Protecting the Legacy of a Leading North American Brand

When a brand achieves iconic status, it often becomes a victim of its own success and can lead to frequent issues with copycats and counterfeiting. 

This was the reality for our client, a major retailer and household name, operating over 180+ stores across the United States and Canada who wanted to better protect its loyal customers when shopping online.

Managing a diverse portfolio, the brand’s intellectual property is essential for customer identification and represents a significant investment.

The Challenge of Visibility

The landscape shifted significantly when one of the company's iconic apparel items went viral. 

This visibility led to a sudden surge of rampant knockoff products across many of the biggest global ecommerce platforms that quickly overwhelmed the brand's internal enforcement capacity. 

Sold at lower price and quality than the original items, these unchecked counterfeits resulted in significant lost revenue before intervention.

Understanding the Infringement Landscape

The problem isn't just finding infringement; it's understanding the sophistication of the networks behind it and having the internal resources needed to shut it down.  

Using Zeal 2.0 and the insights from Corsearch experts, our client quickly realized that the threat extended far beyond a single viral product.

Their internal customer service teams began tracking deceptive websites and products, revealing a multi-layered infringement landscape:

• Bad actors were creating fake websites designed to mimic the brand's logo and online presence
  
  
• Unauthorized imitations heavily targeted the company's broader portfolio
  
  
• The enforcement challenge evolved toward parody products, where sellers deliberately took the official logo and altered the text
  
  
• Parody products were identified on the biggest ecommerce channels in the US
  
  
• Additional infringement volume was also concentrated on major Chinese marketplaces

A Strategic and Connected Response

Brands attempting to manage this volume of protection entirely in-house often find the workload too large to manage independently. 

Our client recognized the need for external expertise and required a comprehensive, 360-degree approach to both Trademarking and Brand Protection to fully ensure their customers and brand reputation are protected. 

To ensure brand integrity and a clean shopping experience for their loyal fanbase our client engaged Corsearch on: 

Early Detection using TrademarkNow

Utilizing the TrademarkNow platform for vetting names and comprehensive Trademark watch services to see risk earlier and to help manage their comprehensive IP portfolio.

These insights help optimize internal resources allowing their online Brand Protection program to be as effective as possible. 

Dedicated Enforcement 

Corsearch provides dedicated resources to handle the complex technical aspects of takedowns across all major ecommerce platforms.

Our client is now able to enforce takedowns quicker and more efficiently making a safer shopping space for customers online. 

Operational Relief

This dedicated support fills a critical gap, as the company lacked the internal time and specific platform expertise to manage these complex takedowns alone.

Since partnering with Corsearch, the brand has successfully suppressed the widespread infringement that initially cost them significant revenue and has helped ensure consumer trust for years to come as their operation continues to scale. 

Looking Forward: The Role of AI and Proactive Protection

Moving forward, the increasing availability and use of artificial intelligence to generate highly realistic counterfeit products and imitation websites is one of the main challenges for our client, and the Brand Protection industry as a whole.

AI changes the speed at which bad actors can operate, but it also changes the scale at which brands can respond. To maintain their defense, our client is evaluating proactive domain audit services to identify imitation websites even earlier in their lifecycle, adding an additional layer of protection for their customers. 

By combining deep human expertise with advanced technology, Corsearch ensures that this iconic brand can continue to protect its customer experience and hard-earned legacy.

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