How Cloudflare's Trusted Reporter Program Helps To Protect Brands

Protecting brands’ rights online is an increasingly challenging task. Among the many dangers that permeate the internet, intellectual property (IP) infringements pose a significant threat to a business’s reputation and bottom line. This is why Cloudflare is taking a stand and making it easier than ever for brands to protect their IP on rogue sites.

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MarqVision is proud to be a member of Cloudflare's Trusted Reporter Program. The Program is a vital weapon in the brand protection arsenal that enables members to directly combat counterfeit and infringing content online.

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As a leading provider of internet security and performance services, Cloudflare is one of our most valuable allies in the fight for brand protection. 

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What Is the Trusted Reporter Program?

Cloudflare has its eyes set on one mission above all else - to build a better Internet. As part of their Trust Hub, Cloudflare works with organizations and individuals to find and remove any bad actors engaging in abusive behavior from their services. These abuses include copyright infringements, DMCA violations, and trademark infringements, as well as phishing and malware scams and other illegal activities. 

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In order to bolster these systems, Cloudflare has launched its Trusted Reporter Program. Access to this program is restricted to brands and their partners who share Cloudflare’s mission and who have a proven commitment to protecting brands’ rights online.  

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This Program provides its members, known as Trusted Reporters, with access to sensitive host data information from rogue websites that Cloudflare does not make available to the general public, including: 

• Origin IP address of abusive websites
• CNAME, or Canonical Name; a type of DNS record.

With this information, businesses are able to take more effective actions against bad actors targeting their brands. Rather than simply having the site taken down and waiting for its replacement to appear, this gives rights holders the opportunity to go after the network of infringers behind the rogue sites.

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How Does This Program Help To Protect Brands?

Members of the Trusted Reporter Program can report copyright infringements directly to Cloudflare's team, facilitating a highly effective response. This partnership allows members to take down rogue websites more efficiently, as they are able to take action against the infringing website directly to the identified host.

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The information provided by Cloudflare is crucial in pursuing entities that infringe on brands’ intellectual property and in gathering evidence against those that pose a significant threat.

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By learning the origin IP address and CNAME of rogue sites, Program members are able to identify where bad actors are hosting infringing content, enabling brands to take more impactful actions towards protecting their IP online.

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Does This Program Help Against Counterfeits?

At its core, the Trusted Reporter Program provides members with a smoother process for reporting copyright infringements. However, this does not constrain members to handling anti-piracy actions solely.

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Counterfeits, in general, are products that infringe on a brand’s trademark. However, for counterfeiters to be able to sell their products online, they need to show their potential customers what they have to offer. Very often, this means using materials created by the legitimate company - professional photos, promotional videos, and more.

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In this way, the Trusted Reporter Program does facilitate anti-counterfeiting actions. Counterfeiters can either use the high-quality copyrighted materials from the official brand, and risk having their site taken down, or they can create their own low-quality materials and out themselves as sellers of fake products. 

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What Types of Reports Are Eligible For Cloudflare?

Cloudflare’s Abuse Report system allows users to report any illegal content found, including phishing and malware scams, illegal images, harassment, and more.

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For brands looking to protect their intellectual property, the most important report types are:

• Copyright Infringements & DMCA Violations.
• Trademark Infringement. 

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Cloudflare has a proven dedication to helping legitimate brands keep IP-infringing material off its network. To file a report successfully, brands and IP owners may submit up to 250 infringing URLs at one time, and are recommended to be as specific as possible to allow Cloudflare to verify the reports.