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E-commerce has grown rapidly over the past decade, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly altered purchasing habits and fast-tracked the shift to digital shopping by an estimated five years.
Online marketplaces have become rife with counterfeiters looking to exploit popular brands, as well as unscrupulous businesses using confusingly similar names and logos. Faced with the prospect of damage to brand reputation, risk to consumer trust and revenue loss, brand owners can feel that protecting their brand is an impossible task. There are, however, a few simple ways to guard against IP infringement:
Every brand protection strategy should begin with the identification and registration of key trade marks. Owning a registered mark grants a monopoly on use of the mark in relation to the goods and services for which it is registered and is your strongest tool in quickly shutting down infringers. Further, enforcement of brand rights is considerably quicker and easier than with an unregistered mark. Bear in mind that you may need to review your registrations as your products and services develop.
Many e-commerce and social media platforms provide specific IP protection tools which are available to businesses with registered rights. These include:
Key in your battle against infringement, a trade mark watch will monitor e-commerce sites for unauthorised use of your brand and alert you when there is a possible threat.
When taking action against trade mark infringement, brand owners should be conscious that UK legislation provides protection against ‘groundless threats’ of infringement proceedings. If you need to enforce your right, you should seek professional advice before approaching an alleged infringer, so that you are not exposed to an injunction and/or damages for loss caused by any groundless threats.
If you have any questions in regard to this article, or need any support with protecting your brand, please contact our specialist commercial & technology team at [email protected].
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
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If you have any questions relating to this article or have any legal disputes you would like to discuss, please contact the Commercial & Technology team on
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