A Scots media firm has launched a new service to tap into the multimillion-pound global market for guarding intellectual property and brands online.
Bigmouthmedia, which offers internet brand positioning and protection, said the service - Brand Intelligence - was unique and that it was in discussions with a number of large cosmetics and pharmaceutical firms considering using it.
The tracking software monitors the use of company brands, images and assets online on a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis, looking for any potential misuses of brand, or libel or slander.
Typically this might be the unauthorised use of a company's logo or name, or sale of its goods, and piracy of products and services. The data collected is analysed in-house and presented to the client, who can then pursue any breaches through legal avenues.
Steve Leach, managing director of the Edinburgh company, aid: "It's potentially massive. There are the companies who have a problem but don't know how big it is and hide their heads in the sand, and those that know they have a problem but don't know how to deal with it."
As an example, Leach cited the recent experience of a high street retailer which found there was a website that looked identical to theirs that was selling the company's clothes at a fraction of the retail price.
With Bigmouthmedia's help, it emerged that the retailer was manufacturing its clothes in the Far East, but it was actually making 10% too much. The remainder were being sold on through the other website, complete with a telesales operation and the orders delivered to customers.
The company claims one of the unique aspects of the software is that it can track both the 'visible' and 'hidden' web.
There are around 2.8 billion internet sites on the so-called 'visible web', or sites which can be readily accessed.
However, that number is thought to be one-eighth of the total amount of sites which exist on the 'hidden web' - sites that may appear only for a matter of hours before disappearing, making it much harder for companies to track them.
The software looks for a company's name and positive or negative words in the same text. For example, it could spot an abusive within three or four words of a brand name.
Already, the company is working with T2M, the e-business division of law firm Tods Murray, and is in discussions with London law firm DJ Freeman regarding a potential tie-in.
Bigmouthmedia says that it will work with these legal firms and issue a cease and desist order telling the offending website to remove any references to the brand. The removal could take place in as little as seven days, and even removed from the internet altogether.
The new service is something of a change for Bigmouthmedia, which generates around 85% of revenues from increasing the quality and quantity of web traffic onto clients' sites.
Leach, together with Heather Luscombe, founded Bigmouth in 1997, taking on three staff. The firm now employs 14 people, with offices in Edinburgh, London and Madrid.
Its clients currently include Standard Life and Sony PlayStation, as well as the Scottish Executive and VisitScotland.
