Trademark Infringement on Social Media: What to Do | AdvertiseMint

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November 4, 2018
Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ad agency

You just got home from a long day at the office. You’ve had a very productive day working on your brand’s digital marketing strategy for multiple online platforms. You sit down at your home desk and pop open your laptop to see if you’ve gotten any notifications on your personal Facebook profile. You’re scrolling through News Feed and find an ad with your company a logo…only, it’s not your company’s ad.

It’s not uncommon for a company to scam users by copying another brand’s name or logo. Luckily, there are policies in place to help brands who are victims of such thefts. But where and how do you start the process? In this article, I’ll walk you through the necessary guidelines for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Amazon. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use them, but at least you’ll be prepared in case you do.

The easiest and fastest way to file a report of a trademark infringement is through its online form. You will need to supply the following information, as listed by Facebook’s Help Center:

Facebook advises you to first contact the party you suspect of trademark infringement directly about your concerns. If you want to pursue an in-depth investigation, Facebook says to consider court or judicial means. It’s also important to note that the contact information you provide in your report to Facebook will be shared with the party about whom you are filing the report, so they may use it to contact you.

After you submit your report online, Facebook says you will receive an automated email containing your report number, which you should save for your records. If Facebook determines that more information is needed in order to complete the report, you will be contacted via email by someone from Facebook, so you should diligently keep an eye on your inbox.

Brand Violation Policies

Facebook’s Advertising Policies states that third-party infringement is prohibited. Specifically, the policies state:

“Ads must not contain content that infringes upon or violates the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights.”

Additionally, Facebook’s Statement of Rights also prohibits using the platform to share content that “infringes or violates someone else’s rights.”

Instagram’s process for filing a report of a trademark infringement is the same as Facebook’s. The main difference is the link to the online form.

Just as you would with Facebook, first contact the party you suspect of trademark infringement directly about your concerns. If you want to pursue the incident further, you will need to turn to court or judicial means outside of Instagram’s process. Just as Facebook would, Instagram will share your contact information provided in the report with the party suspected of infringement.

Once you submit the online report, Instagram will send you an automated email response to confirm that it was received. That email will contain a report number that you should save for your records. You should keep an eye on your email afterwords in case Instagram asks for more information regarding your report.

Brand Violation Policies

Instagram’s Platform Policy clearly states under its General Terms:

“Don’t provide or promote content that violates any rights of any person, including but not limited to intellectual property rights, rights of privacy, or rights of personality.”

Additionally, in its Terms of Use, Instagram says it may terminate an account if it infringes upon another user’s rights, which includes intellectual property.

Once you select your specific concern, you will be directed to a contact form where you will need to fill in the required information fields. Information you will need to supply includes your full name, email address, full name of the rights holder, the type of content you are reporting, details about the trademark, the trademark registration number, the trademark jurisdiction, trademark verification, an example of genuine goods, a link to the trademark infringement, the location of the infringement content (e.g. Story title, username, or Snap ID), and a description of the infringing content.

You may also upload any documentation that you believe might help in the investigation, such as the image of the original content that was violated.

Brand Violation Policies

Snapchat states in its Community Guidelines under Impersonation & Spam:

“Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not — this includes your friends, celebrities, brands, or other organizations — or attempt to deceive people about who you are.”

YouTube advises you to first contact the owner of the content that’s infringing on your trademark rights to attempt a resolution. If you are unable to resolve things smoothly, then YouTube says you should submit an online trademark complaint.

There are four sections YouTube requires you to provide information for as part of your complaint: your information, details about your trademark, details about the content in question and how you think it is infringing on your trademark rights, and legal affirmations.

The information you will need to provide includes:

Trademark details include:

Content details you will need to supply:

YouTube requires that you also agree to and provide these statements in your complaint:

If you do not wish to submit your complaint via YouTube’s online form, YouTube says you can contact its legal support team in one of the following alternative ways:

Brand Violation Policies

In YouTube’s Terms of Service, the platform says the following in regards to content infringement:

“You further agree that Content you submit to the Service will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant YouTube all of the license rights granted herein.”

A couple points down, the Terms also state:

“YouTube does not endorse any Content submitted to the Service by any user or other licensor, or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and YouTube expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with Content. YouTube does not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights on the Service, and YouTube will remove all Content if properly notified that such Content infringes on another’s intellectual property rights. YouTube reserves the right to remove Content without prior notice.”

YouTube also says it reserves the right to terminate an account if it is deemed a repeat infringer.

Amazon too has an online form to complete in order to report a trademark violation. The form requires the following information:

“Typically, a seller can use someone else’s trademark in the following circumstances:

Additionally, the policy explains counterfeiting incidents:

“Counterfeiting is a specific type of trademark infringement. A counterfeit is an unlawful total or partial reproduction of a registered trademark—or a mark that is very similar to a registered trademark—in connection with the sale of a product that does not come from the trademark holder.

“Counterfeiting requires the use of a registered trademark on the product or packaging. A look-alike item sold on a separate product detail page without the improper use of a registered trademark is not a counterfeit, even though the item might look similar or identical to the trademarked product.”

Legal Action

Each platform specifically notes that it does not enact legal action and that if you should want to enforce any such measures, you should consider getting a lawyer involved. None of the platforms are responsible for instigating any sort of legal action or enforcement, so you’ll need to explore your options outside of the specific platform’s infringement process if that’s the route you want to take.

How Long the Infringement Report Process Takes

It varies, depending on the information you provide and any additional information that may be needed after you submit the initial report. Depending on the individual case, the platform may contact you with follow-up questions regarding your report. The platforms don’t specify exactly how long the process takes.

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery in some cases, trademark infringement going through the process of reporting an infringement, but platforms have the policies in place in order to help you preserve the integrity of your trademark and to overall promote only positive online experiences for brands.

Should you fall victim to trademark infringement on any one of the platforms covered in this article, you now have the resources to at least help alleviate some of the burden of scrounging for it on your own. And if you’re fortunate enough to dodge that bullet, at least you’re prepared!

This content was originally published here.

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