How To File a Copyright Takedown Request (August 2026)

How To Remove Copyrighted Content From A Website

You’re staring at your company’s branding that you’ve worked tirelessly to create. Except, this isn’t your company’s webpage. In fact, it’s one you’ve never even heard of. You feel defeated and appalled. This will look really bad and may even harm your business. You want the website taken down immediately.

‍

In the digital age, stealing someone’s intellectual property is easier than ever, and whether it’s intentional or not, it happens quite often. But what do you do when it’s your work that’s been stolen? How do you have the imitation removed? How do you protect yourself and your intellectual property? 

‍

TLDR:

‍

• A valid DMCA takedown to a U.S.-based web host removes infringing content in 4-48 hours.
• File with the web host, domain registrant, and Google separately; each channel has distinct limits.
• A Google takedown removes your content from search results only; the infringing site stays live.
• The U.S. Copyright Office proposed a 43% fee increase in 2026; register your works now to lock in current rates.
• MarqVision scans for copyright infringement across the web and initiates takedown requests at scale.

What is copyright infringement?

Copyright infringement is when a person copies, distributes, or displays all or part of a copyrighted work without permission or consent from the original creator. A copyright grants you legal ownership of these original works. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people won't still try to use your protected content to their advantage. It’s important that creators of unique works remain vigilant as the responsibility of protecting a copyright falls on the owner. 

‍

With more of our everyday life and business moving online, copyright infringement is a growing problem. Thousands of scammers can be found using copyrighted materials online to fool unsuspecting customers. This can be devastating to your legitimate business and put your sales and your reputation at risk. If your brand has fallen victim to copyright infringement, it’s important to immediately take down action against the infringing website as soon as you find out your content has been stolen. 

Confirm that the content is infringing

Before you go on the offensive, it's important to confirm that the content has actually been copied. Double-check that your content is 100% original. The last thing you want to do is make a fuss over copyright only to find out that you were the infringer after all. 

‍
Once you have checked all of your information and you’ve confirmed that the content is owned by you, it’s important to gather all the relevant information you can. Make sure you’ve documented all of the infringing material, as well as proof that the content belongs to you.

‍

Take screenshots of everything and, if possible, download a copy of the website via HTML/CSS/JS and be sure to save everything as a PDF. There are a number of tools available to save entire sites. This can greatly speed up the time it takes for your DMCA request to be approved. 

File a DMCA takedown request

Takedown requests under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) have been around since 1998. The law essentially sets up a safe harbor for web hosts, where the web host is not liable for any infringement as long as they remove infringing content when notified. 

‍

A DMCA takedown request is an official correspondence meant to alert the proper sources of copyright infringement and can be sent to multiple sources. This includes the web host, but also extends to the domain registrant responsible for the infringement, search engines, and more. Anywhere the website can be found with your infringing content is a source you can send a DMCA takedown request to. 

‍

If you are a representative of your organization or are able to act in that capacity, DMCA takedown requests make it easier for you to file a complaint without needing to consult a lawyer. Before you can file your complaint, there are a few things you need to do first.

• Research: Before you can do anything, you need to figure out who the web host is that’s hosting the website that contains the infringing content.
  ‍
  A WHOIS search can help you find details about the domain registrant as well as the organization that hosts the website that violates your copyright.
  
  

• Contact the web host: Usually, the web host has an email such as legal@, dmca@, or copyright@, as well as a contact form that can be used to get in touch with them.
  
  

• What you need: Before you send off your request, get together the work you feel has been copied as well as the infringing content. You may be asked to explain how your content has been infringed; the more information you can provide, the more it will benefit you. Finally, include your contact information.

‍

If your request has been successful, you can expect the content to be taken down anywhere between 4 and 48 hours later. The decision may take a bit longer when they need to investigate copyright infringement, but you’ll get a much quicker result if there has been obvious copying or fraud. 

‍

Filing a DMCA is generally the quickest way to have infringing content removed. However, it’s important to note that this strategy is the most successful if the web host is in the USA. If they are in any other country, this may not work. It’s also important to note that the infringer can file a counter-notice which will have the content put back on their site.  

