Enforcement Glossary

Affiliate abuse happens when partners in a brand's affiliate program break its rules to earn more commission. Common tactics include bidding on the brand's trademark in search ads, posing as the official store, and using coupon or cookie tricks to claim credit for sales they didn't drive.

The risk that AI assistants and AI-powered search answers send people to fake stores, counterfeit sellers, or impersonation sites when they ask about a brand. People tend to trust a single direct answer, so one bad recommendation can drive more traffic to a scam than a low-ranked search result ever would.

Amazon's program for trademark owners. Enrolled brands get more control over their product detail pages and access to tools for finding and reporting listings that infringe their trademarks, copyrights, or designs. Enrollment requires a registered or pending trademark in an eligible country.

The list of retailers, distributors, and marketplace accounts a brand has approved to sell its products. It's the reference point for spotting unauthorized sellers and for showing a marketplace that a seller isn't part of the brand's official network.

Any attempt to pass as a brand by copying its name, logo, website, products, or tone of voice. It shows up as fake websites, social accounts, ads, apps, and support channels. The goal is usually to take money or personal data from people who think they're dealing with the real company.

Ongoing scanning of marketplaces, social platforms, websites, app stores, search results, and ads for unauthorized use of a brand's name, logos, images, or products. Good monitoring catches new threats early, when they are faster and cheaper to remove.

The work a company does to stop others from misusing its brand. That covers trademarks and other IP, products, content, customers, and reputation, across online and offline channels. A typical program combines IP registration, monitoring, enforcement, and working with platforms, registrars, and law enforcement.

A formal letter telling a person or business to stop an infringing activity, with a warning that legal action may follow if they don't. It's often the next step when a platform takedown isn't available, such as when the infringer runs their own website.

Legal protection for original creative work, including photos, videos, product descriptions, artwork, music, and software. It applies automatically once the work is created, though in the US you generally need to register before suing. For brands, copyright is often the fastest takedown route because it covers product photos and marketing content.

A response from someone whose content was removed after a DMCA notice, stating that the removal was a mistake or that they have the right to use the material. Under the DMCA, the platform can restore the content 10 to 14 business days later unless the rights holder files a lawsuit.

Products that copy a brand's trademark, logo, or packaging and are sold as if they were genuine, without the owner's permission. Counterfeiting is illegal in most countries because it deceives buyers about who made the product. Quality is usually lower, and in categories like cosmetics, supplements, auto parts, and electronics, fakes can be dangerous.

Registering trademarks or copyrights with customs authorities, such as US Customs and Border Protection, so officers can recognize and seize counterfeit imports at the border. Recordation adds a line of enforcement before fakes ever reach buyers or warehouses.

Registering or using a domain name that matches or closely resembles someone else's trademark, in bad faith, to profit from it. Squatters resell the domain, park ads on it, or use it for scams. In the US, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act applies, and globally brands often recover domains through the UDRP.

Watching underground marketplaces, forums, and messaging channels for activity that targets a brand. That includes leaked customer data, stolen employee credentials, phishing kits built to copy the brand's site, and bulk counterfeit supply.

Audio, video, or images created or altered with AI to make a real person appear to say or do something they didn't. In brand protection, deepfakes power fake endorsements, scam ads featuring founders or celebrities, and cloned voices used to pressure employees.

Protection for the ornamental appearance of a product, such as its shape, surface pattern, or configuration, rather than how it works. In the US it's a design patent. In the EU and UK the equivalent is a registered design. It's useful against knockoffs that copy a product's look without using the brand's name.

Copying or distributing digital content without permission, including software, games, films, music, courses, ebooks, and design files. Pirated content is often bundled with malware or used to pull traffic to scam sites, which adds a security problem on top of the lost revenue.

A formal request under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act asking a platform or host to remove material that infringes a copyright. It must identify the original work and the infringing copy, and include a good-faith statement and signature. Platforms that act on valid notices keep their safe harbor protection.

A fulfillment model where a store sells products it doesn't stock and passes each order to a supplier that ships directly to the buyer. Dropshipping is legal on its own. It becomes a brand problem when stores use a brand's name, photos, or ads to sell copies or unauthorized goods sourced from overseas suppliers.

eBay's Verified Rights Owner program, which lets owners of trademarks, copyrights, and patents report listings that infringe their rights. Rights owners register once, then submit reports that eBay reviews and acts on.

The documentation that supports a takedown, platform appeal, or legal action. It usually includes timestamped screenshots, URLs, seller details, side-by-side comparisons with the genuine product, proof of IP ownership, and records of earlier reports. Strong evidence speeds up removals and makes repeat infringers easier to act on.

Using a real executive's name, photo, title, or voice to deceive employees, partners, investors, or customers. It's common in payment fraud, fake job offers, and investment scams, and is increasingly paired with AI-generated video or voice clones.

Accounts, phone numbers, or pages that pose as a brand's support team to intercept customers looking for help. Scammers use them to collect card details, request remote access to devices, or charge fake 'resolution' fees. They're common on X, WhatsApp, Telegram, and in search ads.

An app that copies a brand's name, logo, or interface and is published in an app store or shared through download links. Fake apps collect logins, show ads, push malware, or charge for services the brand doesn't offer.

A site built to look like a brand's official store, usually to sell counterfeits, take payment for orders that never ship, or capture login and card details. Fake sites spike around product launches, sales events, and holidays, and are often promoted through paid ads.

Asking Google to remove infringing pages from its search results, most often through a copyright removal request. The page may still exist, but it stops appearing for people who search for the brand, which cuts off most of its traffic.

