The Internet is perhaps the greatest single engine for business development and marketing innovation in history, but that power entails an ever-evolving source of risk for businesses wanting to protect their brands and trademarks.

Before the rise of e-commerce, brand protection efforts focused primarily on counterfeit merchandise and on attempts by infringers to market competing products using brands or slogans confusingly similar to an established business’ well-known marks. The Internet provides an environment in which this sort of “traditional” infringement can flourish to an extent far beyond what businesses previously could expect to encounter – on-line markets like eBay are well-known sources of fake watches, purses, movies, software, and nearly any other category of products susceptible to forgery, and the unprecedented variety of net-based marketing streams makes it that much easier for brand confusion and unauthorized passing-off to occur.

However, beyond being merely the cause of an increase in the intensity of traditional brand-protection efforts, the Internet also is a source of new mechanisms for infringement that did not exist prior to its inception. Cybersquatting – registering a URL that incorporates another’s existing trademark and, occasionally, setting up a web site under that URL to sell competing products or services – probably is the best known of these “new” infringements. Many now also are familiar with the problem presented by search-engine optimization efforts that include paying money to a forum operator for the ability to use another’s registered mark as a keyword to improve ad-placement results (Google’s AdWords system – and the significant amount of litigation it has generated – is probably the best known example in this category).

However, given the Internet’s augmentation of the human capacities to innovate and to maximize economic opportunity, it is likely that we never will see an end to potential new sources of infringement in the electronic marketplace. Social networking may be the next source of worry for brand managers. For example, Facebook recently announced that announced that its users will be allowed to created personalized usernames. The company also announced that it will provide a simple form – available here – by which trademark owners can prevent their brand names from being registered as Facebook usernames. Google offers a similar procedures for ads it publishes for third parties that either incorporate others’ marks or that are associated with counterfeit goods (more info here).

The procedures offered by service providers like Facebook and Google are helpful, but they point to a larger issue: Brand owners must maintain constant vigilance against trademark infringement on the Internet, both arising from traditional mechanisms and from new or evolving content streams. An effective enforcement regime must account for all information outlets and must be flexible enough to change as those outlets change. Businesses with a need for a strong enforcement program should consult in depth with knowledgeable counsel regarding the most appropriate procedures to protect their brands.