Hyperreal CEO deepfakes, counterfeit brand websites, fraudulent transfer requests.

We’re just starting to discover what artificial intelligence (AI) can do—and the intellectual property (IP) infringement risks it brings.

According to our IP Frontiers Report 2025, 88% of legal teams say AI is directly driving an increase in IP infringements. That means it’s harder than ever to react before it’s too late.

But your brand safety depends on your detection speed—so what do you need to know and what can you do about it?

How generative AI is fueling a new era of infringement

Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry for fraudsters. Now they can replicate logos, produce polished promotional materials, launch counterfeit online shops, and create executive deepfake videos—all at an alarming industrial scale. Companies now see counterfeiting, trademark abuse, and AI impersonation as the top threats to their brands.

Ian McConnel, our chief legal officer, emphasizes that the speed of the shift is unprecedented: “It takes no effort at all today to go to an AI-powered tool and have it create fictitious materials…Fraudsters are only limited by their imagination.”

The automation advantage means bad actors can launch thousands of fakes, amplify them through bots, and rapidly iterate new versions to evade detection.

Deepfakes and fake domains are transforming online impersonation

We once considered deepfakes science fiction. Today, though, they’re becoming part of our everyday reality.

Worryingly, they’re not just curiosities or clever tricks—they’re now a common operational attack tool. We’ve seen mounting cases of employees receiving AI-generated deepfake videos of their executives. These fakes can convincingly clone voices and generate synthetic emails. With deepfake scams, criminals target one of the most vulnerable lines of a brand’s defenses: its people.

The IP Frontiers Report shows a critical readiness gap: only 16% of legal teams have full visibility of their organization’s domain portfolio.

The lack of visibility creates unmonitored spaces where lookalike domains can go unnoticed. Fraudsters can register spoofed domains in minutes, then use them to host cloned brand content or launch phishing campaigns—often before organizations are aware the domains exist.

As artificial intelligence accelerates these schemes, the consequences grow more severe. Ian warns that these deepfake impersonations will soon be indistinguishable from legitimate communications, eroding internal trust and exposing employees to increasingly convincing fraud.

Slow detection increases the risk

In the age of AI, speed defines risk. The longer a spoofed domain, counterfeit listing, or executive deepfake stays online, the more financial and reputation damage it inflicts.

But attackers move far faster than traditional detection workflows. AI lets them act in minutes, while legal and security teams can take days or weeks to investigate, validate, and initiate takedowns.

Ian notes that: “Fraudsters exploit fast, low-cost tools,” leaving brands perpetually reacting rather than preventing. 93% of legal teams fear the impact AI-created assets could have on their business, which reflects the speed asymmetry that now defines modern IP infringement.

Domains are the first domino in AI-enabled attacks

Criminals use fake domains to launch most digital fraud campaigns and serious IP infringements. These power phishing, counterfeit goods sales, and executive impersonation scams. As Elliott Champion, our global product director, highlights, “The barriers to entry for this type of fraudulent activity are now unbelievably low.”

Although 76% of organizations claim to have a domain strategy in place, many can’t detect all the fake domains that impersonate their brands. These blind spots leave them vulnerable. To truly protect against these attacks, you need domain monitoring and enforcement strategies.

Proactive defense strategies to stay ahead

When AI-enabled attacks are constantly evolving, organizations need a proactive, multi-layered IP protection strategy. Here are five steps to get ahead of the threat:

1. Monitor continuously with AI – Automated monitoring tools detect brand abuse, counterfeit listings, fraudulent domains, and fake content globally. Outsourcing this work is rising rapidly: 56% already outsource monitoring and plan to expand it.

2. Have a domain strategy and rely on the security of an enterprise-class registrar – Enterprise-class registrars offer enforcement capabilities, global monitoring, and secure infrastructure that retail registrars can’t match. As Ihab Shraim, chief technology officer at CSC’s Digital Brand Services, explains, “Enforcement, hosting security, and monitoring reach are essential advantages.”

3. Collaborate across legal, IT, marketing, and security – High-performing organizations operate digital governance teams where functions work together. 86% of respondents say they now collaborate closely across teams—this needs to rise as AI threats escalate.

4. Enforce quickly and use takedown mechanisms – From uniform domain-name dispute-resolution policy (UDRP) actions to provider-level enforcements, speed matters. Our domain enforcement technology lets you find and remove threats quickly.

5. Train your people on AI-enabled scams – Now it’s so easy to impersonate executives by video or voice, companies should train employees to check communications using approved channels.

AI vs. AI: the new arms race shaping online brands

As deepfake technology improves and counterfeiters automate their operations, the defensive landscape is developing faster and faster.

Organizations can’t detect infringements manually. They need to use AI-driven detection tools to identify suspicious domains, synthetic images, and manipulated content at machine speed.

This is creating a new arms race where attackers and defenders continuously adapt to get ahead of one another. Companies need to act fast and use the right tools.

Partnering with CSC gives you access to a wealth of resources. We offer monitoring, domain security, and enforcement capabilities bolstered by technology and human expertise. These can help close the gap, so you can detect and dismantle threats faster than AI can scale them.

Why proactive, real-time monitoring is essential

AI has fundamentally changed the economics of IP infringement. Attacks are faster, cheaper, and far more convincing than ever before. Detection is now a race against time, and reactive strategies don’t work.

As our IP Frontiers Report concludes, organizations that invest in proactive, layered defenses will be best positioned to mitigate these IP risks. And partnering with the right enterprise-class providers can help put protection in place even faster.

To better understand how legal and security teams are preparing for the next wave of AI-driven IP threats, download CSC’s IP Frontiers Report 2025.