Genuine products sold through channels the brand hasn't authorized, often bought cheaply in one country and resold in another. The goods are real, but they may lack warranty coverage, local labeling, or proper storage, and they undercut authorized retailers on price.

When an unauthorized seller joins a brand's existing product listing on a marketplace and sells a different or fake item under it. Buyers see the brand's photos and reviews but receive the hijacker's product, and the bad reviews land on the brand.

A Minimum Advertised Price policy sets the lowest price at which authorized retailers may advertise a product. It covers the advertised price, not the final sale price. Brands use MAP to protect margins and keep retailers from racing each other to the bottom.

Any listing on a third-party ecommerce platform that violates a brand's IP rights. That includes counterfeit products, unauthorized use of logos or product photos, and listings that misuse a trademark in titles or keywords. Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy, Temu, TikTok Shop, and Facebook Marketplace each have their own reporting process.

Genuine goods imported into a country without the trademark owner's consent, outside the official distribution network. Whether they're legal depends on the country and, in the US, often on whether the imported goods are materially different from the versions sold locally.

A scam that tricks people into giving up passwords, payment details, or personal information by pretending to be a trusted organization. It arrives through email, text, social DMs, search ads, and fake websites that copy a brand's login or checkout pages.

Unauthorized use of a brand's logos, characters, or artwork on print-on-demand platforms, where designs are printed on shirts, mugs, posters, and phone cases only after someone orders them. There's no inventory and uploads are instant, so infringing designs spread across hundreds of listings and reappear soon after removal.

When genuine products meant for one market, channel, or type of customer end up somewhere else. Diversion usually happens through distributors or professional-only channels, and it's one of the main sources of gray market inventory.

A seller or account that keeps infringing after earlier takedowns. Platforms have policies, and in some cases legal obligations, to suspend repeat infringers. That's why it pays to log every violation and link related accounts, so the pattern is obvious when you escalate.

A product made to look like a well-known branded item, often marketed as a 'dupe.' Some dupes avoid the brand's name and logo and stay legal as lookalikes. Others cross into counterfeiting by copying protected marks, or into infringement by copying a protected design. Using the brand name in listing titles to borrow its search traffic can also be trademark misuse.

A search that starts from an image instead of keywords and returns pages and listings containing the same or a visually similar picture. Brand protection teams use it to find listings that reuse their product photos or logos, including ones that never mention the brand in text.

Legal protections that shield online platforms from liability for what their users post, as long as they remove infringing material once properly notified. In the US, Section 512 of the DMCA provides safe harbor for copyright claims. It's the reason platforms rely on notice and takedown instead of reviewing every upload.

Paid ads on search engines or social platforms that use a brand's name, imagery, or spokespeople to send people to scams, fake stores, or malware. Because they're paid placements, they can reach large audiences within hours of going live. Also called malvertising.

A group of seller accounts, storefronts, or domains run by the same operator, often across several platforms. Infringers spread activity across many accounts so one takedown barely slows them down. Linking accounts through shared images, addresses, payment details, or wording lets a brand act against the whole operation.

Buying and selling inside social platforms through shoppable posts, livestreams, creator storefronts, and in-app shops like TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping. Counterfeiters like social commerce because recommendation feeds spread listings fast and new accounts are cheap to create.

Fake profiles, pages, or groups that pose as a brand, its executives, or its support team on social platforms. They run scams, send followers to counterfeit stores, or post content that hurts the brand's reputation. Most platforms remove them once the brand proves it owns the real account and the trademark.

Brand-owned product photography, lifestyle shots, or videos used without permission, usually by sellers who want their listing to look legitimate. Stolen images are one of the most common signs of a counterfeit or dropshipping listing, and they can usually be removed with a copyright claim even if no logo appears in the photo.

A request to a platform, host, or registrar to remove infringing content, listings, accounts, or websites. Takedowns are filed through each platform's IP reporting tools or by notice to the hosting provider, and they usually need proof of rights plus evidence of the infringement.

Buying a suspected counterfeit to confirm it's fake and gather evidence. The item is compared against the genuine product, and the order record, packaging, and seller details become part of the evidence file. Test purchases also reveal where fakes ship from.

How long it takes to get an infringement taken down after it's detected. It's one of the core brand protection metrics, because every day a fake listing stays live means more lost sales and more confused customers.

The overall look of a product or its packaging, such as its shape, color combination, and layout, when that look tells buyers who made it. In the US, trade dress is protected under trademark law if it's distinctive and not purely functional.

A word, logo, symbol, slogan, or design that identifies who makes a product or provides a service. Registering it gives the owner exclusive rights for specific classes of goods and services and makes enforcement much easier. Most marketplaces ask for a registration number before acting on a trademark report.

Using a trademark, or something confusingly similar, on related goods or services without permission, in a way that's likely to confuse buyers about who made them. Online, that includes counterfeit listings, logo misuse, and lookalike brand names in titles, ads, and domains.

Registering a domain that's a common misspelling or small variation of a brand's real domain, so people who mistype the address land on the wrong site. Typosquatted domains are used for phishing, fake stores, ad revenue, or resale to the brand. It's a common form of cybersquatting.

The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, an arbitration process for recovering domain names registered in bad faith. The brand must show the domain is identical or confusingly similar to its trademark, the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and it was registered and is being used in bad faith. It's usually faster and cheaper than going to court.

A seller offering a brand's genuine products without being part of its authorized retail network. Unauthorized resellers often source from liquidation, diverted stock, or retail arbitrage. They can undercut pricing and leave buyers without warranty or support.