MainOur company
Our approach
Our servicesContact  


Our approach

"You've got a problem, BrandCleaner's got the solution"

BrandCleaner's customers typically fall into two broad groups: those suffering from issues relating to online copyright infringement, and those suffering from issues relating to the online sale of counterfeit, trademark, or otherwise infringing merchandise.

Regardless of which group your company falls within BrandCleaner addresses your infringement issues within the same "four step framework".

BrandCleaner's Four Step Framework to Address Infringing Items:

  1. Identify potentially infringing items: Performed automatically by BrandCleaner's custom-developed software.
  2. Verify that it is an infringing item: Performed by BrandCleaner's experienced staff or your own staff.
  3. Act, by submit cease and desist letters, DMCA takedown notices, etc. as appropriate and archiving relevant details: Performed automatically by BrandCleaner's custom-developed software.
  4. Follow-up, by checking that infringing items have been removed and, if not, flagging the item for further action: Performed automatically by BrandCleaner's custom-developed software.

BrandCleaner's Philosophy

BrandCleaner consider that in addressing online infringement of your company's IP there are three groups that must be targeted, those being:
  1. The Interested Observer.
    The interested observer does not actually engage in infringement of your company's IP, but is aware of the issue and has taken the time to form an opinion, often negative. This class includes legitimate purchasers, industry commentators, industry analysts, and investors.
  2. The Opportunistic Infringer.
    The opportunistic infringer engages, either knowingly or sometimes unknowingly, in infringement of your company's IP. This is by far the largest group of the three and is the person who will go to small efforts to purchase or download (or sell, or make available) your company's IP. If, however, these are not easily available (in the case of a purchase or download) this infringer will often make a legal purchase. In the case of the infringing seller or distributor they will, upon realising that they face legal action with serious consequences, stop their infringing activities.
  3. The Dedicated Infringer.
    The dedicated infringer generally represents a statistically smaller group and will go to significant lengths to acquire and/or distribute your company's IP.
BrandCleaner's strategy has two stages. Firstly it is to take initial "easy wins" and dramatically reduce the overall incidence and visibility of your company's infringement issues. This will directly address the Interested Observer and the Opportunistic Infringer groups. The second stage addresses the Dedicated Infringer, operating on a distribution level, who seeks to infringe your company's IP, and must often be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. BrandCleaner will work with your company to identify these people, build a case against them, and prosecute. The Dedicated Infringer who seeks to only acquire your company's infringing IP for personal use is, unfortunately, very difficult to stop and, in that they are unlikely to consider making a purchase, we do not consider that they represent a lost sale to your company. BrandCleaner considers these individuals to not be cost-effective to stop, however BrandCleaner will continue to investigate solutions to address these individuals as required by your company's IP protection strategy.
Internet Risks

The Internet remains a medium that is difficult to control. It is too big, too fast, too confusing, and it never goes to sleep. That is why the Internet, and eBay, is a place where online criminals flourish; and often brand owners will not be aware of the full extent of the problem they face. The following are some examples of the typical risks that companies face in an online environment:
  1. Third party use and misuse your intellectual property (Infringing & Counterfeit goods).
  2. Suppliers distributing illegal production (Gray Market goods).
  3. Clients or retailers breaching resale or territory agreements (Parallel Imports).
  4. Supply-chain losses offered as retail goods (Stolen goods).

The solution

BrandCleaner takes a different approach. Our first aim is to discourage illegal sellers through a policy of demotivation. That is to say: our tool frustrates illegal sellers whenever possible by automatically eliminating suspect auctions according to custom rule-sets developed in conjunction with our customers IP policies. Our tool compels these sellers to fight to retain every square inch of ground in order to discourage 95% of them. The stubborn remainder can then be dealt with through more traditional legal means.

A secondary objective of BrandCleaner’s is to offer full support to prepare any form of legal action. BrandCleaner does this by creating and maintaining a digital file history of all auctions removed so that the relevant facts can be used effectively and efficiently once the procedure starts, and so allows your legal counsel to work faster and more efficiently.