Role of Attorneys in Internet-Based Trademark Infringement: Filters

Trademark infringement has been a problem since the origination of the concept of a trademark. Competitors have always sought to leverage the recognizability and reputation of established trademarks in their own promotional attempts, and criminals have always sought to misrepresent themselves as established brands in order to gain instant trust.

In the modern Internet Age, the latter has become incredibly easy to do: Websites using art assets from established brands or emails sent purporting to be from established brands are standard techniques used by criminals to use trademarks illegally, and any patent attorney in California tasked with dealing with the Internet threat knows that their main role will be as a filter for their client.

Volume

The sheer volume of trademark infringement on the Internet means that any company’s first steps have to include monitoring of the Internet. This starts with simple tool such as Google Alerts but also includes many other tools and services that can help keep an eye on millions of Internet users and their posted content all over the world. With so many options for monitoring, the volume of information gathered quickly becomes unmanageable.

Thus, it falls to the patent attorneys in California assigned to a trademark to collate all this information, pick out the true threats from the less pressing issues, and to act as filters on behalf of their clients so resources can be carefully marshaled and applied intelligently. Some infringements will be inadvertent, some will be humorous and not intended to harm the brand or use it for illegal purposes, and some will simply be incompetent and easily dealt with using automated tools. It is the role of the patent attorney in California to make these determinations and only bring what’s necessary to their client’s attention.