Counterfeits appear faster than you can report them. Fake websites copy your catalog overnight. Unauthorized sellers undercut your pricing on every major marketplace. Customers complain about products they never actually bought from you. Your team spends hours each week chasing problems instead of preventing them.
If any of this feels familiar, you are not alone. This is the reality most modern brands face. Online commerce has created incredible growth opportunities, yet it has also opened the door to sophisticated fraud, global counterfeiting networks, large-scale impersonation, and uncontrolled distribution. Threats appear across marketplaces, social platforms, domain networks, search engines, and paid ads before a brand even knows what happened.
This guide exists to give structure in the middle of that chaos. It explains what brand protection really means today, why so many brands struggle to keep up, and how to build a predictable and scalable program that protects revenue and restores customer trust. It also shares real examples and measurable results so you can understand what effective protection looks like in practice and what impact it can deliver.
If you are looking for clarity, direction, and a more strategic way to defend your brand, you are in the right place.
What is brand protection?
Brand protection is the process of protecting the intellectual property (IP) of companies and their associated brands against counterfeiters, copyright pirates, and infringers of other types of IP, such as patents, design rights, color marks and trade dress.
This is done not only to protect the loss of revenue from a company but also to protect a company’s image, reputation and overall value. Fundamentally, brand protection prevents brand abuse.
Why brand protection matters
When counterfeit products, impersonation attempts, or unauthorized sellers reach customers, the damage is immediate. Buyers lose confidence, support teams absorb the complaints, and legal or commercial teams are forced into reactive work. According to the OECD, the global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods represents 2.3% of global imports. For companies selling online, this means that threats are not rare edge cases but constant pressure on every market and channel. Investing in brand protection gives teams visibility into where the risks come from, reduces operational workload by preventing repeat abuse, and protects both the brand’s reputation and the customer experience.
Most common brand protection threats
Counterfeiting
A counterfeit product imitates the product from an authentic brand, but is made unofficially, by external sources. The fake product will use the logos and trademarks of the authentic brand without permission, in order to deceive customers.
Counterfeiting is just one form of intellectual property infringement, as it specifically targets the trademarks of an authentic brand. So, working against counterfeiting is the primary goal of brand protection companies and services.
Domain spoofing
Rogue websites are sites created for malicious intent, either against a legitimate company or by infringing on its IP. They come in a number of variations:
- Cybersquatters; sites that claim domain names in order to take advantage of other brands’ trademarks.
- Typosquatters; these rely on internet users making mistakes while typing in the address of other websites.
- Imitation sites; websites that attempt to completely pass themselves off as the website of an existing, authentic brand.
Copyright infringement
A copyright is a legal protection granted to creators of artistic, literary, and scientific works. Companies need to be protective of their copyright and have a strong brand protection strategy, even if they’re not creating art, books, or scientific reports. Counterfeiters will copy a product’s authentic photographs and use them to promote and legitimize their own illegal product listings online.
Trademark infringement
Trademark infringement happens when counterfeit sellers intentionally deceive consumers into purchasing a product which they believe is from a legitimate brand. This damages consumers and brands that are trying to operate properly. Unintentional trademark infringement can also occur when a phrase, product feature, or brand logo “is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods” (Overview of Trademark Law).
Trademark squatters register trademarks in bad faith. This can come in a number of forms, including foreign registration of marks belonging to brands yet to register abroad, and transliteration issues, like the Jordan/Qiaodan case.
Patent theft
Patents are legal protections given to inventive products which provide an innovative solution to a problem. Inventors who have created a new product are entitled to patent protection, as it forbids outside parties from using their designs, and outside parties infringing on patents will profit from the time and money invested into designing the invention.
There are two main kinds of infringement to lookout for when it comes to patent theft: Design Patent Infringement and Utility Patent Infringement.
Under US law, Design patent infringement happens when someone applies a “patented design, or any colorable imitation thereof, to any article of manufacture for the purpose of sale”. It is an entirely visual criterion that can be avoided if the design looks different enough. In contrast, utility patent infringement is concerned with the creation of a new or improved product, machine, or process. The criteria are not visual. Instead, infringement will be assessed on the functional similarities and will relate to the utility of the process, machine, or product.
Social media impersonation
Counterfeiting, and forms of IP theft in general, are growing quickly on social media, and is a big online brand protection challenge for many companies.
