The International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting marked its 135^th year in Dallas, Texas.  There was no short supply of cowboy hats and warm southern hospitality to meet the delegates as they convened into downtown Dallas.  At this point, I am not sure what the attendee number will be this year, but they say that it is on track to beat last year’s Washington, DC meeting which opened its doors to 9600 attendees – a new record. 

It felt a little like being Batman in a room full of music and revelers. The setting: ISSMM Engage Conference in Livermore, California. The plot: Corporations are worried about the impact of a Social Media engagement gone wrong and spend time building policies and best practices for their employees and contractors. Time and effort well spent.

With the ever changing landscape of the Social Media monitoring space, BrandProtect endeavours to stay up to date with the latest and most effective methods being utilized by industry leaders in the collection and analysis of Social Media data. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Social Media Strategies Summit in Chicago. It was a bit of whirlwind experience, arriving the morning of the first day of the conference. By about midday I was able to ingest my 8^th cup of coffee and was raring to go. The event was hosted by the Global Strategic Management Institute and was chalked full of insightful and knowledgeable speakers.

A few months back I purchased a new home and needed to re-finance my mortgage.  In the past I have always dealt with a mortgage broker who did all the negotiating for me.  This time proved to be a little different.

In today’s online world filled with 2.4 billion anonymous internet users and over 634 million websites[1] protecting your Copyrights and Trademarks has become extremely vital while also becoming increasingly difficult. Whether you are a retail company, a pharmaceutical producer, a banking or insurance institution you need to protect your Intellectual property online or your brand along with your customers will be subject to Phishing/Malware scams, fake/copy websites, and possibly impersonation profiles on Facebook and Twitter.

On March 7–8, 2013, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA was the epicenter for IP practitioners seeking clarity and actionable advice in the areas of global brand portfolio management, enforcement in social media, and opportunities and challenges in the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) landscape. Some 177 participants from around the globe braved blustery conditions to attend nine fast-paced sessions held over two days. 

Attendees received a warm welcome from Conference Co-Chairs Sarah Deutsch (Verizon Communications, USA) and Brian Winterfeldt (Steptoe & Johnson LLP, USA), who then introduced the first panel, which focused on “Global Brand Management in an Online World.” Two of the topics covered were filing strategies in the online space and protecting brands in online media. Panelist Susan Kawaguchi (Facebook, USA) advised that “Facebook faces a lot of infringement, and effective online enforcement requires a broad sweep to get results.” She indicated that her enforcement strategy includes monitoring domain names, marketplaces, paid search results, social media sites and apps. J. Scott Evans (Yahoo!, USA) counseled, “Do your homework and know the policies for the platforms you are complaining to. Sixty-five percent of the complaints Yahoo receives are shot back, as people don’t read our policies.” J. Scott also advised practitioners to “interact with people who understand the technology early on,” a theme that was carried on through several of the sessions that followed. Weighing into the discussion, Fred Feldman (Mark Monitor, USA) told attendees that filing lawsuits is the most effective way for brand owners to take down large swaths of infringements quickly. 

The next session, “Going Mobile,” focused on protecting brands and building a brand strategy in mobile apps. The session showed that app development comes with a multitude of risks, including impersonation, false association, piracy, copyright and patent infringement, trademark and logo abuse, and distribution of viruses. Christine Hsieh (Google, USA) encouraged the group to “reach out to the developers in the first instance. If the app is very egregious or if the developer is not responsive, then fill out the Google Play trademark complaint form.” Another suggestion made was to file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint for image/logo/icon use if the mark is protected by copyright, as this would provide for a worldwide suspension of the app rather than a local suspension. 

After a lunch break, the conference resumed with a session on “Social Media Enforcement,” aptly subtitled @Embrace the Chaos by moderator Sally Abel (Fenwick & West LLP, USA). Sally led the panel through a gamut of issues, such as developing an enforcement strategy in social media, the challenges of combating counterfeits, nonprofit concerns, and strategies to protect your budget and social media image. Anthony Falzone (Pinterest, USA) assured attendees that his site takes a hard line on counterfeiting: “Connecting people to fakes is a bad thing, so we wipe it out.” Lori Schulman (ASCD, USA) advised the group to “create empathy with your alleged infringer, who doesn’t understand trademark law and dilution issues. Trademark law, at the end of the day, is about consumer protection.” 

The last session of the day centered on “Best Practices in Global Domain Name Management.” Mona Lee (Hanol Law Offices, Korea) spoke about the importance of knowing what you own, especially concerning country code TLDs. Susan Kawaguchi urged attendees to get involved at ICANN: “Many people who vote at ICANN have nothing to lose,” Susan said. “Anyone who has a business online should be involved.” Alfred W. Zaher (Blank Rome LLP) suggested a periodic comparison of domain name portfolios and trademark portfolios. 

The next day’s sessions turned the focus to the new gTLD landscape, beginning with a brief status report by Brian Winterfeldt. Brian touched on ICANN’s key milestones, including the opening of the Trademark Clearinghouse on March 26, 2013 (in connection with which he detailed the associated costs), and advised of the date for the earliest potential sunrise period (July 31, 2013). 

During the session “New gTLDs: Opportunity or Formula for Disaster?,” Andrew Abrams (Google, USA) spoke about the 98 gTLDs Google had applied for. He predicted that “these gTLDs will provide endless opportunities to users; a lot of innovation will come.” Jonathon Nevett (Donuts Inc., USA) added, “The domain space has been constrained for a while, and it’s hard to get a good name—this is the way to go.” Other panelists, however, expressed their concern that the introduction of the new gTLDs is merely a money grab by ICANN, without sufficient protections, and a fresh wave of crime could be unleashed. 

