MarkMonitor launches Site Staydown service

Up to $133bn of legitimate revenue is lost every year to sites offering counterfeit goods

Online brand protection firm MarkMonitor has officially launched its Site Staydown service, which promises to prevent web sites that sell fraudulent or counterfeit goods from resurfacing after being shut down.

The company believes that up to $133bn (£84bn) of legitimate revenue was lost in 2009 owing to rogue sites offering pirated or counterfeit versions of well known products.

These sites are often based on common misspellings or variations on the official site, and are frequently well seeded in search engines to help increase traffic.

MarkMonitor said that it has been helping its clients locate and shut down these sites for some time, but the new Site Staydown service promises to track a particular offending domain and make sure that, if its operators attempt to relaunch it through another service provider, it is quickly shut down again.

The company claims that it can quickly detect and remove a site that has been taken down before, thanks to its close connections with over 4,200 internet service providers and 1,200 registrars around the world.

"While brands address the problem of counterfeit and pirated goods with time consuming traditional enforcement methods, fraudsters continue to profit from illicit activities," said Charlie Abrahams, vice president and general manager of MarkMonitor in EMEA.

"The MarkMonitor Site Staydown service provides brands with a cost effective, fast and efficient alternative for taking action against fraudulent activity that erodes sales and dilutes marketing investments."

Abrahams stressed that these illegal sites not only affect direct revenue, but are a detriment to the brand itself, particularly when visitors fail to realise that the goods on sale are counterfeit.

Site Staydown sits at the high end of MarkMonitor's range of services, which also includes wide ranging automated services such as bulk marketplace delistings and automated cease-and-desist letters, through to highly focused offerings such as domain name dispute resolution.

Abrahams claims that Site Staydown has been successfully piloted by several well known clothing, transportation and footwear brands to shut down more than 100 sites.