Next week we will celebrate World IP Day. Observed annually on the 26th of April, World IP Day was created by WIPO in 2000 to highlight the critical role that intellectual property plays in our daily lives and in society as a whole. It is also a day to celebrate the hard work and achievements of intellectual property and brand protection professionals who not only secure their brands from infringement, they safeguard their customers and fans from bad actors.

The work of IP and brand protection professionals has never been more important. The pandemic fundamentally changed our reliance on digital platforms. From how we shop to how we conduct our personal and professional lives, those changes are here to stay. As a result, companies are accelerating digital transformation initiatives. These shifts, while exciting and dynamic for both brands and consumers, present new challenges for brand protection professionals.

Technologically savvy bad actors have created systemic brand abuse networks that are resilient to traditional methods of mitigation. These criminals use the same promotional vehicles and digital assets as the brands they’re targeting, building websites and apps, registering related domain names, as well as creating social profiles to promote themselves. Brand protection professionals are now finding themselves facing attacks from highly organized networks of bad actors. 

These networks of abuse are vast and complex, involving multiple branches and nodes. In our own research, we have found that one in every three enforcements is related to a brand abuse network. While legacy brand protection methods may identify the individual nodes and carry out an enforcement action, the larger criminal operation remains in place. 

These systemic brand abuse networks require a fresh approach when it comes to enforcement efforts.  Modern brand protection goes beyond simply identifying and taking down individual abuse nodes to mapping the connective tissue of the entire network.  As a result, modern brand protection is able to see the true scope of the brand abuse network and uncover the heart of the operation.