A client needed to identify counterfeit and unauthorized sellers of their patented product across multiple popular online marketplaces. The challenge wasn't just finding suspicious listings. It was separating legitimate sellers from infringing ones, validating findings, and organizing everything into a format that could support enforcement efforts.

Counterfeit and imitation products were appearing across multiple marketplaces, often using official product images or modified versions of them.

This created several problems:

No centralized tracking of unauthorized sellers

Significant manual effort required to review listings

Difficulty distinguishing legitimate sellers from counterfeit ones

Risk of customer confusion and brand damage

No structured dataset for future monitoring or enforcement

The client needed accurate findings very quickly and couldn't afford any false positives.

Reviewed official product listings to establish verification criteria

Conducted systematic searches across multiple online marketplaces

Identified patterns used by unauthorized sellers

Compared listings against official product information and imagery

Manually validated findings before inclusion in the final dataset

Removed false positives to improve accuracy

Documented seller information, listing URLs, and supporting evidence

Organized findings into a structured spreadsheet for easy review and action

The focus was not just simply collecting information. It was validating the information collected and ensuring the final deliverable was accurate and actionable.

Google Sheets, Excel for final product, online research, marketplace analysis, data validation, and documentation workflows.

Identified and documented multiple unauthorized sellers

Created a centralized dataset for tracking and enforcement efforts

Reduced manual review time for the client

Improved visibility into the scale of marketplace infringement

Delivered verified findings within a 12-hour turnaround

The final deliverable gave the client a clear, organized view of potential infringement activity and allowed them to prioritize next steps with confidence.

This project required a combination of research, verification, pattern recognition, and quality control. Success depended on the ability to distinguish legitimate sellers from unauthorized ones, validate findings before reporting them, and organize large amounts of information into a structured dataset that could be acted on immediately. The work also demonstrates attention to detail, investigative problem-solving, documentation skills, and the ability to deliver accurate results under a tight deadline.

Example of the structured dataset used to document and validate potentially unauthorized sellers across multiple online marketplaces. Sensitive information has been redacted to protect client confidentiality.