Who is illegally using trade marks? Author: PriceCop Tuesday May 28th, 2019 • Category: Blog • Updated: Friday April 4th, 2025 Would you be happy if someone used your photo—your face—on their website without your knowledge, added your first and last name, and in the process, damaged your reputation? And how would you feel if this were done by dozens or even hundreds of websites at once? Many owners of registered trademarks treat their own brands the same way—as though they were personal photos (the logo) or their own names and surnames (the brand name). What doesn’t bring benefit, brings harm Content List What does unauthorized use of a trademark lead to? Who? What to do? What does unauthorized use of a trademark lead to? When you investigate in more detail who’s listing products under registered trademarks without any contractual relationship with their owners or official representatives, you mostly encounter: newcomers to the market; small stores; stores selling contraband. And of course, most of them have no interest in the values or development goals of these brands, since their main objective is to sell—after that, they don’t care what happens. Often, this is not civilized retail but rather small-time dealers who feed off the investments made by authorized partners, dealers, and sales outlets: training staff about product features for professional customer consultations; online content (photos, video reviews, product descriptions, and specifications); offline storefronts and rented retail space; product warehouses. While choosing a product, the customer takes advantage of professional advice, whether online or offline, and ultimately—if everything else is equal—makes the purchase where the price is lower. Of course, the buyer doesn’t care who invests what, as long as they end up with the item they wanted. But when resources and investments don’t pay off, and the warehouse turns into a “museum,” official partners lose interest and replace such goods with those that are more profitable for the business. That’s how brands get destroyed. The one involved is the one responsible Who? Often, manufacturers and official importers or distributors don’t have a clear idea of who’s really selling their products to end consumers. To identify everyone, you need to examine the entire market and compile a list of online retailers whose websites feature the company’s trademarked products. The list of online stores where TM goods are sold may include both official partners and unauthorized sellers. Known partners are found in every supplier’s accounting system or CRM. But who are the others? You can detect them by: search results on Google; price aggregators (Hotline and others); marketplaces (prom.ua, zakupka.com, and others). The professional monitoring system PriceCop automatically indexes millions of product pages and tens of thousands of websites selling items from over 20,000 brands, always keeping track of “Who’s who.” What to do? First of all, it’s important to understand why online stores engage in dumping, because each has its own motives, and the situation is not always as clear-cut as it might seem. Next, you should gather and analyze information about all retailers offering your company’s trademarked goods—collecting online store site addresses, contact persons (including phone numbers and emails), and categorizing them into official and unofficial representatives. It’s crucial to develop a strategy for systematically identifying violations and influencing the situation. Who will apply which sanctions to violators? The company’s policy regarding cooperation rules should be communicated both in writing and verbally to every retailer who features the company’s trademarked products on their online storefront. Systematic price monitoring allows you to consistently oversee compliance with these rules. As for intellectual property rights violators who can’t be persuaded to cooperate civilly when using a TM, trademark owners can take effective measures using the legal means available. In the course of collaboration, PriceCop clients receive professional solutions and a package of services to achieve their end goals of monitoring online stores. Would you like to immediately find out who, exactly, is selling your brand’s products in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and at what prices? Enter the name of your trademark, your email, and phone number, and receive a DEMO report in 60 minutes!