Solutions · Shopify DMCA takedowns
Copycat storefront? Send the notice to the party that can act.
A fake store clones your product photos, your copy, sometimes your brand name in the domain, and starts selling. When that store runs on Shopify, a registrar abuse desk is the wrong recipient; Shopify's own IP process is the right one. Brand Protector finds the store early, proves where it's hosted from DNS evidence, and routes a claim-ready notice to the intake that controls the content.
$199/mo or $1,499/yr · 7 days free · card at the end of setup · no charge until day 8
- Copycat storefronts surfaced by the daily lookalike-domain scan
- Shopify hosting proven from DNS, with the reason and its strength on the draft
- Claim-specific routing to Shopify's copyright or trademark intake
What it costs you
A copycat store is built from things you paid to make.
Your assets, their checkout
The fake store is assembled from your product photography, your copy, sometimes your brand name in the domain. Every order it takes was won by material you created and traffic you earned.
Their customer becomes your problem
The buyer thinks they bought from you. The knockoff, the silence, or the empty box comes back on your brand: the complaint, the payment dispute, the one-star review that names you.
Weeks lost at the wrong desk
A registrar controls the domain name; Shopify controls the storefront content. Send a notice about stolen photos to the registrar and the likely reply is to contact the site owner, while the store keeps selling. Routing is the part that costs you when it's wrong.
How it works
How it works for a copycat storefront.
Find it early, prove the host, put the notice in front of the party that can act on it. Your first checks start as soon as setup finishes, and coverage builds over the first week as each marketplace is swept.
The scan surfaces the store
The lookalike-domain scan maps the variants of your domain and watches Certificate Transparency logs, so a fresh copycat storefront lands in your inbox classified and scored, with the page evidence attached.
daily domain scan · CT log watch
The DNS proves the host
The draft carries a hosting assessment built from DNS evidence: a myshopify.com CNAME is definitive, an address in Shopify's primary IP range is strong, a page-text mention is weak and says so. You see the reason before you rely on it.
CNAME + IP evidence · strength labeled
You approve; Shopify's process gets the notice
You review the evidence and sign the notice for the exact domain. We email copyright notices, including combined copyright and trademark claims, to Shopify's designated agent at legal@shopify.com. Trademark-only notices use Shopify's form, with a field guide to help you file.
your signature · copyright notices emailed
The machinery
Routing intelligence is the product.
Finding the store early, checking the evidence, and addressing the right party. Review the notice before you sign.
Copycat storefront detection
The same engine that predicts lookalike domains surfaces the stores built on them: the typo, homoglyph and TLD-swap variants of your domain, plus Certificate Transparency monitoring for the composite names no generator predicts. Live storefronts are classified (parked, active shop, phishing suspected) and scored into your inbox.
Domain variants · Certificate Transparency · classification + scoring
Routing that reads the DNS, not the logo
A myshopify.com CNAME is definitive. An address in Shopify's primary IP range is strong. A page-text mention is weak, and the draft labels it weak. When the evidence supports Shopify, the takedown routes to Shopify's IP process instead of the registrar. You can still choose the registrar route before filing, and switching rebuilds the whole notice and records the change in your audit log.
reason + strength shown · switch routes before filing
A notice addressed for your claim
Copyright notices include the selected works, the recorded infringing page, your contact details, the required statements, and your electronic signature. After you sign, we email the notice to legal@shopify.com. Trademark-only claims use Shopify's trademark form and a prepared field guide.
copyright email · trademark form
Human-approved, because DMCA has teeth
Anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents that something infringes can be liable for the damages under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f). You review the evidence and sign off on the exact domain before we send a copyright notice. The record shows submission when our email provider accepts it, and delivery when reported. Trademark-only notices stay prepared until you record the form filing.
your review + signature · recorded send status
The honest part
What we file, what you file, and who decides.
After you review and sign, Brand Protector emails copyright notices to Shopify's designated agent at legal@shopify.com. Combined copyright and trademark claims use that same route. For trademark-only claims, you authorize the prepared notice, file it on Shopify's trademark form, and record the filing in Brand Protector.
