• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 27, 2012

The Web is making the world an even scarier place for brands. Hoping to protect them, Thomson Reuters has agreed to buy online brand protection firm MarkMonitor. Financial terms of the deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval, were not revealed.
 
Thomson Reuters is counting on MarkMonitor to bolster its intellectual property services.
 
"Thomson Reuters already helps thousands of companies create, manage and protect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of intellectual property assets," said David Brown, president of its intellectual property and science division.
 
The addition of MarkMonitor will help keep clients one step ahead of “brandjackers and reduce the enormous risk posed to brands online," he added.
 
If and when the deal closes, the MarkMonitor team -- led by president and CEO Irfan Salim -- are expected to join Thomson Reuters.
 
Currently, MarkMonitor claims to provide online protection services for more than half of all Fortune 100 brands, including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
 
In late 2010, MarkMonitor acquired anti-piracy firm DtecNet Software. With the deal, MarkMonitor sought to improve its platform with the addition of pinpointing and monitoring capabilities for illegal download activity on P2P networks, blogs, video streaming sites and Usenet services.