Counterfeits now cost the global economy over $467 billion annually. This guide outlines the 13 essential strategies, from API-based automation to revenue recovery, that brands must implement to protect revenue and reputation in 2026.
Key Takeaways: The 13 strategies
- Secure your IP foundation (trademarks and copyrights)
- Implement comprehensive domain management
- Monitor social commerce (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook)
- Automate takedowns on high-volume marketplaces
- Conduct network analysis to connect sellers
- Utilize predictive seller risk scoring
- Fight AI-driven threats with AI detection
- Execute high-speed takedowns via APIs
- Detect non-indexed sites and paid ad redirects
- Implement revenue recovery programs
- Monitor the gray market and parallel imports
- Audit search engine ads (ad hijacking)
- Leverage image recognition (Visual AI)
A shopper types your brand name into Google, clicks a top result promising limited stock at a reduced price, and checks out without hesitation. The site looks legitimate. The branding is precise. The damage only surfaces later when the product fails, the refund request lands, and your team realizes the seller no longer exists.
This is not an edge case. The OECD estimates that counterfeit and pirated goods now represent roughly 2.3% of global trade. That volume continues to rise as fraudsters use AI to spin up lookalike websites, cloned storefronts, and high-conversion ads at scale.In 2026, scattered manual fixes, like filing takedowns one by one or relying on capped analyst hours, collapse under the weight of AI-generated fraud. Effective brand protection requires a flat-fee, unlimited enforcement model that can absorb surge attacks without spiraling costs.
Why Brand Protection matters in 2026
Bad actors now deploy generative AI to produce lookalike logos, product images, and storefront copy in minutes. The consequences compound quickly, affecting revenue, customer safety, and long-term brand trust:
- Revenue Loss: Diverted sales to lookalike domains and marketplace listings directly erode margins.
- Customer safety risk: Counterfeit products and fake websites expose customers to unsafe materials, malfunctioning goods, and financial fraud. Counterfeit-linked criminal networks generate over $236 billion annually, often distributing products with no quality controls or safety testing.
- Reputation Damage: Multiple studies show that a majority of consumers reduce or stop buying from a brand after an unintentional counterfeit experience, often without ever reporting the issue.
The 13 essential Brand Protection strategies
1. Secure your IP foundation
A secure IP foundation requires registering trademarks and copyrights across all manufacturing hubs and destination markets, not just a brand’s headquarters jurisdiction. Manual rights verification slows enforcement and introduces errors. Red Points’ brand protection platform centralizes your IP documentation (trademarks, patents, copyrights) so that enforcement workflows trigger automatically upon detection, eliminating repeated manual checks and reducing takedown latency.
2. Implement comprehensive domain management
Comprehensive domain management must address typosquatting, IDN homographs, and non-indexed domains that never appear in search engines. Manual monitoring and registrar alerts consistently miss these sites. Red Points’ domain discovery technology continuously scans 1.4B+ domains with 99.5% ccTLD coverage, identifying lookalike and non-indexed domains so suspension and de-indexing actions can be initiated before customer exposure scales.
3. Monitor social commerce (TikTok Shop, Instagram, Facebook)
Social commerce monitoring requires continuous detection of impersonation profiles and fake ads across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Keyword-based monitoring fails against short-form video and image-led content. Red Points applies image fingerprinting, logo detection, and OCR across social posts, enabling detection even when brand names are removed or visually altered.
4. Automate takedowns on high-volume marketplaces
High-volume marketplaces require automated, unlimited takedown enforcement to remain effective at scale. Enforcement models capped by analyst hours create backlogs during peak periods. Red Points uses API-based enforcement with a flat-fee, unlimited model, supporting millions of takedowns per year (observed), while managed teams handle platform nuances that automation alone cannot resolve.
5. Conduct network analysis to connect sellers
Seller network analysis identifies and connects related counterfeit seller accounts to disrupt coordinated operations at the source. Counterfeiters operate in coordinated networks. By analyzing over 2.7 billion data points monthly, Red Points clusters seller identities, exposing shared payment accounts, IP addresses, and image assets, so you can dismantle entire networks rather than chasing individual accounts. Our team of experts review these clustered networks to validate connections and prioritize enforcement actions with the highest legal and commercial impact.
6. Utilize Predictive Seller Risk Scoring
Prioritize enforcement based on the offender’s risk level rather than volume alone. Not all infringements deserve equal attention. Red Points’ Seller Risk Scoring uses behavioral data to rank sellers by likelihood of recurrence and commercial impact, allowing teams to focus first on the actors driving the greatest revenue loss.This ensures resources are focused on the actors causing the most financial damage, rather than diluted across low-risk, one-off violations.