Unofficial third parties create social media accounts imitating authentic brands, then use their fake profiles to sell counterfeits, send users to phishing pages, and sometimes to distribute harmful malware.
Phishing and fake customer service channels
Fraudulent actors create fake email addresses, chat handles, and customer support accounts that mimic the real brand. Their goal is to steal payment information, harvest credentials, and redirect victims to unsafe websites. This type of impersonation damages customer trust and exposes the brand to reputational and legal risk.
Gray market and unauthorized resellers
Gray market activity involves the unauthorized resale of genuine products outside approved channels. While the product itself may be genuine, pricing, warranties, and customer experience are harmed. Brands lose control over distribution, margin protection, and channel integrity.
Fake mobile apps
Fraudulent apps present themselves as the official mobile application of a brand. These apps often include malware or request permissions that allow data harvesting. Fake apps can damage trust within minutes and can be difficult for consumers to distinguish from the real version.
Malvertising and counterfeit ads
Infringers buy search ads or social ads using the brand name to drive traffic to fake websites, counterfeit listings, or phishing pages. Malvertising affects the brand’s visibility, puts users at risk, and forces brands to compete against their own impersonators in search and social placements.
AI-generated fakes
Generative AI tools allow bad actors to replicate product images, audio endorsements, and even founder videos. These assets are then inserted into listings, fraud schemes, and impersonation websites, making detection more difficult and increasing consumer deception.
SEO impersonation
Fraudulent pages are optimized to rank for branded keywords. This allows counterfeiters and scammers to appear above the real brand in search results. SEO manipulation can redirect a significant portion of legitimate demand away from official channels toward illegitimate ones.
What do brand protection services do?
Brand protection services help companies detect and resolve intellectual property infringements wherever they appear online. They give teams visibility into threats, remove harmful content at scale, and provide clarity about the true impact of counterfeiters and impersonators. Software providers like Red Points monitor the web, flag suspicious assets, and remove infringements across marketplaces, websites, social platforms, and domains.
Save time and reduce manual work
Brand protection services allow you to reduce manual searching and focus on the work that matters. Automated web crawling and advanced image identification help uncover potential infringements without the need for constant human review. Machine learning models learn from your decisions and continuously refine detection so your team can stay focused on strategic tasks.
Prioritize the biggest threats
Brand protection services help you identify the sellers and channels that generate the highest risk for your business. Instead of managing isolated incidents, you can see patterns, group related threats, and understand which actions will have the most impact. This makes it easier to act quickly on the cases that truly matter.
Take action with large-scale enforcement
Brand protection services support enforcement by removing infringing assets automatically and at scale. You can set criteria that trigger instant action against counterfeiters or review cases manually when needed. After removing the content, the system continues monitoring to prevent reappearance and detect repeat offenders.
Track performance and measure business impact
Effective brand protection goes beyond enforcement. The best services help you understand the financial impact of the infringements you remove and give you data to guide future decisions. They provide clear reporting on trends, high-risk channels, and the value recovered, ensuring your team can demonstrate results internally.
How to build a brand protection program
A strong brand protection program helps you prevent, detect, and respond to infringement in a consistent and scalable way. Every company, regardless of size, can build an effective program if they follows a clear structure. Below are the essential steps that shape a robust and modern brand protection strategy.
1. Map your IP assets and risk exposure
Start by auditing what needs protection. This includes your trademarks, logos, product images, copyrighted assets, product designs, patents, and key brand identifiers. Combine this with a risk assessment across sales channels, countries, product lines, and known abuse patterns. Understanding where your brand is most vulnerable allows you to prioritize the right threats from the beginning.
2. Define what “infringement” means for your brand
Different teams often have different interpretations of what counts as an infringement. Create a clear internal definition so everyone evaluates risks the same way. Clarify what constitutes a counterfeit, replica, unauthorized seller, brand impersonation, domain abuse, phishing, copyright use without permission, or fraudulent advertising. This consistency is essential when scaling enforcement across channels.
3. Monitor the channels that matter most
Since infringements rarely happen in only one place, monitoring has to be multi-channel. This includes marketplaces, social media, standalone websites, domains, apps, search engines, and paid ads. Consistent monitoring helps you uncover repeat offenders, fast growth spikes, newly emerging platforms, and cross-channel tactics that may otherwise go unnoticed.