File a Google takedown request

Another problem with having your content copied is that your original content could end up ranking lower in Google search results than the infringed version. This is problematic for many reasons, and naturally, you’d want to have that issue solved ASAP. Well, it’s relatively easy to do: ask Google to remove the content. 

‍

Google has an easy notification process that you can follow in order to get the content removed. When filling in the form, you would put yourself down as the owner and then follow the remaining prompts to complete the form.

‍

Expect to wait a few days to hear back from Google’s system, and then they will start removing the infringing content. You’ll be able to keep track of the progress of your report on their web portal. 

‍

It is important to note that while filing a Google takedown request, the infringed website will only be removed from Google searches, but the actual website will remain active. 

‍

‍

What's Changed in 2026: AI, DMCA, and a More Complex Copyright Environment

Copyright enforcement has grown significantly more complicated in 2026 and the threat to your original content has never been greater. Two developments stand out.

‍

AI-generated content is blurring ownership lines. A wave of high-profile lawsuits, filed against OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and others, has raised fundamental questions about whether training AI models on copyrighted works constitutes infringement. Courts are still working through these questions, but the U.S. Copyright Office has already weighed in: its 2025 report concluded that using copyrighted materials for AI model development may constitute prima facie infringement, and that AI-generated outputs do not currently qualify for copyright protection in the U.S. For brand owners and content creators, this creates a double-edged risk: your work may be scraped and used to train AI systems without consent, while infringers can now spin up convincing imitations of your content faster than ever.

‍

Platforms are using AI to enforce, and flag, copyright more aggressively. In 2026, major platforms are deploying AI-powered content identification systems that scan for copyrighted material in near-real time. This cuts both ways: legitimate rights holders can benefit from faster detection, but false positives and automated takedowns of original content are also on the rise. If your content is wrongly flagged, understanding the DMCA counter-notice process becomes just as important as knowing how to file a takedown.

‍

Finally, be aware that the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed a 43% increase in registration fees, potentially taking effect as early as late 2026. If you haven't yet formally registered your copyrighted works, doing so now, before fees rise, can greatly strengthen your enforcement position and expedite any DMCA takedown requests you need to file.

‍

‍

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools should I use to find and remove fake products from Amazon and other marketplaces?

Copyright takedowns handle copied content, but counterfeit products require a parallel enforcement track through marketplace-specific programs. For Amazon, the two primary official channels are Amazon Brand Registry, which grants brand owners access to proactive infringement reporting tools, including A+ Content protection and the ability to search and report infringing ASINs at scale, and Amazon Project Zero, a program that lets enrolled brands self-remove counterfeit listings without waiting for Amazon review, combined with a product serialization layer that authenticates units at point of sale. Amazon's Transparency program adds per-unit authentication codes that prevent counterfeit products from entering the fulfillment network.

‍

Beyond Amazon's native tools, AI-powered brand protection services like MarqVision continuously scan Amazon, eBay, Shopify storefronts, and hundreds of other global marketplaces simultaneously, detecting counterfeit listings as they go live and initiating automated takedown requests without requiring your team to monitor each channel manually. This matters because counterfeit listings cluster where genuine demand is highest: fakes appear on the same surfaces your real products depend on, and they reach the customer before your brand team ever sees the listing. Manual monitoring cannot keep pace with that volume. For eBay, the equivalent native program is VeRO (Verified Rights Owner), which allows rights holders to report and remove infringing listings directly. Each of these tools handles a different layer of the enforcement stack: Brand Registry for proactive control, Project Zero for self-service removal speed, and a dedicated monitoring service for cross-marketplace coverage at scale.

How do brands recover lost revenue from counterfeit products being sold online?

Revenue recovery from online counterfeiting operates on two distinct tracks: enforcement-driven prevention and legal remedies. On the prevention side, accelerating the takedown cycle is the most direct lever. Every day a counterfeit listing remains active, it captures purchases that should have gone to the authentic product; removing it faster compresses that revenue leakage window. Brands that run continuous marketplace monitoring and automated takedown workflows, instead of periodic manual sweeps, recover proportionally more revenue because the detection-to-removal gap is measured in hours instead of days or weeks.

