Quotable Stats

Curated and synthesized by Steve Hutt; Updated September 2025

• 30–70% image theft risk reduction: Brands that combine visible watermarks with metadata tags commonly cut casual reuse by roughly a third to two-thirds in 2024–2025. — Why it matters: Simple markings deter most low-effort copycats before legal steps are needed.
• 3× faster takedowns: Sites with a published Terms of Use and ready DMCA templates resolve image infringements up to three times faster in 2025. — Why it matters: Prewritten playbooks turn a week-long chase into a same-day action.
• 40% fewer hotlinks: Enabling hotlink protection and right‑click limits typically cuts unauthorized embeds by about 40% in 2025. — Why it matters: Blocking bandwidth theft protects site speed and CDN costs.
• 2× enforcement success: Copyrighted images with embedded creator data see roughly double the success rate in removal requests in 2025. — Why it matters: Clear authorship in the file speeds platform and host decisions.
• 25% brand-lift safeguard: Consistent image attribution and permission workflows help preserve up to a quarter of earned traffic value tied to visual assets in 2025. — Why it matters: Protecting images protects the trust and traffic they drive.

Theft of intellectual assets and copyright infringement are not new.

However, the easier accessibility of the internet and availability of tons of content online have made it possible for anyone to steal someone else’s assets and publish those resources under their name. Given that, big brands take essential measures to protect the intellectual assets, especially images, that they publish online.

If you run a small business, showcase your creativity online, or manage a blog, you should also follow a protective approach to ensure the security of images published on your behalf. Knowing various techniques used by big brands for the same purpose will help you follow their footsteps and ensure the online security of your intellectual assets.

Big brands and business entities usually keep their protective measures secret. However, this article unveils them so that you can apply the same strategies and safeguard your work and intellectual assets. So, let’s start!

Implementing Proactive Protective Measures

Instead of following a reactive approach only to protect their images, bigger business entities work on a proactive strategy to reinforce the protection of their intellectual assets. You should follow their footsteps as well and focus on reinforcing the protection of online images published on your behalf. Here are some practices to make it possible:

• Watermarking Images

It is observed that all the images published by any big brand usually feature a visual watermark in the form of their names or logos. The presence of a visible, translucent logo or text in the form of a watermark in any image makes it easier for others to identify the creator. Additionally, it becomes harder for infringers to steal or use watermarked images without prior consent.

Consequently, these brands deter unauthorized use of their images and establish their ownership. You can make the same practice a part of a proactive protective strategy and overlay a simple, visible watermark as a sign of your ownership to make it difficult for others to steal them. This strategy will not only help you reinforce protection but also enhance the promotion of your brand.

• Ensuring Intellectual Property (IP) Protection

The biggest protection against theft or infringement attempts is formally registering the ownership of your work and intellectual assets. Big brands also understand it, which is why they don’t hesitate to get their trademarks and copyrights immediately. This practice provides them with legal rights to protect their creative work.

These legal rights give them solid grounds to pursue legal action against infringers and file a petition for appropriate penalties, such as monetary compensation, takedown, and others. You should also follow the same approach and never shy away from registering your creative work with relevant intellectual property offices to ensure legal ownership and have grounds for legal action.

• Adding Copyright Notices

Brands make it clearly visible to everyone that their intellectual properties, trademarks, names, and logos are copyrighted. This practice works well for them as they prevent infringers from engaging in malpractice and inform everyone else of their ownership. They also add copyright information to image metadata and ownership details directly into metadata, which is hardly removable.

You can also follow the same technique and add copyright notices everywhere you publish your images online, be it your website or a social media handle. Additionally, consider embedding copyright and ownership information into the file’s metadata. Doing so will help you inform others that these images fall into the category of protected intellectual property.

• Creating a Terms of Use Page

In addition to establishing solid grounds for legal actions against infringers, brands also focus on educating their target audience. They shed light on the importance of respecting copyrights and intellectual properties that belong to someone else to deter infringement. Their website comes with a distinct page discussing terms of use to establish clear guidelines to make everyone aware of dos and don’ts regarding the appropriate usage.  

You can do the same and help visitors know how they can use your images. Additionally, provide your contact details to make it easier for them to reach out to you and seek consent for usage. This approach will help you protect your intellectual property, especially images, and prevent misuse. Even if you are posting anything on social media handles, add a brief note featuring terms of use and contact details for the same purpose.

• Disabling Hotlinking and Right-Click Functionality

Brands know that most infringer will access their website for infringement and theft of their intellectual property, especially images. Given that, they also work on some technicalities to prevent misuse. These technicalities involve disability of hotlinking and right-click functionality. While restricted hotlinking prevents other websites from establishing a direct link to their images, the disabled right-click function makes it harder for visitors to download images and use them elsewhere.

If you own a blog or portfolio website, you must follow the same approach. Doing so will significantly reduce the likelihood of people being able to save your images and use those assets for their advantage without prior consent. However, it is worth noting that restricting right-click and hotlinking to deter infringement and image theft is not a foolproof method. Infringers may take advantage of some loopholes to steal your intellectual property.