4. Use automated tools to detect and review incidents
Modern brand protection programs rely on automation to keep up with scale. Automated detection uses image recognition, keyword intelligence, clustering, pricing behavior, seller patterns, and machine learning to surface incidents and group similar cases. This lets you move from reactive enforcement to a proactive strategy that eliminates manual searching.
5. Establish enforcement rules that scale
Once incidents are detected, set clear enforcement rules to determine what happens next. This can include automated takedowns for obvious infringements, manual review for edge cases, escalation for high-risk sellers, and workflows that route cases internally when needed. Structured rules help teams stay consistent and react quickly, even during peak seasons or unexpected spikes.
6. Register and use native brand protection programs
Most major platforms offer built-in IP enforcement systems that can strengthen your program. Enrolling in these programs ensures faster action, priority review, and broader reporting capabilities. At a minimum, brands should register in the following:
- Amazon Brand Registry
- eBay VeRO Program
- Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection Platform
- TikTok Creator and Brand Protection tools
- Meta Rights Manager & Commerce IP Tools
- YouTube Copyright Management tools
- Google Trademark and Ads complaint tools
- Etsy Reporting and IP Protection portal
- Shopee / Lazada Brand Protection programs
- Temu / Shein IP reporting portals
These programs are not complete protection on their own, but they increase the speed and effectiveness of enforcement and complement a centralized detection system.
7. Build a response process and escalation path
Decide who handles what. High-risk sellers, repeat infringers or complex legal disputes may require cross-functional involvement. Align with legal, product, marketing, sales, and regional teams so the right people are looped into high-impact cases. Establish a process for when to escalate legal action, issue cease and desist notices, or request platform-level intervention.
8. Track performance and measure business impact
A modern brand protection program measures more than just takedown volume. Track economic impact, seller behavior, repeat infringement, geographic hotspots, channel distribution, trends over time, and the speed of enforcement. Showing clear business impact helps teams justify investment, improve processes, and demonstrate long-term value to leadership.
9. Continuously refine the program based on new threats
Counterfeiters and impersonators evolve quickly, so your strategy must adapt. Regularly review emerging channels, new scam formats, new distribution tactics and changes in platform policies. Refining your parameters and detection filters ensures your program stays effective as the landscape shifts.
A real-world example of an effective brand protection strategy
When Cotopaxi faced a wave of impersonation websites and counterfeit product listings, they partnered with Red Points to implement a full-funnel brand protection program combining automated detection, scalable takedown, and continuous monitoring.
- They deployed automated monitoring across domains, marketplaces, and social platforms, leveraging image recognition, keyword detection, and brand-asset matching to catch counterfeit listings and impersonation attempts early.
- They prioritized threats: high-risk impersonators and fraudulent listings were flagged first, eliminating “noise” and focusing their limited resources on what truly endangered their brand.
- Using evidence-based enforcement, they issued takedown requests at scale — removing fraudulent listings and fake domains quickly, minimizing the window for brand abuse.
- They kept monitoring post-enforcement to detect re-emergence (e.g., copycat domains or repeat infringers), ensuring long-term protection, not just a one-time cleanup.
This approach transformed brand protection from a reactive, manual effort into a proactive, automated, strategic defense, safeguarding brand reputation, preventing revenue loss, and freeing internal teams to focus on growth rather than firefighting.
What’s next
Protecting a brand today requires more than reacting to counterfeit listings or taking down the occasional fake website. Threats move fast, appear across multiple channels at once, and evolve as soon as brands start catching up. A modern brand protection strategy gives companies the structure and visibility they need to stay ahead. By mapping their IP assets, monitoring every relevant channel, using automation to surface and prioritize risks, enrolling in native platform programs, and enforcing at scale, brands can turn scattered actions into a predictable, long-term defense.
The companies that invest in this approach protect revenue, reduce operational pressure, and maintain the trust they have worked hard to build with customers. The examples in this guide show that effective brand protection is achievable when brands combine clear processes, the right tools, and a proactive mindset. With the right program in place, brand protection becomes not just a defensive measure but a strategic advantage that supports growth and customer confidence in every market you serve.
If you want to see how a modern brand protection platform works in practice and what it could do for your team, request a demo of Red Points’ Brand Protection Platform.
