How to defend your brands on the internet?
Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not a lawless zone. If you notice an infringement of your rights online, you must react. French and European legislators have also put in place mechanisms to fight against it, which allow you to defend your trademarks in particular. The first step is to characterize the infringement of your trademarks, and then act to stop it.
Trademark counterfeiting online
The infringement of your rights on the Internet can take several forms: it can be a resale of your products by an unauthorized third party, an imitation of your products or services, but also the use of your trademark for products that are not yours.
If each of these uses is likely to constitute an infringement, qualification is not automatic. In some cases, a likelihood of confusion will have to be established. For example, if the products concerned are only similar to yours. Other cases are not easy to decide: this is the case when your trademark has been bought as a keyword in an advertisement on Google, or even in of the cybersquatting business. Counterfeiting will therefore not be systematically proven. And it will not always be possible to take action against the third party using your trademark.
Thus, litigious content published on the Internet may be prosecuted in France if it is available in France and in the French language, or if it harms the interests of a person living in France..
If it seems to you that there is a genuine infringement of your trademark, constitute yourself as proof. If you can afford it, call in a patent attorney or a bailiff. Otherwise, take dated screenshots that establish the suspected infringement.
Once the infringement has been identified, the infringement should be stopped. You must first contact the publisher and the host of the site.
The responsibility of the publisher and the host in case of counterfeiting
The publisher is the person or company that operates the website. As such, the publisher has an obligation to monitor the site, and may be held liable for any illegal content disseminated on it. The identity of the publisherand a means of contact, must be indicated in the "legal notices" of the site.. Unfortunately, however, this information is sometimes not accessible. If you are unable to contact the publisher, you should then turn to the hosting provider.
Unlike the publisher, the host has no knowledge of the published content. He simply stores it. Despite this technical role, the host has obligations. Once informed, he must act promptly to remove or make impossible the access to the illegal content. It is therefore necessary to notify it as soon as possible of any infringements of your rights. The host can be found by consulting the Whois of the website concerned. In the case of hosting platforms (Le Bon Coin, Amazon, Facebook, etc.), there is usually a reporting form. To save time, attach proof of your rights, i.e. a copy of your trademark certificate, to your application.
Our advice to protect your rights on the internet
Finally, it is not necessary to have a trademark to act against a problematic internet publication. However, the fact of owning an industrial property right generally makes it possible to stop the infringement more quickly. Amazon offers additional services to brand owners, such as.
Moreover, the fact of having a registered trademark can be used to characterize the bad faith of the infringer. Therefore, in order to fight more effectively against counterfeiting on the Internet, register your trademarks with the help of a professional agent.