How Pizza Pack Secured Their Market and Scaled Brand Protection

In 2020, Matt Poeschl and his business partner, Tate Koenig, founded Pizza Pack - a collapsible, triangular storage container designed for storing and reheating leftover pizza.

The business quickly sold out after going viral on TikTok, and by capitalizing on a Shark Tank appearance the founders quickly secured a deal with an investment firm. Pizza Pack was able to generate over $200,000 in sales over six months with their revolutionary product.

Dealing with Virality and Counterfeits

The rapid success of Pizza Pack attracted bad actors, leading to the rise of highly identical copycat products being sold at half the price. 

Initially, managing these IP infringements was a complex and inefficient process for the founders. They relied on sending hand-signed cease and desist letters via mail and email, a strategy that rarely had any impact.

Following their appearance on Shark Tank, the brand was hit with hundreds of knockoffs. Matt noted that without a strategic approach to marketplace visibility, these counterfeits would have been devastating, potentially shrinking their business to a fraction of its size.

"We had people hijacking our listings. We had people hijacking our Buy Box every other day. We were in full-blown war on Amazon."

^{Matt Poeschl | Founder of Pizza Pack}

The Corsearch Solution

Recognizing the escalating threat, Corsearch reached out to Pizza Pack to implement a multi-pronged enforcement strategy:

Marketplace enforcement and Amazon Apex 

A major turning point was utilizing Amazon's Apex program. After three to four months of participating in internal mediation and submitting profiles, Pizza Pack secured sweeping enforcement capabilities.

Ongoing monitoring

By leveraging continuous marketplace intelligence, Pizza Pack achieved the scale necessary to remove up to 4,300+ infringing listings, translating this enforcement directly into recovered market share and protecting their margins..

Strategic legal action

The thousands of takedowns were consolidated into three strategic lawsuits using Revenue Recovery 360 from Corsearch, which ultimately resulted in significant monetary settlements for both copyright and trademark infringement.

Cross-platform remediation

While Amazon was cleaned up, infringing content continued to emerge on major social media platforms. In addition to the ongoing monitoring and enforcement conducted by Corsearch, Pizza Pack are also able to send any additional targets directly to the team to be enforced on. 

The Results and Impact

Corsearch successfully met Pizza Pack's primary objectives of eliminating infringing content listings and cleaning up the Amazon marketplace. 

• Over 4,300+ infringing listings removed
• Amazon marketplace substantially cleared of competing infringing products
• Pizza Pack became the only collapsible triangular pizza storage container of its kind available on Amazon, according to Matt
• Three strategic lawsuits with monetary settlements secured
• Significant operational bandwidth returned to the founders
• Ongoing protection beyond Amazon

As a result, Pizza Pack cornered the Amazon market as the sole provider of the collapsible triangular pizza storage container. The brand also noted that the monetary settlements from the consolidated lawsuits served as a highly beneficial and unexpected bonus.

“You can go on Amazon today and see that we are the only collapsible triangular pizza storage container on there, which is amazing. Through Corsearch we've been able to completely corner the market.”

^{Matt Poeschl | Founder of Pizza Pack}

Looking Ahead: The Scale of AI

Looking to the future of their industry, Matt discussed how AI is shifting the landscape, and noted that AI acts as a force multiplier for bad actors. 

It enables them to quickly generate deceptive drop-shipping shells at scale that mimic domestic businesses, using automated customer service while shipping directly from China. 

This creates an unlevel playing field for domestic companies like Pizza Pack that invest in US warehouses and human-led customer support.

Drawing from their experience, Matt shared vital advice for other creators:

Prioritize utility patents

As a general note, Matt advises that inventors should secure as much IP as possible before launch, noting that utility patents offer much stronger protection than easily bypassed design patents.

File early

Patents should be filed well in advance so they are fully public at the time of launch, as this will help validate your product and avoid difficult questions around IP ownership from potential investors. 

Partner with experts

Pizza Pack strongly endorses partnering with an external brand protection partner. Doing so provides teams with the visibility needed to save operational bandwidth, generate revenue through strategic enforcement, and ultimately know what matters and act on what counts.

“It was a huge relief to have Corsearch take on this problem. It allowed me to have more bandwidth and not have to worry about counterfeits, copycats and knockoffs.”

^{Matt Poeschl | Founder of Pizza Pack}

Turning Intelligence into Business Value

Through strategic enforcement and continuous marketplace intelligence, Pizza Pack transformed a critical business threat into a competitive advantage. 

By moving away from inefficient manual processes and leveraging comprehensive visibility, the founders not only cleared the Amazon marketplace of up to 4,300+ listings of infringing content but also secured significant monetary settlements through consolidated lawsuits. 

Ultimately, Pizza Pack's proactive approach proves that with the right intelligence and operational scale, brands can protect their margins, corner their market, and prove their value to the business. 

Speak to Corsearch today to find out how we help protect the world’s most valuable brands.

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