Finding your work, your photos, or your brand name being used without permission is frustrating, and the right way to deal with it depends on which of the two you’re actually facing. Copyright and trademark are often used interchangeably, but they protect different things and call for different removal routes.
Copyright vs Trademark: Different Problems, Different Routes
Copyright protects things you’ve created — photos, articles, videos, design work, written content. If someone’s used your material without a licence or credit, that’s a copyright issue, regardless of whether your business name is involved at all. Trademark, on the other hand, protects your brand identity — your business name, logo, or slogan — and is infringed when someone uses it in a way that could confuse customers or unfairly trade on your reputation. It’s worth being clear on which applies before you start, since it changes who you approach and what evidence you need.
What Counts as Copyright Infringement
This covers a wide range: a competitor using your product photos without permission, an article or blog post copied wholesale from your site, or video content re-uploaded elsewhere without credit. If you created it, or it was created for you, you generally own it — even if you never formally registered it.
What Counts as Trademark Infringement
This is more about brand confusion than copied content. A website trading under a confusingly similar name, a competitor using your logo, or a fake page impersonating your business to intercept customers or damage your reputation are all trademark issues. Registered trademarks generally give you a stronger, faster route to removal, but unregistered brand names can still have protection depending on how established they are.
The Standard Removal Process
For most cases, the first step is a formal takedown notice sent to the platform, host, or the infringing party directly, citing your ownership and requesting removal. This is covered as part of our content removal service, and it works best when the request is specific — the exact URLs, clear evidence of ownership, and a direct request for action, rather than a general complaint.
When the Infringer Won’t Cooperate
Not every request gets a response, and some infringers are difficult to trace or simply ignore takedown notices. When that happens, it’s usually a case of escalating — through the platform’s formal reporting channels, or through legal correspondence where the infringement is clear and ongoing. We’ve set out how to weigh up these options in when to escalate — platform reports, legal letters, and regulatory complaints.
Protecting Yourself Going Forward
Infringement is often only spotted by chance, which is why ongoing brand monitoring is worth having in place — catching unauthorised use of your content or brand early makes it far easier to resolve before it’s had time to spread or affect how customers find you.
If someone’s using your content or your brand without permission, contact us today and we’ll help you get it taken down.