Ahead of INTA 2026 in London, we're exploring some of the ideas and challenges shaping the intellectual property landscape. In this, the second in our series, we turn to a perennial concern for brand owners: protecting your brand online.

With the rapid growth of e-commerce and cross-border trade, brand protection is crucial for safeguarding reputation, maintaining customer trust and safety, and preventing financial losses from counterfeiting and brand abuse. While e-commerce offers opportunities for businesses, it equally enables bad actors seeking to exploit established brands, mislead consumers and redirect revenues.

Infringements, dupes, counterfeits, trade mark squatting and domain squatting are major issues for brand owners. In 2025 alone, the World Intellectual Property Organization handled over 6,282 domain name disputes, up from 4,204 in 2020 and 2,755 in 2015. The latest European Commission and EUIPO joint report on IP-infringing seizures also revealed a 12% increase in detained articles from the previous year.

Technology and the legal framework have evolved considerably, and rights holders now have a range of tools and enforcement mechanisms to anticipate and address online infringements early. This article examines key issues affecting clients in the online marketplace and the most useful tools brands and in-house teams should incorporate into their brand protection strategy.

Brand protection refers to strategically safeguarding a company's brand and intellectual property ("IP") rights against infringements - whether by innocent infringers, competitors, or bad actors. A successful strategy requires (i) ensuring rights are identified and, where possible, registered; (ii) identifying vulnerabilities, particularly how and where bad actors operate; and (iii) taking swift action when concerning content is identified. This approach enables brands to focus monitoring efforts, stay ahead of counterfeiting trends, and minimise the impact of infringing content.

Understanding Bad Actors

1. One of the most common, and easiest to monitor, areas is use of trade marks within product listings, company names, or social media advertisements or listings. This also includes misuse as a generic term for goods or services.
2. The sale of fake products, which are identical to a third party product and feature a third party's trade mark without permission of the proprietor. This is referred to as counterfeiting, which is a criminal offence in the UK.
3. Impersonation websites with domain names that resemble the brand. These fraudulent sites mimic legitimate brands, deceiving consumers who receive counterfeit goods (or nothing), impacting the brand through diverted sales and reputational harm.
4. Keyword advertising trade mark infringement occurs when online search engine companies sell trade marked words and phrases as advertising keywords to competitors of the trade mark owner. Infringement occurs when the search engine links the actual trade marked words to a competitor's site.
5. The sale of lookalike products or "dupes", which closely resemble higher-value products and may infringe registered and unregistered IP rights. This often extends beyond typical bad actors, requiring broader enforcement covering competitors, marketplaces, and other legitimate sector actors.
6. The sale of genuine products put on the market with permission, but then imported and sold by third parties into other markets without permission (i.e. parallel importation or "grey market" goods). For example, goods placed on the UK market and imported into the EEA without permission would not be exhausted in the EEA and would infringe the brand owner's trade mark(s). You can read more on exhaustion here.

Protection and Enforcement

Here are six ways brand owners and in-house teams can protect and enforce IP rights online:

1. Notice and Takedown Procedures

The E-Commerce Directive established the "safe harbour" principle: platform providers/hosts are not liable for user‑generated content unless they have "actual knowledge" of illegality and fail to act. The EC Regulations 2002 implemented equivalent provisions into UK law, so the principle still applies post-Brexit.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) became fully applicable in the EU on 17 February 2024, representing the most significant update to EU digital regulation since the EC Directive. It regulates online intermediaries - marketplaces, social networks and content-sharing platforms - serving EU users, regardless of provider location. You can learn more about the DSA here.

The DSA established a comprehensive "notice and action" procedure governing how hosting providers must handle reports of illegal content. For most platforms, this requires completing a standard online form. Upon receipt, the platform has actual knowledge of the illegality and must remove or disable access. Most providers act quickly where illegality is easily identifiable; failure to do so may give rise to a cause of action against the platform.

Some hosts, such as Shopify, allow brands to report URLs or entire websites for IP infringements, potentially resulting in full website takedowns. This is particularly useful for large-scale infringements.

2. Terms of Service Enforcement

Rights holders can report IP infringements as breaches of the platform's terms of use, seeking to have accounts disabled or blocked. For trade mark infringements, look for the platform's Intellectual Property Policy or Trademarks Policy within the Terms of Use. Platforms typically remove content and may suspend or permanently block accounts, which can be useful against repeat infringers.

3. Platform Content Identification Systems

Although neither the DSA nor the E Commerce Directive imposes a general monitoring obligation, many large platforms operate free automated tools allowing rights holders to identify and manage content use. Examples include Amazon's Brand Registry, Meta's Brand Rights Protection and Rights Manager, eBay's VeRO Program, Alibaba's IP Protection Platform, and YouTube's Content ID.

