Brand Abuse Practices Rampant on the Web

Adding statistical to a nightmarish topic, Cyveillance recently released a report ranking the ten most commonly abused uses of brand names, patents and trademarks on the Web. According to Cyveillance, the most frequent type of brand abuse on the Web is the unauthorized use of product or company logos and images. This was followed by the misuse of both hidden and visible text, the unauthorized use of the brand names in META tags, piracy of software, music and videos, distributing or selling company goods without the appropriate authorization, and framing. While the International Trademark Association estimates that brand name abuse can diminish a company's annual sales by over 22 percent, it remains to be seen how the abuse of brand name online will effect this figure. Other commonly practiced brand violations include using a company's name on a competitors site, using brand names in a pornographic context, domain name abuse and parody sites, and finally gripe sites and negative newsgroups postings.

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