The process of enforcement is a key element of many brand-protection programmes. Often it involves the submission of some sort of complaint, report, or notice to a platform or service provider requesting the removal or takedown of infringing content. However, this process can be extremely time-consuming, particularly in cases where there are large numbers of enforcements to be processed, or if the specifics of each case require significant amounts of customisation of the individual notices in question.
As part of a drive towards greater efficiency, it has often been found to be beneficial to investigate approaches such as automation or bulk actions, often in conjunction with efforts to identify top prioritised targets. For 'standard' takedowns involving the submission of a notice to a registrar or hosting provider, it is often possible to make use of a fixed type of letter template, in which only case-specific details need to be varied between each particular instance. This type of enforcement process is highly amenable to automation - using some sort of scripting approach, to action what is essentially a ‘mail-merge’ process - which can greatly aid with efficiency.
Increasingly, however, many Internet service providers (ISPs) are refusing to accept letter-based complaints and are instead directing brand owners or their representatives towards webform-based abuse-reporting systems. Whilst superficially this may appear efficient, the completion of these webforms can actually be a more time-consuming endeavour. Many such reporting systems require complaints to be submitted one by one, or include components such as a need to complete CAPTCHA codes, which can frustrate enforcement efforts.
Conversely, however, one promising development which may aid the process of complaint submissions and the protection of IP rights is an increasing level of support for 'XARF' ('eXtended Abuse Reporting Format'), an alternative abuse-reporting framework comprising a standardised format for submitting abuse reports to ISPs[1]. It allows the relevant pieces of information to be packaged in a highly-defined document format known as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which can be communicated via e-mail or other communication routes (such as via an API, or Application Programming Interface). XARF documents are particularly amenable to automated production, such that this protocol also lends itself to more efficient enforcement workflows. Furthermore, certain ISPs explicitly reference XARF as a supported and/or preferred communication type (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Example of a snippet from a response to a standard takedown notice type, from an ISP referencing XARF as a supported communication type for submitting abuse reports
A number of code libraries exist for generating reports in XARF format and creating JSON documents, and these resources frequently include sample templates showing the fields required for abuse reports of a range of types (e.g. trademark infringement, copyright infringement, phishing, malware, child-abuse content, etc.)[2,3,4], which greatly aids with the generation of the required content.
As such, it can be a relatively simple matter to generate the required content, using a scripted automation approach which allows the reports to be generated in bulk. These can be combined with bulk-e-mailer scripts, to allow the bulk submission of XARF-format takedown notices to ISPs, utilising just an input document containing the details of the targets and the case-specific pieces of information to be varied between the individual reports (Figure 2).
Figure 2: (Redacted) example of an e-mail-based enforcement notice in XARF format, generated using an automated script
This approach is already being tested using live client services, and is generating responses from ISPs which are essentially identical to those produced by 'classic', letter-based submissions. Whilst this alternative approach is not likely to be applicable in all cases - particularly where highly-bespoke, complex notices are required - it does offer the potential for increased automation and efficiency in the brand-protection process, in cases where repeatable styles of notice for standard infringement types would normally be required.
References
[1] https://abusix.com/xarf-abuse-reporting-standard/
[2] https://github.com/abusix/xarf/blob/master/samples/positive/3/trademark_sample.json
[3] https://github.com/abusix/xarf/blob/master/schemas/3/trademark.schema.json
[4] https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_json.asp
This article was first published on 20 November 2025 at:
https://www.iamstobbs.com/insights/xarf-way-to-enforcement-paradise
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