SOCIAL MEDIA TAKEDOWNS IN INDIA
Social media has become the most sought after marketing tool for brands to promote and advertise their products and services in recent times. The always available nature of social media has also made it the preferred destination for shopping, providing new opportunities to businesses to market and sell their products.
However, rise of ever new forms of technology has concurrently opened up new channels for fraud and information theft, and brands are often seen struggling with issues pertaining to infringement of their intellectual property (IP) rights, such as:
- Trade mark and copyright infringements;
- Sale of counterfeit products;
- Identity theft by means of creation of fake profiles
While most social-media platforms provide for basic guidelines for their user-based community, numerous instances of breach come to light on a regular basis.
Such instances beg the need for a prompt but robust dispute redressal mechanism, that effectively addresses needs of brand owners and businesses while not impeding the freedom of creation for content makers, when it comes to IP. Thankfully, most social-media platforms and aggregators do incorporate an intrinsic reporting mechanism through which a complaint pertaining to trademark infringement/copyright infringement/identity theft/counterfeiting goods can be made to the concerned portal directly.
The complaints filed by right holders (or their representatives) with social-media platforms or aggregator websites are commonly referred to as ‘takedowns’. While some platforms have their own report-abuse/takedown forms (such as, Instagram, Facebook, Google etc.), many aggregator websites require the request to be sent to them via email accompanied with proof of authority, trademark rights etc. amongst other things.
With novel and sophisticated infringing techniques coming to the forefront each day, brands are advised to keep themselves abreast with all information vital to safeguarding their rights. Towards that, rights owners need to keep monitoring third party aggregator websites alongside social media platforms periodically to check for infringement of intellectual property and to take immediate steps to address any issues pertaining to misuse to keep miscreants at bay.
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For more information on Intellectual Property Litigation in India, please write to us at info@ssrana.com.