The highlight of the conference was the session “New gTLDs—The View of Government Agencies and NGOs.” Shaundra Watson (U.S. Federal Trade Commission, USA) warned that the introduction of the new gTLDs will bring with it the risk of increased consumer confusion and likelihood of fraud. Robert Flaim (Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA) emphasized that a commitment to an accurate WHOIS needs to be honored. He explained, “Evidence is fleeting on the Internet, so demanding subpoenas as a first step for Internet investigations slows things down, often killing an investigation.” Anjali Hansen (Better Business Bureau, USA) reflected that “in the existing space it is so difficult to police consumer issues, and this will be exponentially worse with the roll-out of the new gTLDs.” 

During the session “Scaling the New Internet Landscape to Your Organization,” panelist Vanessa Soman (Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., USA) was enthused rather than daunted by the introduction of the new gTLDs. She advised attendees that “this is a good time to audit your portfolio and let deadwood go,” and counseled them to “use tools you already have. You will be well served and not have to file for everything.” However, J. Scott Evans expressed his concern that “brand owners are not banding together. We are not brave enough to cut it off by not buying everything.” During the concluding session of the conference, “Global Cybersquatting Challenges in 2013 and Beyond,” Rick McMurtry (Turner Broadcasting System, USA) spoke about his advocacy for a loser-pays, default judgment Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). With this model, brand owners would not have to register their trademarks up front. 

Brian Winterfeldt explained that while they were planning the conference, one goal was “to provide the most up-to-date and cutting-edge information on the Internet, particularly important information on the new gTLDs and how this rapid expansion will affect brand owners and consumers.” Sarah Deutsch added, “We wanted to ensure that all attendees would be able to fully understand the presentations, regardless of their level of involvement or daily interaction with Internet matters. The key to any program is to make sure it is sophisticated enough to reach the experts, yet simple enough for any newbie. The movers and shakers in the field of Internet and trademark enforcement are in some way a part of this conference. Almost everyone who is anyone in this space is either a speaker or an attendee.” 

The conference received many positive reviews from attendees. David M. Kohane (Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard, P.A., USA) said, “I attended the conference to hear from the most experienced practitioners, brand owners, and vendors in the field, both through formal presentations and through informal discussions. I found the conference extremely helpful—the organizers and speakers did a great job, covering the topic comprehensively and balancing between providing important detail and valuable ‘treetop-level’ perspectives.” Charles Shaban (Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property, Jordan) told us he “attended to be able to stay up-to-date with the latest important issues for trademarks owners on the Internet, including the new ICANN gTLDs program, social media and best practices in general, to follow and make recommendations to our clients about protecting their interests on the Internet. The event was up to my expectations and I got the needed information.”

Monitoring newly registered domains has always been an important part of protecting your brand but now with the emergence of the new gTLD’s it has become even more important.  Yes there have been systems put in place like the Trademark Clearing House but all this basically accomplishes is a reporting notification that your exact mark is being registered with a new gTLD .  What about the typo’?  Or trying to have the content removed?  Or monitoring the domain for any change in content once it has been registered?  Also you need to pay for each mark you register to the clearing house so if you are a company with a lot of brands this could get very expensive. 

Spring brings eternal hope as the saying goes. It also continues to bring Phishing to an email near you. One thing we can say definitely about phishing is that it does not discriminate against any of the seasons; Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are all desirable. Recently, one of my email addresses has been inundated with phishing emails. They range from re-setting my Facebook account; to shipping details and order tracking for the parcel I have apparently ordered to having to contact my ISP for tech support through a specific URL they provided. Now consider that if one has a Facebook account; they may think the email is legit. After all, Facebook seems to be changing things on a weekly basis and with that want to keep their millions of dedicated users up to date on the changes. 

Imagine an online world where dot EVERYTHING was possible. Now, everything to the right of the dot will no longer be limited to .com, .org, .edu , soon you will see new gTLDs that are dot EVERYTHING. Many financial institutions believe that by creating their own domain extensions for example, “.Barclays” , “.paypal “ or “.bank” can enhance security and customer trust thereby decreasing fraudulent websites.  No doubt, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) new gTLD program is going to change the internet landscape. The question that many internet security experts like myself are asking, is how will all this affect phishing and internet scams?  Phishing is one of the top online threats today and has been around for over a decade now. Why haven’t we been able to get rid of phishing sites for good? Cybercriminals continue to gain from phishing sites because it’s easy and simple to launch.  Every attack is built with end-users emotions in mind. The driving force of success of phishing sites are their social engineering components and manipulation of human emotion. Online users still click on malicious links, fall for scams and get drawn in by enticing phishing emails.  RSA’s 2012 statistics reveal 32, 581 attacks happen on average each month, which is a 19% increase globally compared to 2011.[1] According to APWG, financial companies are continually the most targeted industry. The idea behind the new gTLDs and having for example a .bank domain is to ensure online banking customers that they are on a legitimate banking site.

BrandProtect is collaborating with the FS-ISAC on an upcoming webinar to discuss the implications of the current FDIC Mobile Applications Guidance and pending FFIEC Social Media Guidance. The webinar will provide financial institutions information on the two guidance’s including; exam findings, risks, best practices, budgetary planning and implementation plans.