Leveraging well-known brands without authorization has become an art form.

A subject that hits the headlines just too often is still damaging major brands that fail to ring-fence their domains. This time it’s the Washington Post that’s in the news after cyber activist, William Purdy registered the .org version of the paper’s domain name. It is thought that Mr. Purdy registered the domains to intercept traffic intended for Washington Post employees, as well as traffic intending to reach the official site.

US District Court Judge, Ann Montgomery has previously ordered Purdy to surrender Internet addresses he owned that incorporate trademarked names of Coca Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s and the Washington Post. This time, she had issued a temporary restraining order against use of www.wpni.org (the official Washington Post/ Newsweek Interactive site owns the address www.wpni.com).

Pretection International acknowledges that companies appear unable to protect their Intellectual Property on the Internet sufficiently. This is partly due to a lack of regulation but mainly to the amount of information exchanged on the digital highway. The intransparent nature of the various channels of communications (www, ftp, irc, usenet) also stand in the way of the necessary supervision.

Focusing on monitoring your corporate Intellectual Property on the Internet, such as:
- Domain names similar to or resembling your brand name;
- Metatags containing brand names;
- Undesirable portals to your website;
- Unauthorized (mis)use of logos and devices;
- Violation of copyrights,
Pretection’s Online Monitoring Service enables you to gain control over your corporate web values.

The Coca-Cola Corporation (“TCCC”) is famous for having its own inspectors across the world ensuring compliance to brand identity standards and detecting infringements. In spite of their own inspectors, Pretection International has been asked to perform an Additional Evidence scan on a domain name, which contained a trademark of TCCC. This Additional Evidence scan, delivered a clear report containing all needed information about the specific case in question. TCCC now has enough data to litigate this offender, with all the evidence they may need.