6
months
Case study
Published17 March 2026
Stopping counterfeiters in their tracks for Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd
A growing counterfeit footprint across global marketplaces
Pioneering global apparel and equipment designer Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd owns two award-winning, high-performance brands Rab and Lowe Alpine. Unsurprisingly, the popularity of its high-quality equipment among hikers, mountaineers and adventurers has made it a target for counterfeiters and copycats selling sub-standard and poor-quality lookalike products across the globe. The company became aware of the illegal activity taking place but only had a small snapshot. It wanted a readily adaptable solution to help tackle the infringers at speed and at scale.
Pairing clever tech and brands expertise
Equip opted for Gowling WLG's integrated brand protection service Saturn. The tech continually safeguards clients' products across multiple global online marketplaces. Thanks to a combination of smart technology, brand expertise and amassed regional legal know-how, Saturn delivers fast, smart enforcement underpinned with intelligent software.
The result is a holistic service that successfully manages and safeguards client brands online, while improving consumer protection. It proved an instant winner for Equip. Thanks to Saturn's web-scraping functionality, it was quickly able to analyse and flag more than 34,000 online items.
The Equip team identified legitimate sellers and wholesalers separating them from the counterfeiters and fake marketplaces quickly and easily on the platform. The service is now yielding results every single day. Saturn's smart searching and reporting functions drives fast takedowns of infringers.
With the help of Gowling WLG's inhouse legal team, which has decades of experience of enforcing major brands across the globe, the company has a quick route to action and long-term resolution, helping safeguards Equip's customers, its reputation and secure further growth.
34400
listings analysed
100%
success
Faster analysis and coordinated takedowns
Within the first six months, Saturn delivered 34,400 global online searches, providing fast analysis and reports with real-time gap analysis. Take downs are issued from a single point, at the click of a button - rather than more traditional piecemeal and time-consuming approaches – delivering a 100% success rate in removing infringers.
About Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd
Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd is an international business with the head office based in Derbyshire, UK. It owns both the Rab and Lowe Alpine brands. It designs exceptional product to meet the needs of active customers. The company's passion for the outdoors and adventurous spirit sets the foundation for what it does. It has approved near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the SBTi and are proud to be a Fair Wear Leader Brand.
Through Saturn we have full global sales visibility on one platform. You don't have to have severe brand protection issues to benefit. Mainly we use Saturn as a preventative tool, highlighting problem areas and facilitating shutting them down before they become a major concern. IP protection, grey market selling, counterfeit product, they have you covered with a click of a button.
Matt Clarke, Head of Customer Experience at Equip
Through Saturn we have full global sales visibility on one platform. You don't have to have severe brand protection issues to benefit. Mainly we use Saturn as a preventative tool, highlighting problem areas and facilitating shutting them down before they become a major concern. IP protection, grey market selling, counterfeit product, they have you covered with a click of a button.
Matt Clarke, Head of Customer Experience at Equip
Through Saturn we have full global sales visibility on one platform. You don't have to have severe brand protection issues to benefit. Mainly we use Saturn as a preventative tool, highlighting problem areas and facilitating shutting them down before they become a major concern. IP protection, grey market selling, counterfeit product, they have you covered with a click of a button.
Matt Clarke, Head of Customer Experience at Equip
About Saturn
Saturn's smart searching and reporting functions drive a fast route to action and resolution, precisely tailored to meet clients' requirements. Saturn performs global searches, provides reports, real-time gap analysis and issues take downs from a single point, at speed, at scale and at the click of a button - rather than in a piecemeal one-by-one fashion. It's a subscription service stands apart from other solutions as it is tailored, co-ordinated and managed by a team of qualified IP lawyers who have decades of experience of brand enforcement for household names.
As a result, the technology can simply and easily deliver more cost-effective, well-informed and personalised strategies to better suit the nuances of any specific brand.
In an increasingly online world, one of the biggest challenges many businesses face is infringement of their brands, whether that's copycats, counterfeits, fake domains, fake websites and social media pages or illegal streaming.
This costs brands millions every year, and tackling the issue can feel overwhelming.
To help protect your brand and to fight infringements, our team at Gowling WLG has created Saturn, a new online brand protection service.
Saturn combines clever tech and integrated advice from our award-winning global IP team to help you review infringements and take action quickly and efficiently with its user-friendly intuitive platform.
Saturn is tailored to your brand's requirements and can help you to protect your brand by:
- Checking for and identifying copycat and counterfeit products
- Monitoring your brand continually to guide strategy and protect revenue and reputation
- Identifying domain name infringements
- Monitoring and taking down illegal broadcasts and streaming
- Checking for imitation social media profiles and misleading information about your organisation
- Monitoring and taking remedial action relating to the misuse of your brand online
The number of takedowns you can request is unlimited and take downs can be done at the click of a button.
Saturn features a user-friendly, intuitive interface that provides businesses with a clear overview of where the infringements are taking place.
We can also prepare handy reports that can be used to present to other parts of your business about the challenges it faces online, and how Saturn has helped to address these issues and provided ROI.
The key feature of our service is that you are getting qualified lawyers managing your online brand protection included in the fixed monthly subscription.
It's the best of both worlds, with sophisticated technology to ensure an efficient and user-friendly experience, combined with qualified lawyers who will ensure that the approach taken is right for you and your business.
For more information about how Saturn can help you to protect your brand, please get in touch with us.
We look forward to hearing from you.
NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Information made available on this website in any form is for information purposes only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. You should not rely on, or take or fail to take any action based upon this information. Never disregard professional legal advice or delay in seeking legal advice because of something you have read on this website. Gowling WLG professionals will be pleased to discuss resolutions to specific legal concerns you may have.