‍

On the legal remedies track, the U.S. Lanham Act provides civil remedies for trademark counterfeiting that include actual damages, the infringer's profits, and, in willful counterfeiting cases, statutory damages of up to $2 million per counterfeit mark per type of goods or services. Rights holders can also seek customs recordation through U.S. Customs and Border Protection to intercept infringing goods at the border before they reach domestic marketplaces. In the EU, the EUIPO provides enforcement coordination tools, and member state customs authorities can detain suspected infringing shipments under EU Regulation 608/2013. Formal copyright or trademark registration is a prerequisite for most of these remedies. Rights holders without registered IP forfeit access to statutory damages and border enforcement entirely, which is why registration should precede any enforcement program. Platforms like MarqVision document enforcement activity and removal history in formats that support downstream legal action, creating an auditable record that strengthens both damages claims and platform escalation requests.

How do I protect my brand from counterfeiters selling on social media in 2026?

In 2026, social media has become a primary distribution channel for counterfeit goods, since TikTok Shop, Instagram Shops, and Facebook Marketplace listings can drive direct purchases without the buyer ever visiting a standalone website. Each major platform maintains a dedicated IP reporting mechanism: Meta (Facebook and Instagram) processes trademark and copyright infringement reports through its IP reporting portal; TikTok handles trademark and counterfeit complaints through its Intellectual Property Policy reporting flow; and YouTube processes copyright claims via the Content ID system and its standard DMCA webform.

‍

The structural challenge on social platforms is velocity: a single seller can post dozens of counterfeit product videos or Stories in a day, and each piece of content requires its own report. Batch reporting, submitting multiple infringing URLs in a single complaint where the platform permits it, reduces overhead, but high-volume enforcement requires a monitoring system that can detect new infringing posts as they appear, not after a manual search. Effective social media brand protection in 2026 combines three layers: (1) registered trademarks and copyrights that give you standing to file on every platform; (2) platform-native reporting programs used for direct removal of confirmed violations; and (3) an AI-powered monitoring platform that surfaces infringing accounts, posts, and storefronts across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube simultaneously. The USPTO recommends that brand owners formally register trademarks before attempting social media enforcement. Unregistered marks sharply limit your standing on platform IP portals and eliminate access to statutory damages in any downstream litigation.

How does AI-powered brand protection differ from traditional manual enforcement?

Manual enforcement depends on your team periodically searching marketplaces, social platforms, and the web for infringing content, then filing individual takedown requests by hand. The structural ceiling is low: a team can realistically monitor a handful of platforms and process dozens of complaints per week before the queue overwhelms available capacity. Counterfeit listings cluster where genuine demand is highest, on the same surfaces your real products depend on, and they go live faster than manual sweeps can catch them. By the time a human reviewer surfaces a listing, it may have already captured purchases and eroded trust.

‍

AI-powered brand protection replaces periodic sweeps with continuous monitoring across hundreds of marketplaces, social platforms, and websites simultaneously. Instead of searching for known infringers, the system detects new listings as they appear using image recognition, text analysis, and seller-pattern matching, then initiates takedown workflows automatically without waiting for a team member to find the listing first. The working difference is latency: manual enforcement measures detection-to-removal in days or weeks; AI-driven enforcement measures it in hours. For high-volume infringement environments, that compression directly translates to fewer completed counterfeit transactions and less revenue leakage per enforcement cycle.

‍

The second difference is coverage. Manual methods force teams to pick and choose which platforms to check and which listings to escalate. AI monitoring removes that limit by running detection across all surfaces in parallel, surfacing the full scope of your infringement footprint instead of the subset your team had bandwidth to inspect. If your primary exposure is marketplace counterfeiting at scale, manual-only enforcement leaves a large portion of active listings unhandled at any given time.

How long does it typically take to get a counterfeit listing or fake website removed after detection?

