Digital brand protection is the process of finding the places where your brand is used online without authorization or in a misleading way, recording each finding with evidence and taking it to an outcome. Counterfeit listings, impersonating accounts, lookalike domains, misleading ads, unauthorized sellers and fake apps are its subject. It does not replace the classic trademark watching run by a trademark attorney: one watches the register, the other watches how the brand is used in the market. Both protect the same right from different sides.
What does digital brand protection mean?
A trademark registration settles who owns the mark and for which goods and services it is protected. Infringement of that right, however, now shows up mostly online: in a marketplace listing, in a social media store or in a domain that resembles the brand. Article 7 of Türkiye's Industrial Property Law No. 6769 also lists, among the acts a trademark owner can prevent, use of the sign online as a domain name, routing code or keyword in a way that creates a commercial effect.
Digital brand protection finds these uses through regular scanning, verifies whether they are a real risk and turns them into a file the rights holder can act on. The scale of the problem is not small: according to the 2025 OECD and EUIPO report, counterfeit and pirated goods accounted for up to 2.3% of global trade in 2021. The report also notes that the rise of e-commerce has facilitated this trade and that counterfeiters exploit online platforms.
Monitoring alone is not protection. Monitoring produces findings; protection takes each finding to a decision and an outcome. We covered the difference in brand monitoring vs. brand protection.
Which risks does digital brand protection cover?
| Risk | What it looks like | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Counterfeit listing | A fake product sold with the brand's name and images | Marketplaces, online stores |
| Impersonating account | An account or store copying the brand's name, logo and posts | Social media |
| Lookalike domain | A misspelt address, or one that adds words such as "outlet", "sale" or "support" | Domain names, copy sites |
| Misleading ad | A fake discount ad using the brand name, an unapproved landing page | Search and social media ads |
| Unauthorized seller | A store not on the authorized seller list; the product may be genuine | Marketplaces, social media, online stores |
| Fake app | An app using the brand's name or icon and asking for login or payment details | App stores |
Each of these risks leads to a different reporting route, but the same actor often uses several channels at once: a fake account links to a copy site, and the copy site gets traffic from ads. What to look for in each channel is covered in which channels digital brand protection should cover.
Unauthorized sellers need extra care. Not every unauthorized sale is trademark infringement; a genuine product sold through an unauthorized channel is assessed separately from a counterfeit. Why the distinction is decisive is explained in authorized vs. unauthorized brand use.
How does it differ from classic trademark watching?
Classic trademark watching is register-side work done by trademark attorneys. Applications published in TÜRKPATENT's Official Trademark Bulletin are watched, and if an application resembling a client's mark appears, an opposition is filed within two months of publication under Article 18 of Law No. 6769. The question there is: should this sign be registered?
Digital brand protection looks at use in the market instead. A marketplace store selling fakes, an impersonating social media account or a copy site often files no trademark application at all, so it never appears in the bulletin. The question here is different: where is my brand being used right now, by whom and how?
| Criterion | Classic trademark watching | Digital brand protection |
|---|---|---|
| What it watches | Applications and registrations at trademark offices | Listings, accounts, domains, ads and apps |
| Main source | Official Trademark Bulletin and office records | Marketplaces, social media, ad libraries, app stores |
| Typical outcome | Opposition, litigation where needed | Platform notice, legal action where needed |
| Who decides | Trademark attorney and rights holder | Rights holder and trademark attorney |
The two are not competitors; they complement each other. A seller found online may turn out to have filed a similar trademark application in its own name, and the owner of an application spotted on the register may have started selling online. In this division of labour, digital brand protection prepares the evidence file: the finding, source link, timestamp, screenshot and risk assessment. Platform notices, oppositions, cease-and-desist letters and lawsuits are handled by the rights holder or their trademark attorney.
How does digital brand protection work?
- Scan: Brand names, products, official channels and authorized sellers are defined, and the chosen channels are scanned at a set frequency.
- Verify: Is the result really about the brand, or a false match? Whether a product is fake, or genuine but sold through an unauthorized channel, is separated at this stage.
- Prioritise: Health and safety risk, sales impact, repeat sellers and how fast a post spreads set the order.
- Record evidence: The source link, timestamp and screenshot are captured before any notice, because the page may disappear once reported. Details are in screenshot evidence for online trademark infringement.
- Notify: The rights holder or their trademark attorney files a notice that follows the platform's rules. On Turkish marketplaces the basis is Article 9 of Law No. 6563: on a complaint backed by information and documents showing an infringement of intellectual and industrial property rights, the marketplace takes the product down, and if the seller objects with documents, the product is published again. The process is covered in how to file a counterfeit complaint on a marketplace.
- Re-check: You check whether the listing was removed, whether the account was closed and whether the same seller came back under a new name, and record the outcome.
When one of these steps is missing, the process stalls at monitoring: findings are seen but never closed.
What should you look for when choosing a solution?
- Channel coverage: Are the local marketplaces of the countries you sell in included? Are social media, ads, domains and app stores monitored in the same place?
- Quality of evidence: Does every finding come with a source link, timestamp and screenshot? Is the record orderly enough to go into a notice and, if needed, to a lawyer?
- Verification: Who filters out false matches? Hundreds of unsorted results consume your team's time.
- Authorized seller check: Are findings compared with your authorized seller list, and are counterfeits classified separately from unauthorized but genuine sales?
- Workflow: Can findings be assigned to team members and tracked until closed?
- Reporting: Do the reports for management and for your trademark attorney come from the same record?
- Role boundaries: Who files the notices? Is it written clearly what the provider does and does not do, and that legal action belongs to the rights holder and their attorney?
- Personal data: Are seller and account names in findings processed only as far as brand protection requires, in line with the principles in Article 4 of Türkiye's data protection law, Law No. 6698 (KVKK)?
What does Authex do in this process?
Authex scans marketplaces, e-commerce sites, social media, ads, domains and app stores on one platform. Every finding is given a confidence score; findings below the threshold are first reviewed by the Authex team and false matches are filtered out. Findings are documented with the source link, a timestamp and, where possible, a screenshot, compared with the authorized seller list, ranked by risk level and assigned to team members. For each finding, a notice draft that follows the platform's reporting rules and an evidence package are prepared, and the status of the notice is tracked in the platform. Trademark offices are also searched for filings that resemble your brand; the decision to oppose and the opposition itself belong to your trademark and patent attorney. See the trademark and patent monitoring page.
Authex does not take legal action, does not remove listings or accounts and does not submit notices on your behalf. The rights holder, or the lawyer or trademark attorney it authorizes, submits the notice to the platform. The scope is on the solutions page.