And Shopify decides, not us. A proper notice through their published process puts your claim in front of the party that controls the storefront, with the evidence attached; whether and when they act is their call. We track each notice against expected timelines (about a day when it moves fast, about a week typically, roughly two weeks on the slow tail) and re-scan the storefront, so removal is confirmed rather than assumed. If the store isn't on Shopify at all, we say that too: the notice routes to the domain's registrar abuse desk instead.
Versus the field
Versus the enterprise suites.
| Brand Protector | Red Points · MarqVision · BrandShield | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $199/mo or $1,499/yr, public pricing | Typically $10k+/yr (estimated), 4–7× more |
| Buying process | Self-serve; no sales call; monthly rolls month to month | Sales-led demos, quotes, annual minimums |
| Storefront takedown routing | DNS-assessed: Shopify's own IP process when hosted there, registrar desk otherwise; you approve every notice | Analyst-routed on your behalf |
| Filing record | Prepared and submitted tracked as separate facts; removal confirmed by re-scan | Varies by vendor and reporting tier |
Enterprise pricing estimated; none of the three publishes a price page. Full feature-by-feature breakdowns: /compare. Deeper reads: Shopify or the registrar, prepared vs submitted, and preventing wrongful takedowns. For fakes that aren’t Shopify-hosted, see lookalike domains.
Disclosed proof · the founder’s own brand
The first deployment is Wuffes, a pet-supplement brand on Amazon US, run by the same founder (we tell you that up front). Brand Protector was built inside it; in its first 30 days there it filed 47 takedowns and 38 listings came down. Read the case study →
Objections, welcome
Questions, answered straight.
- Should the takedown go to Shopify or to the domain registrar?
- Route from the evidence. If the complaint is about storefront content (stolen photos, copied text, a confusable mark) and the store is Shopify-hosted, Shopify's IP process is the recipient that controls that content. If the actionable fact is the domain itself, the registrar's abuse desk is the right party. Brand Protector assesses the hosting from DNS, recommends a destination, and lets the reviewer choose the other route while the takedown is still a draft.
- How do you know a store actually runs on Shopify?
- DNS first. An apex or www CNAME pointing at myshopify.com is definitive. An A record in Shopify's primary IP range is strong. A mention of Shopify in the page text is weak, and the draft labels it weak. The assessment records its reason and strength, so the person authorizing the notice can see exactly what the routing rests on.
- Do you file the DMCA notice with Shopify for me?
- Yes, for copyright notices. After you review the evidence and sign, we email the notice to Shopify's designated agent at legal@shopify.com. This also covers combined copyright and trademark claims. Trademark-only notices use Shopify's form: we prepare the notice and field guide, and you file it and record the filing.
- What if the copycat store isn't hosted on Shopify?
- Then the notice doesn't go to Shopify. Non-Shopify storefronts route to the domain's registrar abuse desk, found through WHOIS and RDAP, with the same evidence attached. The lookalike-domains solution page covers that route in full. Same detection either way; the destination follows the evidence.
- Will Shopify actually take the store down?
- Shopify decides. What a proper notice through their published process does is put your claim in front of the party that controls the storefront, with the evidence attached. We track the notice, re-scan the storefront, and show you when it's actually gone rather than assuming.
- Can filing a DMCA notice backfire on me?
- Yes. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), anyone who knowingly and materially misrepresents in a DMCA notice that something infringes can be liable for the damages. That's why nothing here auto-files: nothing is filed until you review the evidence and sign off on the exact domain. The person filing sees what the claim rests on before their name goes on it.
Put a watch on your domain before the next copycat opens.
The lookalike scan watches your domain every day. When a storefront turns up, the takedown routes from the DNS evidence: Shopify's own process when it's hosted there.
Free 7-day trial · no card to start (you add it at the end of the ~10-minute setup, and the trial begins there) · cancel in-app