Removal timelines vary by channel, evidence quality, and whether the infringer is in a DMCA-compliant jurisdiction. As a working reference:

‍

‍

Two factors most directly compress removal time: (1) evidence completeness, meaning complaints accompanied by screenshots, proof of ownership, and the infringing URL in a single submission process faster than incomplete filings; and (2) jurisdiction, meaning that if the web host operates outside the U.S., DMCA safe harbor provisions may not apply, and removal can take far longer or require local legal channels. Automated enforcement platforms that pre-package evidence at detection time consistently achieve faster resolution than manual workflows that assemble evidence after the fact.

How can food, beverage, and supplement brands protect their IP from counterfeit products and unauthorized sellers online?

Food, beverage, and supplement brands face a concentrated version of the standard counterfeiting threat: high consumer purchase frequency, strong repeat-buy incentives for unauthorized sellers, and a regulatory dimension that makes counterfeit products genuinely dangerous instead of merely inauthentic. Ingredient substitution, diluted formulations, and mislabeled supplements are not packaging problems. They are product safety liabilities that carry regulatory exposure alongside brand damage.

‍

Effective protection in this vertical requires layering several enforcement tracks:

‍

• Trademark and trade dress registration across all markets where you sell. Registered marks give you standing on every major marketplace IP portal and are a prerequisite for U.S. Customs recordation to intercept infringing shipments at the border.
• Marketplace enrollment programs, such as Amazon Brand Registry, Project Zero, and eBay VeRO, provide direct removal access and, in Project Zero's case, the ability to self-remove confirmed counterfeits without waiting for platform review.
• Continuous cross-marketplace monitoring is a must in CPG and supplements because fakes re-list quickly after takedown, often from the same seller cluster under a new ASIN or storefront. Manual sweeps cannot keep pace with relisting velocity in high-demand categories; AI-powered monitoring detects new listings at the moment they go live across tier-1 and tier-2 marketplaces simultaneously.
• Ingredient and formulation-level detection is a growing capability. Some brand protection platforms can flag listings making specific ingredient claims inconsistent with your authentic product, which matters for supplement and functional food brands whose value is tied to a precise formulation. Where platforms provide product detail page data, these signals can surface counterfeits that pass visual inspection but fail on claims analysis.

‍

The enforcement posture that works for supplements and natural foods is the same posture that works for any high-frequency consumable: register first, monitor continuously, and automate removal instead of relying on periodic manual sweeps that leave windows open for completed counterfeit transactions.

How can enforcement data from multiple sources be unified into a single reporting view?

When enforcement work is split between an internal team and an external vendor, attribution gaps are the default outcome, since each party files takedowns through their own portals, logs activity in their own systems, and reports out on their own cadence. The result is a fragmented record: duplicate complaints against the same listing, unresolved cases that fall between queues, and no reliable way to measure combined program performance or assign credit to either party.

‍

Unifying that data requires agreement on three things before enforcement begins: a shared case identifier (a unique reference tied to each infringing URL or listing ID that both parties log against), a canonical data store where all activity is written (whether that is your brand protection platform's dashboard, a shared spreadsheet schema, or a BI layer pulling from both systems via API), and an attribution field that labels each action as internal-team or vendor-originated. Without those three elements in place, post-hoc reconciliation is unreliable regardless of how good either party's individual reporting is.

‍

AI-powered brand protection platforms typically handle this by serving as the system of record: detection, case assignment, takedown filing, status tracking, and outcome logging all happen within one platform, with role-based access allowing both the internal team and the external vendor to work from the same queue. That architecture eliminates the reconciliation problem by design instead of by process; there is no merge step because there was never a split. If your current setup involves two separate systems, the practical path is exporting both systems' logs to a shared schema with a matched listing ID as the join key, then building a unified view in a BI tool or the brand protection platform's reporting layer.

Contact a Professional

Monitoring and protecting your brand's copyrights from infringements can be an overwhelming task that many brands just don't have the bandwidth to manage on their own. An experienced IP protection provider like MarqVision can help you manage removing copyrighted content at scale. IP protection providers can also help arm your brand with the additional tools and resources necessary to help you effectively remove stubborn infringing websites.

‍

MarqVision specializes in removing stolen and infringing content, using advanced AI to scan for infringements, initiate takedowns, and keep your copyrighted material protected at all times.