MarkMonitor

MarkMonitor is a company which should be of interest to many SJ readers, since it operates on behalf of trademark owners in enforcing their rights and ultimately shutting down sites and sellers that trade illegally in counterfeits or unauthorized products. Obviously the methods employed to achieve these ends aren't going to be explained in great detail on the website. However, they will tell us that they use an automated monitoring system involving proprietary algorithms and analysis techniques to identify the culprits, followed by more automated enforcement procedures that can lead to shutting these people down. And hooray for that. One of their highest profile customers is Deckers Outdoor Corporation, owners of, amongst other things, the Ugg Australia brand - one of the most counterfeited brands in the world. Results, according to the published case study, are pretty impressive, with $4.35 million in illegally advertised goods taken offline in a 90-day period. Although the site is squarely aimed at commercial brand-owners, there's useful information for general readers here too, if you nose around a bit. For example, according to a press release from just a couple of days ago, a study on sports clothing by the company "... identified more than 1,300 e-commerce Web sites selling questionable jerseys featuring one or more of the five brands in the study. The sites attracted more than 56 million annual visits and sell an estimated 800,000 units annually. The vast majority of these sites were linked to Chinese domain name registrants or registrars. "The study also discovered more than 4,000 individual, unauthorized suppliers that appear to be offering phony merchandise on twelve B2B exchange sites. This supply chain consists of suppliers who are based predominantly in Asia and are estimated to sell 300,000 jerseys annually. "Along with their distribution prowess, these fraudsters display a high level of sophistication in promoting their sites and attracting traffic. During the study period, we examined almost 480,000 paid search ads, triggered by more than 280 keyword combinations and found almost 28% of these ads promoted suspicious goods, driving an estimated 11 million annual visits." Possibly no surprises there, if you're already aware of the counterfeit sports jersey trade, but maybe a useful wake-up call to those who still think those bargains out there really are bargains. This company also recently acquired another, DtecNet, who are specialists in detecting piracy and the weapon of choice of the RIAA, the music industry's guard dog and bane of the torrent websites. Even if you aren't a corporation and don't own a brand, you're likely to be a buyer sooner or later. This site gives you an insight into the dangers out there, and some of the behind-the-scenes players who are in the business of meeting those dangers and neutralizing them.

This company's ownership has been passed from one organization to another, now newfold.com. They facilitate sending mass scam/spam emails, such as alleged expiration of Norton anti-virus subscriptions, Geek Squad, etc. You deny any responsibility. There is no phone number to call to speak with anyone at this fraudulent company. One can forward emails endlessly to *******@markmonitor.com, *******@markmonitor.com, without response or resolution. I have been reporting each and every one of these spam/scam emails to the FCC, and anticipate they will be fined into oblivion.