Popfunk has been satisfying the pop-culture penchants of customers across the globe with a super-star line up of on-demand merchandise since 2007. With over 1,000 licences under their belt, they’ve adorned items such as T-shirts and hoodies with a staggering array of fan-favourite images, logos and more. From Friends and Harry Potter to Pink Floyd, Jurassic Park and Sesame Street, they’ve licensed some of the biggest names in pop-culture and sports.

Though initially only selling to brick-and-mortar retailers, the brand made the decision to open up their sales channels, adopting the mantra “to go where the fans go”. That meant finding hot new franchises and old favourites and bringing them straight to the people.

And that’s just what they did—harnessing Amazon’s incredible reach and technology to connect customers with the worlds, characters and stories they love most through authentic and high-quality products.

Where there are heroes, there will always be bad actors. Licensing some of the biggest names in television, film, comics, music, sports, collegiate and more makes Popfunk’s products prone to counterfeiting of their registered trademarks and those of their licensing partners.

Protecting their intellectual property was a priority for the business. Popfunk was concerned that the low-quality counterfeits would generate poor customer reviews, potentially turn customers away from their products, or hit their bottom line.

“At the end of last year, there was a spike of other sellers using Jaws and Jurassic Park designs that weren’t our listings but had our exact content. They were bad actors using our listings and trademarks for half the price,” says Jamal Aoun, Marketplace Director at Popfunk.

Fortunately, there was a solution to help Popfunk as brand owners strike back.