable to consult with colleagues from
ly by an automated procedure. Specific tools search the legal department to calculate risks and to develop a
the Internet in its deepest corners and collect, for ex- strategy which is on schedule and in line with the budg-
ample, information about the relationship between et. However, it makes barely sense for a company to
criminal websites. That way, networks with thousands register each core brand term for each new ending.
of domain names can be identified and be completely

32 Asian eMarketing November 2014 - Cross-, Multi-, Omni-Channel & Everywhere Commerce