4. Search Engine De-Indexing

De-indexing (or "de-listing") removes URLs or websites from search engine results. The content remains online but users cannot discover it through search engines.

The EC Regulations and DSA apply to search engine providers, so de-indexing may occur following a DSA Notice. However, some platforms are reluctant to assess illegality without a court order.

Google recently extended its de-indexing capabilities to trade mark infringement. Rights holders can notify Google of infringing webpages using the legal troubleshooter form, without a court order. Google also allows reporting of counterfeit goods, requiring confirmation of trade mark ownership or authorisation and identification of the specific URLs.

Other providers, such as Bing, offer similar reporting forms. However, Bing's "narrow circumstances" policy means they typically require a court order to de-index.

The drawback is that de-indexed content remains accessible via direct links, social media, or alternative search engines. However, with 56.3% of traffic to counterfeit websites arriving via organic search, and Google holding 80-89% market share, de-indexing remains a critical enforcement component.

5. Domain Name Complaints

Domain name trade mark infringement or squatting undermines trade marks, damages brand value, misleads consumers, and enables bad‑faith exploitation. While it can occur innocently with confusingly similar signs, bad faith registrations and cybersquatting are increasingly common.

If someone uses a domain identical or similar to your brand, steps can be taken to remove or transfer it. The approach depends on domain type and infringement nature. For .uk domains (including .co.uk), the Nominet Dispute Resolution Service (Nominet DRS) offers a faster, cheaper alternative to litigation, with Nominet enforcing decisions directly by changing registration records.

For gTLDs such as .com, .net, or .org, the relevant procedure is the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), administered by bodies including WIPO. The UDRP follows similar principles to Nominet DRS but is not UK-specific.

6. Brand Protection Tools (AI)

Brands can track these issues through manual monitoring, but this is time-consuming and may miss infringing activities. AI-powered brand protection tools and software now offer automated online IP monitoring with minimal manual input.

Effective Brand Protection in Practice

At Lewis Silkin, we understand the challenges brand owners and in-house teams face in the evolving online marketplace. Our team advises on the full spectrum of brand protection, including strategic trade mark registration, monitoring best practices, and trend analysis. Where standard enforcement proves insufficient - platform hosts failing to act, repeat infringers, or injunctive relief required - we provide specialist legal advice and court representation. For information on our integrated brand protection service, please contact us.

We set out our key tips for achieving an effective brand protection programme below.

Our Tips for an Effective Brand Protection Programme

1. Registration Ensure you have registered your trade marks and other IP rights in the relevant jurisdictions in which you operate or intend to operate.
2. Strategy Clearly understanding your brand's main issues - prevalent forms of misuse, commonly copied products or trade marks - enables a more streamlined and focused programme.
3. Register with the Relevant Online Marketplace IP Portal or Brand Registry Most established marketplaces have portals for registering IP, allowing you to upload rights details once rather than with each complaint.
4. Keep Good Records Some marketplaces require certificates of registered rights (screenshots from the relevant IP Office may suffice) or powers of attorney if using third-party enforcers. Have these documents ready before commencing enforcement.
5. Templates If you come across similar types of infringement regularly, it may be appropriate to prepare template wording for your takedown notices.
6. Trend Spotting Record trends in illicit behaviours and repeat offenders for reporting to marketplaces.
7. Maintain Relationships Where possible, establish relationships with marketplace brand protection teams. This facilitates education and provides direct contacts for addressing rejected notices and trends.
8. Beware of Unjustified Threats When submitting takedown notices based on registered rights (trade marks, patents, registered designs), be mindful that you may be liable for unjustified threats if no infringement is found.

When to Seek Legal Advice

The above mechanisms may be insufficient to stop infringement or address resulting damage. Specialist legal advice may be required when:

• You do not have registered rights.
• A platform host refuses or fails to respond to an infringement notice.
• The infringing content is repeatedly re-uploaded (the notice and action process becomes a game of "whack a mole").
• The identity of the infringing party is not known. A Court Order may be required to obtain identifiable information from the platform provider.
• Monetary damages or injunctive remedies are sought.
• You are considering approaching the other party directly, as threats in trade mark cases are specifically regulated.
• Serious or commercial-scale infringement is involved. Criminal sanctions, including fines and imprisonment, may apply under the CDPA 1988 (copyright), Trade Marks Act 1994 (trade mark/counterfeiting), and other IP legislation. Trading Standards and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) may get involved to investigate and prosecute offenders.

For information on our integrated brand protection service, and how we can help with your brand protection strategy, please reach out to Oliver Fairhurst (oliver.fairhurst@lewissilkin.com) and Nick Bowie (nick.bowie@lewissilkin.com).