How Can Fitness Brands Fight Online Infringement? IP Awareness Is Key
In fighting against knockoffs, scam sites and fake ads, brands should prioritize platforms where they have high volumes of business
With the rising prevalence of knockoffs, scam sites and fake ads, particularly surrounding the fitness and wellness industry, brands need to be more diligent than ever to fight infringement.
Technological design tools have made knockoff quality almost indistinguishable from genuine versions. Among the many concerns of infringement, fake ads threaten a brand’s health and consumer expectations.
Digital brand protection platform Red Points recently presented a webinar titled “Fighting Online Infringement in the Sports Industry: Practical Steps to Protect Your Brand and Revenue.” Intellectual property and brand security experts spoke on the panel, including Rob Hoge, director of intellectual property and counsel at Nautilus.
Be Aware of Your IP Rights and Prioritize Key Areas
“The first thing I look at is understanding what are my actual intellectual property rights that I have,” Hoge said. “Each type of intellectual property right provides different challenges, so you have to know how to enforce them, both in terms of what you have and where you have them.”
A company should dedicate more resources to guarding against online infringement in areas where they have an active business. Similarly, companies should be most careful on sites and platforms where they have high volumes of business. Investing in ensuring that consumers still trust the validity of the genuine product they purchase on a site is vitally important for business.
“You have to understand which markets matter the most, in terms of countries and online,” Hoge explained. “You want to make sure that you’re prioritizing what will have the biggest impact and will help the business.”
Fitness and wellness brands should also seek to understand what their goals are “within the budget that you have,” Hoge said.
“One of my goals is that I want the counterfeits and the fakes to be not highly visible in places where customers trust and do a lot of shopping,” the Nautilus executive said.
Stay On Top of Legal Developments and Tech Solutions
Tracking legal developments has also never been more important. Pertinently, the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) Consumers Act took effect last week. It puts new requirements in place for online marketplaces, including that they must collect and verify certain financial and identifying information from “high-volume third-party sellers.” Online marketplaces generally must disclose on those sellers’ product listing pages the seller’s name, address and contact information. This will cause online marketplaces to increase their compliance efforts, which should be good news for brands.
Another method to guard against online infringement is through automated technology. Using technology like Red Points offers can increase efficiencies in identifying and removing competitors threatening one’s business. The company helps stop impersonation, counterfeits, piracy and brand abuse to combat online fraud.
Lastly, simply being aware of your brand’s intellectual property protections is key. Many brands fail to keep track of when their protections expire—for example, design patents last for 15 years, while utility patents last for 20. Staying organized with your intellectual property and key deadlines could prove invaluable for guarding against infringement.