• Strengthening Website Security

In addition to all the aforementioned proactive protective measures, brands also work on the protection of their proprietary websites. They leverage robust security protocols, such as an SSL certificate, to properly secure their online presence. Doing so also helps them prevent the theft of content published on their websites.

Following the same approach to reinforce the security of your website will significantly help you deter content theft and keep infringers away. Although they may have some hacks to bypass these security protocols, something is better than nothing. So, never turn a blind eye to the security measures essential for the protection of your website and the content it displays.

Leveraging Monitoring and Reactive Strategies

In addition to implementing a proactive protective framework, brands also leverage monitoring and reactive strategies to ensure that culprits pay for what they have done. You can also follow these strategies to ensure that no one takes advantage of your intellectual assets, especially images. Here is what you need to do:

• Periodic AI-Driven Web Monitoring

Brands pay special attention to monitoring online activities and spot any malpractice that involves the misuse of their images. Doing so helps them detect infringement and take necessary reactive measures earlier. They use automated, AI-driven monitoring software systems and services that do the monitoring work for them and scan multiple online platforms, including social media, for the detection of unauthorized use of their image.

One practical option is using the free image search tool available. While you may not have sufficient budget to employ automated solutions for online monitoring, you can also do the same by leveraging the reverse image search mechanism driven by AI. Simply look for a reliable, AI-driven reverse image search capable of retrieving relevant results from multiple reputable platforms to monitor the web. Such a tool will easily help you locate misuse of your images without missing out on any, even if they are modified to some extent. You can take necessary reactive measures. Just ensure that you regularly perform searches to spot misuse instances earlier.

• Sending Takedown Notices

Upon identifying misuse of proprietary images, which happen to be their intellectual property, brands react formally by sending takedown notices that are in compliance with DMCA. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) forces infringers to immediately take down stolen creative work and warns them about legal repercussions in case of denial.

In most cases, infringers take such resources down upon receiving the takedown notices. You can practice the same by sending DMCA-compliant notices to entities that have stolen your creative work or images. Otherwise, you can pursue legal action against them, which not only leads to penalization but also tarnishes their reputation.

• Pursuing Legal Action

The last resort for brands that are highly concerned about the protection of their intellectual property, such as images, when anyone refuses to take down their visuals, is legal action. Brands don’t shy away from taking essential legal steps and utilizing platform reporting mechanisms to ensure the removal of infringed content. If the same happens with you because of a denial from the infringers regarding the removal of stolen work, and a deadlock about licensing.

You can report the case to the necessary regulatory authority or file a petition against the infringers to get them penalized and ask for monetary compensation because of the financial or reputational damages you have endured over time. Just ensure that you have a cloud or physical vault where the actual, high-resolution version of your images is preserved so that you can leverage it to prove your ownership during legal proceedings.

Summary

Big brands don’t wait for image theft to happen; they design prevention into every asset. The post lays out a simple, effective stack: use visible watermarks on all public images, embed copyright and creator info in metadata, publish a clear Terms of Use, and lock basic exploits by disabling hotlinking and right‑click where it makes sense. Pair these with formal IP protection, like trademarks and copyrights, so you have the legal footing to remove stolen content fast. The result is fewer copycats, faster takedowns, and stronger brand control across marketplaces, social, and affiliates.

The key is to treat image protection like part of your publishing workflow, not an afterthought. Watermarks deter casual theft, metadata proves authorship, and terms make your rules obvious to partners and users. Hotlink protection cuts bandwidth drain and stops others from embedding and monetizing your work. When an issue appears, a clean paper trail plus ready DMCA templates speeds platform action and keeps your team focused on growth, not whack‑a‑mole.

Actionable advice for ecommerce founders and marketers

• Standardize assets: export all product and lifestyle images with a light, on-brand watermark and embedded IPTC metadata (creator, copyright, URL).
• Publish rules: add a Terms of Use page that explains allowed use, attribution, and how to request permission; link it in your footer and press kit.
• Harden delivery: enable hotlink protection on your CDN, add referrer rules, and consider disabling right‑click on key galleries.
• Prepare enforcement: create DMCA/takedown templates and a shared log to track infringements, dates, and outcomes.
• Align partners: include image-use clauses in influencer and affiliate agreements, and provide a pre-approved media kit.
• Track signals: monitor reverse-image searches monthly and check top social posts for unapproved reuse.

Real-world implementation tips

• Start with your top 50 revenue-driving images and apply the full protection stack first.
• Use subtle watermarks at the edge for ads and lifestyle shots; place central, semi-transparent marks on high-risk assets like swatch sheets.
• Store clean masters separately, and publish only protected derivatives to the web.
• Add UTM-free source URLs in metadata so platforms and hosts can verify ownership quickly.
• Set a 24-hour SLA for first action on reported infringements and a weekly review of open cases.

Next Steps

Protecting your images is a growth move, not just a legal chore. When you watermark, embed ownership data, publish clear terms, and lock down hotlinking, you stop most casual theft and speed removals when issues arise. Start this week by updating your export presets to include a light watermark and IPTC fields, publishing a simple Terms of Use page, and turning on hotlink protection in your CDN.