What is Brand Monitoring?

eTrademarkSolutions.com
a service of Fabian, LLC
phone: 866.545.7859
web: www.fabianlegal.com
twitter: @jsfabian
in: in/jeffreyfabian
What is brand monitoring?
©2011 Fabian, LLC | All Rights Reserved.

phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
Imagine this: One day a consumer comes to you complaining about a product they purchased recently, and demands a refund. You review your order history, and discover that you did not sell the product in the first place. However, the customer insists that they purchased the product from you, because they recognized your logo on the packaging. You do some research, and find out that a competitor has been using a trademark almost identical to yours for the past six months. When you contact the competitor, they refuse to change their logo, claiming that they adopted it innocently (although this is not a legitimate excuse), and anyway they purchased their domain name a long time ago, so they aren’t sure that you actually have prior rights. Plus, they have sunk a lot of money into marketing, and they aren’t going down without a fight.
Now imagine this: You receive notice that someone has purchased a domain name that is uncomfortably similar to your primary trademark. You contact the purchaser almost immediately informing them of your pre-existing trademark rights, and stating your intent to enforce them. The domain name lies dormant over time.
This is the value of trademark monitoring.

What is Brand Monitoring?
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
Brand monitoring is the task of strategically and regularly investigating online resources in order to discover and, when necessary, react to references to your companies’ trademarks, and potentially the trademarks of your competitors.
This serves a number of important benefits, not the least of which is that federal law requires trademark owners to monitor and enforce their trademark rights in order to maintain exclusivity.
A comprehensive brand monitoring strategy will incorporate research on pending trademark registration applications, domain name acquisitions, social media usage, entity filings, SEO keywords, and a host of other resources.

Benefits of Brand Monitoring
Benefit 1: identify and proactively address infringers
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
One of the primary functions of trademark monitoring is to discover and proactively address both active and would-be infringers who adopt trademarks or purchase domain names that are confusingly similar to your own.
Trademark law protects brand owners from consumer confusion and unfair competition, and monitoring allows brand owners to uncover issues before they get out of control.
Infringers are more likely to comply if they haven’t already put time and effort into developing “their” brand.

Benefit 2: addressing consumer and competitor reaction
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
Trademark monitoring allows brand owners to promptly respond to consumer sentiment expressed in forums, complaint sites and social media. This applies to both positive and negative references.
It also allows brand owners to monitor competitors’ representations. These representations can take the form of comparative advertising, negative “reviews”, domain names, social media accounts, and PPC advertising keywords that show their websites instead of yours.
As with infringement, acting swiftly is the best way to mitigate harm from negative and improper references, and trademark monitoring allows you to take action promptly.

Benefit 3: keep track of licensees—enforce obligations
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
“Licensees” can take a number of forms: online affiliates, independent sales representatives, retailers, and distributors to name a few.
Licensees must be monitored to ensure: (i) proper trademark use, (ii) compliance with contractual obligations (including non-disparagement), (iii) avoidance of misleading advertising, and (iv) appropriate separation between licensor and licensee to limit exposure to vicarious liability
For franchisors, trademark monitoring is absolutely essential.

Benefit 4: keep tabs on the competition
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
Traditional trademark monitoring techniques can also be used to monitor the innovations and marketing strategies of your competitors.
Monitoring competitors’ online activity allows you to keep abreast of recent updates and future releases for their product/service lines, and also lets you know what strategies they are using—either effectively or ineffectively—to promote their brands.
Monitoring competitors’ trademarks can also turn you on to indirect references to your brand. If a competitor makes reference to “the other guy” and “the other guy” is actually (and apparently) you, this is something you are probably going to want to know about.

Benefit 5: maintain and protect exclusive trademark rights
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
As noted previously, United States trademark law requires trademark owners to protect and enforce their rights. Failure to do so can lead to a determination that a trademark has been “abandoned.”
In addition, loss of control of a company’s trademarks results in devaluation of the brand and the company.
Did you know “Aspirin” and “Elevator” used to be proprietary marks? Their former owners lost control of the rights, and now these words are in the public domain.

eTrademarkSolutions.com’s Brand Monitoring Services
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
eTrademarkSolutions.com provides both standard and customized brand monitoring packages to brand owners and entrepreneurs. Packages are available for owners of 1, 100, or more trademarks.
Trademark monitoring services are provided for flat monthly or annual rates (discounts provided for annual payments).
Monitoring covers pending trademark registration applications and more than 100 federal, state and common law databases, including social media accounts and domain names.
Monitoring results are provided in a comprehensive trademark portfolio which includes guidance and other tools for maximizing the value of your trademarks.

Contact Information
phone: 866.545.7859
twitter: @jsfabian
thank you for reading.

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What is Brand Monitoring?

by Law Office of J.Fabian on Sep 24, 2011

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What is Brand Monitoring? — Presentation Transcript