In 2019, the number of Internet users aged 16 and over in Russia reached 90 million, representing 75.4% of the relevant population.
Social media platforms are particularly popular. VKontakte, Russia’s leading social network, deserves special mention. More than one billion messages are posted each month, while over 36 million users publish at least one post every month.
VKontakte’s vast audience and widespread popularity allow users not only to communicate with friends, but also to promote various goods effectively. As a result, VK has become one of the most powerful online sales channels in Russia.
At the same time, the absence of pre-moderation makes it possible to offer both genuine and counterfeit goods. Under applicable legislation, goods are considered counterfeit where a trade mark has been applied to them unlawfully, namely without the rights holder’s permission.
Common Types of Infringement on VKontakte
The most common infringements involve the unauthorised use of:

• Trade marks
• Logos
• Distinctive visual identity
• Photographs
• Videos
• Audio materials

Each of these infringements may cause financial and reputational harm to the rights holder.

Until relatively recently, the nature of social media publishing meant that individuals who unlawfully used intellectual property or distributed negative information rarely faced any consequences.
Today, however, social media platforms increasingly cooperate with rights holders and block both offers for counterfeit goods and illegal audio and video content published in violation of intellectual property rights.
A culture of respect for intellectual property is gradually developing not only on VKontakte, but across social media generally. Users are beginning to understand that another party’s trade mark cannot be used commercially without the rights holder’s permission.
Nevertheless, the number of infringements on social media remains high. Rights holders must identify them promptly and take immediate action to stop them.
The GIPSECURITY project was created to address such problems, as well as other tasks including blocking sellers on marketplaces, protecting corporate reputation and safeguarding company brands.
How It Works
In 2018, GIPSECURITY removed more than one million social media infringements following requests from rights holders.
Using proprietary software, the company continuously collects information not only from social media, but from across the Internet, identifying references to rights holders' brands, videos, photographs and audio materials.
Monitoring is conducted both in Russia and globally.
The monitoring system identifies the most dangerous offers involving the rights holder’s products and maps the infringer’s infrastructure by matching accounts across different platforms, telephone numbers, email addresses and other available information.
The findings are then reviewed by analysts. Based on the information collected, measures are taken to stop the infringements at the pre-litigation stage, thereby protecting the rights holder’s intellectual property.
In addition, the multifunctional social media analysis module makes it possible not only to track the distribution of products through social networks, but also to:

• Analyse posts mentioning the client’s brand
• Group information by author
• Identify opinion leaders
• Conduct retrospective analysis
• Detect sudden increases in user activity
• Distinguish activity caused by genuine news events from coordinated bot activity
• Identify the original source of a publication and the user who first posted it on social media

1 July 2019