The Brand Protection Professional (The BPP) VOLUME 1 | NUMBER 2 | Page 44

THE BRAND PROTECTION PROFESSIONAL
Yes, my boss and I are the entire in-house IP team managing 9,000 copyright
registrations and 8,000 trademarks worldwide. WWE video programming can be
seen in more than 180 countries in 20 languages. Needless to say we have a lot
of content to protect and it is really important to align with vendors with strong
technology to assist in enforcement. If your company is heavily invested in video
content, then you need to choose a strong vendor with top technology in the
fingerprinting and watermarking space, as well as a strong vendor in the post-
event User Generated Content (UGC) and Peer-to-Peer enforcement space. One
cannot ignore social media and mobile apps, and there are vendors in those
spaces that specialize there too. On the marketplace front, one almost needs to
work with a vendor to assist in the removal of listings online selling counterfeits
– it’s a volume game. But even then, one needs to strategically pick certain
battles. Let your data work for you. Concentrate on high-volume sellers
importing counterfeit goods into high-value jurisdictions and those selling in bulk
online. Run select investigations on these high-priority targets and work
backwards to shut them down at the source of creation.
One more important tip: do not underestimate the
importance of your copyright rights. In some first-
to-file countries, you might have problems
registering your trademarks, so copyright
I know that you
solved a problem
for me with an
registrations and the ability to use them to
enforce based on international treaties come in
very handy where your IP portfolio may have holes.
outside counsel
recommendation
with whom I now
have a multi-year
successful Also, I can’t overstate establishing relationships with
relationship. other brands and customs/law enforcement to discuss
problems and solutions – a fix for your particular problem
might already be solved.
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