You just found out that a crook in China has copied your business website and is taking orders for counterfeit products. Now what do you do? Your company has spent years of time and more money than you would have preferred to fine tune the site. How can someone just take all that hard work steal your customers? Even worse, how do you respond to complaints from customers who were deceived and are asking when their order will arrive or why the product is different from what was advertised?
This problem is more common that you might think. And enforcement gets harder as digital pirates evolve their tactics to avoid enforcement efforts that were successful in the past. While strategies to combat digital pirates must be tailored to specifically fit your business, a fundamental element is usually a registered trademark. A trademark, once registered, offers extensive legal protection, enabling a business to take action against digital piracy, whether an infringer is within the United States or based overseas.
Enforcement Options with a Registered Trademark
Here’s how registered trademarks can help fight digital piracy:
- Search Engine Priority: Search engines prioritize content that is associated with registered trademarks. This can help legitimate content appear higher in search results, making it more accessible to consumers and reducing the visibility of pirated content.
- Domain Name Protection: Registered trademarks can also be used to protect domain names. If a domain name infringes on a registered trademark, the trademark owner can challenge the registration and potentially seize the domain.
- Website Hosting Companies, Online Marketplaces, and Social Media: Website Hosing Companies, online marketplaces and social media platforms have policies in place to protect intellectual property. By registering a trademark, a company can report instances of trademark infringement to these platforms, which can lead to the removal of pirated content.
- Deterrence: A registered trademark can act as a deterrent to piracy. Potential infringers are less likely to risk legal consequences if they know that a trademark is protected.
Apply Before You Have a Problem
A registered trademark takes considerable time to obtain. The USPTO is currently taking close to 9 months to begin reviewing applications, and it take months or years after that for the process to culminate in a registration. Thus, it is critical for companies to start the process as early as possible, ideally before any issues arise. Seeking personalized legal guidance is a good way to get started.