--- title: "Brand Monitoring & Online Enforcement | Pitch" description: "We find counterfeit listings, impersonation and lookalike domains across marketplaces, social media and the web, and act on them through the right route." url: https://www.pitch.law/solutions/effective-online-brand-protection --- [pitch](https://www.pitch.law/) [Solutions](https://www.pitch.law/solutions) [Intellectual Property](https://www.pitch.law/solution-categories/intellectual-property) # Brand Monitoring & Online Enforcement We find counterfeit listings, impersonation and lookalike domains across marketplaces, social media and the web, and act on them through the right route. - By By Bart Lieben, Attorney-at-Law - Published 8 September 2022 - 360 stage: Enforce ## The question A brand that sells well gets copied. Counterfeit products appear on marketplaces, a lookalike website collects customers' log-in details, an account on social media uses your logo and name to sell something you never made. Most of it you only learn about when a customer complains. The questions we hear are practical ones. Where is my brand being misused? Which cases deserve action, and which are a distributor or a fan page that is harmless? And once I know, who do I write to, and with what proof? Clients usually come to us in one of a few situations. A customer or a sales partner reports a fake webshop. A marketplace listing sells goods under your name at a price you cannot match. A new product launch is coming and you want the first weeks protected. Or an earlier takedown worked for a week and the seller came 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 and for which goods and services, because every enforcement route depends on them. Gaps show up at this stage: a mark that is not registered in a market where you sell, for instance. Monitoring then runs continuously with [our online brand monitoring](https://www.pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement). It discovers lookalike domain names from several independent sources, scores them for similarity and typing mistakes, and recognises cloned websites 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 and app stores, and they appear in the client portal. An attorney reviews what the system flags. This is where the judgement sits: whether a seller is authorised, whether a use is genuinely infringing under the [EU trade mark rules](https://www.pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works), whether a reseller can rely on exhaustion of rights, and what the proportionate response is. You can see each detection and tell us to act, investigate or dismiss. Where action is needed, [our takedown workflow](https://www.pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) prepares the notice for the marketplace, registrar, host or platform. Every action is backed by a timestamped evidence pack, and only an attorney sends the notice. If a notice does not solve the problem, the same file supports a cease-and-desist letter, a complaint under the [UDRP or URS](https://www.pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) for a domain name, or court proceedings. In the portal, each detection shows what was found, when, in which channel, and the evidence captured. Your instruction (act, investigate or dismiss) is recorded with it, so the attorney knows what you decided and why. When the same seller returns under another name, the link to earlier detections lets us treat it as a pattern and not as a new, isolated case, which changes the response: a repeat infringer justifies a firmer letter or a complaint to the platform about repeated infringement. ## What you get - A picture of how your brand is being used and misused online, by channel, kept up to date 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 prepared from the evidence already gathered. - Periodic reporting on what was found, what was done and what remains open, which also documents your enforcement activity. We do not promise that a platform will remove 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. The value of the service is that the right case reaches the right route with the right proof. A short scenario: a Ghent cosmetics brand launches a new serum. In the first month, monitoring shows two lookalike domain names and a dozen marketplace listings. The attorney clears three listings from an authorised distributor, sends notices on the others and sends a cease-and-desist letter to the domain holder, who transfers the names. The brand keeps the file for the repeat case. ## Next step Send us the list of your trademarks and domain names, and the markets that matter most to you. We will tell you what monitoring would cover and where the first gaps are. [Schedule a meeting](https://www.pitch.law/schedule) or [contact us](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement) ### [Online Brand Monitoring](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/technologies/domain-monitoring-enforcement) - [Technology](https://www.pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) ### [Takedowns and Enforcement Notices](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/technologies/online-takedowns) - [Technology](https://www.pitch.law/technologies/contract-studio) ### [Document Studio](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/technologies/contract-studio) ## Background reading - [Academy](https://www.pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works) ### [Online Brand Protection: How Brand Monitoring Works](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/academy/online-brand-protection-how-brand-monitoring-works) - [Academy](https://www.pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) ### [UDRP and Domain Name Disputes](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/academy/udrp-and-domain-name-disputes) ## More in Intellectual Property - ### [Trademark Clearance](https://www.pitch.law/solutions/trademark-clearance) [A structured check of whether a name or logo is free to use and register, ending in an attorney-signed opinion with risk levels and a clear recommendation.](https://www.pitch.law/solutions/trademark-clearance) - ### [Trademark Watch & Opposition](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/solutions/trademark-watch-opposition-monitoring) - ### [Brand Policy Compliance](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/solutions/online-brand-compliance) - ### [Domain Name Disputes](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/solutions/domain-name-litigation) - ### [IP Portfolio Management](https://www.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://www.pitch.law/solutions/ip-portfolio-intelligence) - ### [Trademark Registration](https://www.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://www.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://www.pitch.law/schedule)