This document discusses the many ways brands can be threatened online, including through counterfeits, fakes, fraud, and cybersquatting. It notes that introduction of new generic top-level domains will create more opportunities for infringement. While technology can help detect some threats, many companies remain unaware of or unprepared for the risks to their brands posed by bad actors on the internet. Protection requires vigilance about trademarks, domains, reviews, and unauthorized uses across multiple online channels.

1. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad
Online World…

2. Presented to
PRSA Western District Conference
San Diego, California
March 21, 2014
Protecting Your
Brand(s)
in a World Full of
Fakes, Frauds,
Sock Puppets and
Cookie Stuffers

3. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
Charles Caleb Cotton

4. “The worst day phishing is better
than the best day working.”
Anonymous

5. “Counterfeiting is the crime of the 21st century”
James Moody
Federal Bureau of Investigation

6. • Misrepresentation
• Trademark infringement
• Fraud
Legal Terms

7. • Overpaying for advertising fees
• Lost website traffic
• Lost sales
• Diminished brand equity
• Damaged reputation

8. • Reseller Non-Compliance
• Logo/Image Abuse
• Unauthorized Sales
• Domain Infringement
• Affiliate Marketing Fraud
• Fake Reviews

9. • Major national, international brands
• High-traffic websites
• e-Commerce businesses; companies with affiliate
marketing programs
• Companies with numerous independent distributors
• Local consumer-facing businesses

10. • Your company’s marketing budget?
• Promoting the brand? Protecting it?
• Company website(s) and domain
portfolio?
• The company’s “online presence”?
• It’s reputation?

11. • Graphic standards
• Proscribed language
• Forbidden marketing channels
• Domain infringement
• Keyword abuse
• Unauthorized distribution

17. • Unauthorized Products
• Unauthorized Sales Channels
• Counterfeits

18. • Convincing electronic rip offs
• Reputable-looking websites
• Doppelganger websites

19. Insert photo from Citizen Hawk presentation showing expired product
Sold on eBay

23. • Companies lose average 22% of potential sales
(ITMA)
• $350 billion annual sales; 7% of global trade
(International Chamber of Commerce)
• World customs seize .01% of total volume
(Alan Zimmerman, CUNY)

24. “Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting),
according to the United States federal law known as the
Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is
registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with
bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark
belonging to someone else.”

25. “Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of
cybersquatting that relies on mistakes such as
typographical errors made by Internet users when
inputting a website address into a web browser.”

27. Phishing site

28. Parked Page

29. Counterfeit Site

31. • Average Internet Retailer 500 company has 100 sites infringing on its
brand
• An estimated 938,000 typosquatting domains target the top 3,264 dot-
com sites
• 250 most-trafficked websites lose $364 million and 448 million
impressions annually
“It’s not unusual for a top website to be targeted by more than
a thousand typosquatting domains”
Benjamin Edelman
Harvard Business School

32. • ICANN introducing new gTLDs
• 1,000+ new TLDs create cybersquatting opportunities
• Primary categories:
o Generic (.blog, .app, .business)
o Vice (.adult, ,sex, .casino)
o Gripe (.sucks, .fail)
o Charitable (.charity)
o Geographic (.Madrid, .Istanbul)
o Corporate identifier (.Gmbh, .Inc)

33. “Our research shows that some of the biggest
American brand names are at risk of intellectual
Property infringement online as the new TLDs are
rolled out.”
Jonathan Robinson
Trademark Clearinghouse

34. Examples:
• Pepsi.us
• Kfc.in
• Adidas.clothing
• Burberry.clothing
• Tommyhilfiger.clothing
• Aeropostale.clothing

35. • Impressions (CPM fraud):
Bots generate fake page views
• Clicks (CPC fraud):
Bots type queries; click ads
• Leads (CPL fraud):
Bots/low-wage workers complete lead
forms; paid bounty per lead
• Sales (CPA fraud)
Typosquatting; Fake sites for cookie
stuffing

36. • 95% of consumers gain confidence in
purchase decision
• Millennials (84%) and Boomers (70%) say
reviews are big influence
• Reviews trusted 12 times more than
marketing
• Growing importance in SEO
• 1-Star boost in Yelp rating = 5-9% revenue
jump (restaurants)
• Reviews drive sales

37. Yelp:
20-25% “suspicious”
Trevor Pinch, Cornell University:
30% fake
Michael Luca, Harvard University:
20% fake
(up from 5% in 2006)
Weber Shandwick/KRC Research:
4 in 10 consumers worry that negative reviews were posted
by competitors; half suspect positive reviews come from
company

38. • 1-Star and 5-Star; no moderate scores
• Extreme comments
• Vague references; few specifics
• Posted at suspicious times
• Comments aligned with marketing messages

39. • More likely to commit fraud when
reputation is weak.
• Chains less influenced by ratings,
less likely to commit fraud
• Restaurants that feel increased
competition respond with negative
competitor reviews.

40. • FTC: “truthful…substantiated…non-deceptive.
Connections must be disclosed”
• Yelp uses filtering process based on proprietary
algorithm.
• Yelp, Google request use of real names;
Facebook tries to ban fake identities
• NY Attorney General deal with 19 companies to
cease operation of “review mills.”

41. • Respond quickly to legitimate criticism
• Respond publicly
• Respond privately
• Flag suspicious reviews for site administrators
• Incentivize initial reviews (sites discourage)
• Make it easy

42. • Create review section on your website
• Include sampling of reviews
• Adopt (and announce) policy forbidding employees to review
• Avoid “marketing speak” on your site
• Allow people to post reviews on your site
“Marketers cannot assume consumers are
discounting anonymous reviews”
Weber Shandwick

43. • Nature of our business? Local? Global?
• Major national or international brand?
• Single corporate brand and/or portfolio of product brands?
• e-Commerce business?
• Affiliate marketing program?
• High volume of website traffic?
• Large distributor network?
• Online advertiser?

44. • Trademark Inventory
• Domain portfolio
• Online directories
• Social media accounts
• Policies and procedures

45. • Ask questions; determine who (if anyone) is responsible for
various areas.
• Assess attitudes of legal, IT, etc. regarding issues (avoid annoying)
• Find ways to handle problems cost-effectively without adding to
their workloads
• See if brand protection firm can run a free or low-cost audit
• Show how you or your department can contribute to solving the
problem(s)

46. • Online abuse is real…and it’s not going away
• Introduction of new gTLDs will exacerbate the problem
• Large, prominent brands primary targets
• Many companies remain unaware of the threat
• Technology needed to detect widespread abuse
• Issue of concern to those worried about brand value, reputation