INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BLOG

Online reviews have impacted businesses for a long time, but despite the potential virality in today’s landscape, businesses have more ability than ever to understand the actual impact reviews have and to prove damages. In an article for LegalTech News, “Proving Online Defamation: No Longer a Black Box,” Founding Principal Doug Bania outlined the current landscape, how to manage defamation as it happens and accurately calculate the harm when online defamation warrants litigation.

Doug explains that negative reviews don’t automatically mean negative economic impact and using Google’s Advanced Search tool, you can get a full picture of how viral the negative reviews are. “Impact doesn’t always mean harm, but Google Trends can help evaluate whether observed declines in revenue or rescinded business opportunities can be linked to the online disparagement by comparing changes in search volume related to the defamatory statement to keywords associated with the affected brand,” wrote Doug.

Read the full LegalTech News article here.