New research has revealed that household names are failing to protect their brands online because they are not putting in place appropriate copyright protection.
According to brand asset management company, Brandworkz, top 100 global groups with a brand value of over $1 billion, such as Coca Cola, Microsoft and Smirnoff, are being careless when it comes to copyright protection of information and images on the web.
In total, the survey revealed 92% of internet brand images belonging to these companies contained no embedded information such as copyright notices or photographer details, which means they run the risk of using out of date or copyright expired material.
Chief executive, Jens Lundgaard said: “The global nature of the web is a major challenge for big brands. On one hand they benefit from access to a worldwide audience but they risk undermining hard-won brand equity by failing to protect their intellectual property and risk confusion through use of inconsistent out of date images.
He added: “Our research showed that household names are completely failing to protect their brands online.”
It is becoming increasingly difficult for multinational companies to control the image content they have in countries worldwide but one solution could be in the form of an efficient web based image management system, said Richard Foster, a photographer.
He added: “The lack of licence management and time spent on image distribution are rapidly escalating issues for many corporates. With the amount of images required by different markets throughout the world, it has become increasingly hard to distribute and police these images. Clients are having to buy more rights than they actually require.”
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