--- title: "Brand Monitoring & Online Enforcement | Pitch" description: "Counterfeits, lookalike shops, fake accounts, infringing listings on marketplaces and app stores." url: https://pitch.law/solutions/effective-online-brand-protection --- [pitch](https://pitch.law/) [Solutions](https://pitch.law/solutions) [Intellectual Property](https://pitch.law/solution-categories/intellectual-property) # Brand Monitoring & Online Enforcement Counterfeits, lookalike shops, fake accounts, infringing listings on marketplaces and app stores. We find them, and we usually get them taken down within one working day. - - By [Bart Lieben](https://pitch.law/team/bart-lieben), Attorney-at-Law - 8 September 2022 - 360 stage: Enforce ## The question A brand that sells gets copied. Counterfeits turn up on marketplaces. A lookalike webshop harvests your customers' log-in details. Someone on social media sells products you never made, under your name and logo. Usually you find out when a customer complains. The questions we get are practical. Where is my brand being misused? Which cases are worth acting on, and which are a harmless distributor or fan page? Once I know, who do I write to, and with what proof? Often a customer or sales partner has just reported a fake webshop. Or a marketplace listing is selling goods under your name at a price you could never match. Sometimes a launch is coming and you want its first weeks covered. And sometimes a takedown worked for a week, and the seller is back under another name. ## Our approach We start from your rights. Before monitoring begins, we check which trademarks and domain names you hold, in which countries, for which goods and services. Every enforcement route depends on them, so gaps show up here. A mark that is not registered in a market where you sell, for instance. Then monitoring runs continuously, through [our online brand monitoring](https://pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement). It finds lookalike domain names from several independent sources and scores them for similarity and typos. It recognises cloned sites and copycat sites that belong to the same campaign. It also follows the large marketplaces and more than twenty social platforms. Results are grouped in five channels (marketplaces, social media, websites, domain names, app stores) and appear in the client portal. An attorney reviews everything the system flags. That is where the judgement lies. Is this seller authorised? Is the use really infringing under the [EU trade mark rules](https://pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works)? Can a reseller rely on exhaustion of rights? What response is proportionate? You see each detection and tell us to act, investigate or dismiss. When action is needed, [our takedown workflow](https://pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) prepares the notice for the marketplace, registrar, host or platform, backed by a timestamped evidence pack. Only an attorney sends it. Counterfeits, lookalike shops and infringing listings are usually taken down within one working day. If a notice does not do the job, the same file supports a cease-and-desist letter, a [UDRP or URS](https://pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) complaint for a domain name, or court proceedings. Each detection in the portal shows what was found, when, where, and the evidence captured. Your instruction is recorded with it, so the attorney knows what you decided and why. When the same seller comes back under a new name, the link to earlier detections shows a pattern, not a fresh case. That changes the response. A repeat infringer justifies a firmer letter, or a complaint to the platform about repeated infringement. ## What you get - An up-to-date picture, per channel, of how your brand is used and misused online, in the client portal. - A prioritised list of detections, each reviewed by an attorney, with a recommendation. - Notices and letters in English, Dutch, French or German, sent by us on your instruction. - For domain names, a complaint built on the evidence already gathered. - Periodic reports on what was found, what was done and what is still open. They also document your enforcement record. We cannot promise that a platform removes every listing, or that a domain will be transferred. Platforms apply their own rules, and a notice that is incomplete, or aimed at a lawful reseller, can backfire. What we do promise is that the right case goes down the right route, with the right proof. ## Next step Send us your list of trademarks and domain names, and the markets that matter most. We will tell you what monitoring would cover, and where the first gaps are. [Schedule a meeting](https://pitch.law/schedule) or [contact us](https://pitch.law/contact-us). ## In short - Monitoring of marketplaces, social media, websites, domain names and app stores - Detections reviewed by an attorney before any action - Notices to platforms, registrars and hosts with an evidence pack - Escalation to cease-and-desist letters, UDRP/URS or court - Detections visible in the client portal ## Technology we use - [Technology](https://pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement) ### [Online Brand Monitoring](https://pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement) [Continuous discovery of lookalike domain names, counterfeit listings and impersonating accounts, with detections shown in the client portal for attorney review.](https://pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement) - [Technology](https://pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) ### [Takedowns and Enforcement Notices](https://pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) [A notice workflow for marketplaces, registrars, hosts and platforms, with a timestamped evidence pack for each action and enforcement documents drafted in four languages.](https://pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) - [Technology](https://pitch.law/technologies/contract-studio) ### [Document Studio](https://pitch.law/technologies/contract-studio) [Our Document Studio drafts and analyses legal documents in a secure, on-premise environment, and keeps the documents behind your matters up to date as new data comes in and procedural steps fall due.](https://pitch.law/technologies/contract-studio) ## Background reading - [Academy](https://pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works) ### [Online Brand Protection: How Brand Monitoring Works](https://pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works) [How infringements of a trademark are found online, which rules decide whether they are unlawful, and which routes exist to stop them.](https://pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works) - [Academy](https://pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) ### [Domain Name Disputes: the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy](https://pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) [How a bad-faith domain name can be recovered under the UDRP and URS, and under the separate procedure for .eu names, under country-code procedures, or through the courts.](https://pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) ## More in Intellectual Property - ### [Trademark Clearance](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-clearance) [Can you use the name, and can you register it? A clearance search answers both, with a signed opinion that rates each risk and tells you what to do. Usually within one working day, at a fixed fee.](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-clearance) - ### [Trademark Watch & Opposition](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-watch-opposition-monitoring) [We watch the registers for new marks that conflict with yours, tell you which ones matter, and oppose within the deadline when you instruct us to.](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-watch-opposition-monitoring) - ### [Brand Policy Compliance](https://pitch.law/solutions/online-brand-compliance) [We help brand owners get distributors, resellers and licensees to follow the brand rules, through the contract, monitoring and a graduated response.](https://pitch.law/solutions/online-brand-compliance) - ### [Domain Name Disputes](https://pitch.law/solutions/domain-name-litigation) [We recover or cancel domain names registered in bad faith, through the UDRP, the URS, the .eu procedure, country-code procedures such as .be, or the courts, and defend clients accused of the same.](https://pitch.law/solutions/domain-name-litigation) - ### [IP Portfolio Management](https://pitch.law/solutions/ip-portfolio-intelligence) [We keep your trademarks, designs, domain names and patents in one overview, follow every deadline and prepare each renewal decision with a cost estimate.](https://pitch.law/solutions/ip-portfolio-intelligence) - ### [Trademark Registration](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-registration) [We choose the right route and scope for your mark, file it with the EUIPO, the BOIP or through the Madrid System, and keep it in order afterwards.](https://pitch.law/solutions/trademark-registration) ## Let’s talk Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll get the right person on it and reply within one business day. The first chat is free. [Schedule a meeting](https://pitch.law/schedule)