7. Fight AI-driven threats with AI detection
Applying adaptive computer vision models to detect logo variants even when they are partially obscured, recolored, or stylistically altered is key because generative AI has increased the use of recolored logos, synthetic product images, and cloned storefronts that bypass static rules. Ultimately, automated detection can help flag suspicious assets at speed, while human review is applied to ambiguous or high-risk cases before enforcement.
- Real-World Impact: Cotopaxi used this automated detection to group scam domains by template pattern, reclaiming 130+ hours of manual work in a single quarter and preventing $13.5 million in potential fraudulent value.
8. Execute high-speed takedowns via APIs
High-speed takedowns rely on API-based enforcement and platform priority partnerships (like Amazon Project Zero or eBay VeRO) to remove infringing content faster than manual submission workflows. Speed determines impact. Automated submission compresses removal times from days to hours.
- Real-World Impact: Thanks to Red Points’ direct API connections and platform priority programs, Burton was able to remove 4,600+ fraudulent websites and prevent over 5,000 fraudulent transactions before customers could be harmed.
9. Detect non-indexed sites and paid ad redirects
Effective brand protection must detect counterfeit websites that are non-indexed by search engines and receive traffic exclusively through paid ad redirects. Reporting ads alone does not remove the underlying fraud. Red Points automatically extracts destination URLs from ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram and generates linked incidents, enabling enforcement against the hidden site receiving the traffic.
10. Implement revenue recovery programs
Revenue recovery programs extend brand protection beyond takedowns by pursuing financial recovery from high-volume counterfeiters through targeted legal action. Red Points’ Revenue Recovery Program targets repeat offenders by freezing funds and pursuing settlements, with recovered assets frequently used to offset legal costs. This allows brands to permanently close seller accounts without converting enforcement into a sunk cost.
11. Monitor the gray market and parallel imports
Gray market monitoring tracks unauthorized sellers and parallel imports that undermine pricing integrity and violate distribution agreements. Manual monitoring lacks cross-market visibility. Red Points tracks unauthorized sellers, pricing signals, and distribution patterns across marketplaces, enabling distributor compliance at scale.
12. Audit search engine ads (ad-hijacking)
Search engine ad auditing identifies competitors or scammers hijacking branded keywords to divert high-intent customers to fraudulent destinations. Ad hijacking steals customers at the exact moment of purchase. Red Points automatically extracts hidden destination URLs from ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram to take down the fraudulent site behind the ad, not just report the advertisement.
13. Leverage image recognition (Visual AI)
Red Points’ Visual AI identifies infringements based on visual similarity, product geometry, and design features, enabling enforcement even when trademarks are absent from titles and descriptions. Many counterfeit listings never mention the brand name to evade text filters.
- Real-World Impact: Graff Diamonds used visual AI to identify replicas that copied their design but omitted their name. This resulted in the removal of $6 million in counterfeit value and blocked 3,500+ unauthorized sellers.
Conclusion
Brand protection in 2026 is no longer a one-off project or a reactive legal task. Attack volumes spike without warning, driven by automation and AI-generated assets. Programs tied to analyst hours or per-takedown pricing break precisely when brands need them most. The most resilient programs combine always-on automation with expert oversight, ensuring scale without sacrificing accuracy or platform trust.
A flat-fee, unlimited enforcement model ensures protection scales predictably. Request a demo to receive a personalized risk analysis and see how much revenue you could recover.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the most effective brand protection strategy?
The most effective strategy combines automated AI detection with API-based enforcement. This allows brands to monitor millions of listings 24/7 and execute takedowns instantly, rather than relying on slow manual reporting forms. Red Points applies computer vision, OCR, and behavioral models to scan millions of listings and digital assets continuously, while direct API integrations with platforms allow enforcement actions to be submitted in hours rather than days.
How much do counterfeits cost businesses?
According to the OECD, counterfeit and pirated goods account for up to $467 billion annually, representing roughly 2.3% of world trade.
Why is manual brand protection insufficient?
Manual methods cannot detect non-indexed listings (sites hidden from Google) or keep pace with AI-generated assets that can relist within hours. Red Points processes 2.7 billion data points per month across marketplaces, domains, social media, and ads, using automation to detect patterns and human expertise to validate high-risk cases, something manual workflows cannot achieve consistently.
What is a “Revenue Recovery” program?
A Revenue Recovery program extends brand protection beyond takedowns by targeting repeat, high-volume counterfeiters through legal and financial enforcement. Red Points’ Revenue Recovery Program focuses on freezing infringer assets and pursuing settlements, often using recovered funds to offset legal costs. This approach enables brands to permanently shut down seller accounts and recover a portion of lost revenue rather than repeatedly removing the same actors.
