Meta adds new features to Brand Rights Protection Manager

Meta has announced the release of several new features in the Brand Rights Protection Manager tool. 

Formerly known as the Commerce & Ads IP Tool, the Brand Rights Protection Manager allows enrolled trade mark owners to search for and report infringing content on Facebook and Instagram. Brand owners are able to upload logos and product images to the platform and Meta's systems will automatically scan adverts to allow companies to easily review and report potentially infringing content. 

Over the last few months, Meta have added some new features to the platform, including: 

• A new Intellectual Property Reporting application programming interface (API) added at the end of October which allows users to automate the reporting of infringing content;
• Brand owners with a strong reporting history may be eligible to have some of their takedown requests automatically approved (subject to regular audit);
• The platform will provide automated recommendations for potentially infringing pages based on previous reporting history and reference images uploaded by rights holders; 
• Rights holders can upload details of authorised Facebook and Instagram pages to improve the accuracy of automated search results on the platform;
• Users can search for URLs, IDs, pages, profiles, accounts and Facebook groups;
• Brands can report Facebook pages and Instagram accounts on the basis of business impersonation, alongside the more traditional complaints based on trade mark / copyright infringement and the sale of counterfeit goods. 

These updates demonstrate that Meta is looking to make the infringement reporting process quicker and easier for enrolled rights holders by adding automation and enhanced searching to the platform. Concerns have been voiced by entities such as the American Apparel & Footwear Association about the volume of counterfeit products sold on social media platforms and Meta is clearly making efforts to create and improve tools to help brand owners protect their Intellectual Property. Whether these tools will be sufficient to curb the levels of counterfeit products and IP infringement on Meta's platforms remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to keep an eye on the IP data in Meta's Transparency Center.