On February 25, Kilpatrick partners Crystal Genteman and David Caplan presented alongside in-house counsel, Leah Feinman of the Coca-Cola Company, and Elizabeth Lester of Equifax on “Building a Successful Online Brand Protection Program” for the ACC Georgia Chapter.

Below are some practical takeaways from their insightful discussion.

1. Collaborate across departments from the start. Gather stakeholders from marketing, sales, cybersecurity, and public affairs/communications to understand the scope of your brand protection issues, the business’s priorities, and the steps that are already being taken so you can tailor your enforcement program.
2. Invest in proactive monitoring tailored to your business. Effective monitoring should assist rather than overwhelm—an ideal system limits time spent on irrelevant content while enabling early identification of issues, understanding the threat landscape, and providing quantifiable enforcement results. 
3. Match your vendor to your actual needs. Before selecting a monitoring or enforcement vendor, assess where your issues are occurring, what channels and geographies matter most, whether you need enforcement capabilities or just monitoring, and what personnel and budget resources you have available.
4. Take a thoughtful, tiered approach to enforcement. Different infringement issues require different responses—obvious impersonation or fraud should be reported directly to platforms, while unintentional infringers may engage constructively with IP owners after notice.
5. Build a ready network before problems arise. Since IP owners cannot anticipate every potential issue, a successful brand protection program should be prepared to act quickly whenever and wherever problems are likely to occur.

For more information, please contact:
Dave Caplan, dcaplan@ktslaw.com and
Crystal Genteman, cgenteman@ktslaw.com.