View source for Marksmen, Inc.

{{CompanyInfo| 
| logo            = Marksmen.JPG
| type            = Private
| industry        = Intellectual Property <br /> Brand Protection <br />
| founded         = 1998
| founders        = Ken Taylor <br> Jason Tirado <br> Mark Doerr
| ownership       = 
| headquarters    = 111 N Maryland Avenue<br />Suite 201<br />Glendale, CA
| country         = USA
| businesses      = 
| products        = 
| employees       = 
| revenue         =
| website         = [http://www.marksmen.com www.marksmen.com]
| blog            = [http://www.namesmash.com/about/ Namesmash]
| facebook        = [https://www.facebook.com/Marksmen Marksmen]
| linkedin        = [http://www.linkedin.com/company/marksmen Marksmen]
| twitter         = marksmentweets
| keypeople       = Jeff Crapo, Chairman and CEO <br> Matt Wichser, CFO <br/> [[Ken Taylor]], Founder
}}

Marksmen, Inc. (commonly called Marksmen) is a global firm that provides services including [[intellectual property]] acquisition, consulting and investigation. Its headquarters are in Glendale, CA with offices in Carrboro, NC; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA and London, England.<ref>[http://www.marksmen.com/contact/ Contact Information]</ref>The company specializes in intellectual property purchases/sales, brand protection, online/in-person investigation, product/service intelligence and solving complex intellectual property issues for companies the world over, under strict confidentiality. 

The company was founded in a one-bedroom apartment in Pasadena by [[Ken Taylor]], Jason Tirado and Mark Doerr in 1998<ref>[http://www.roughnotes.com/rnmagazine/2005/may05/05p124.htm RoughNotes.com]</ref>  and has since  grown to 4 US offices, offices in London and Hong Kong, and a network that spans the globe, completing more than 70,000 investigations and over 14,000 acquisitions.  Marksmen’s clients range from Fortune 75 companies to farming collectives and are located across the globe.<ref>[ttp://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2011/dailyposts/20110621.htm DNJournal]</ref>

==History==

In May 2002, [[Verisign|Verisign, Inc.]] entered an agreement to deliver Marksmen’s Internet [[domain name]] and trademark recovery services as part of the VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services portfolio.<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Marksmen+to+Deliver+Intellectual+Property+Investigation+and+Recovery...-a086009831 Marksmen to Deliver IP Investigation and Recovery]</ref>

In September 2009, Marksmen partnered with Thomson Compumark to add trademark in-use investigations to Thomson’s own comprehensive availability search.<ref>[http://trademarks.thomsonreuters.com/sites/default/files/inuse_investigation_sheet_us_0.pdf Thomson Compumark]</ref>

On December 13, 2010, Account Manager Paul Allen represented Marksmen placing third in the first annual The Patently Impossible Project<ref>[http://www.dadelegalaid.org/six-annual-patently-impossible-project-sponsorship-opportunities/ Patently Impossible Project]</ref>, a charity event held at the Miami Science Museum by the Intellectual Property Committee of the Dade County Bar Association to benefit The Legal Aid Society.  Contestants were handed a brown bag containing the pieces, parts and tools they would need to assemble a patented invention The Toy Catapult (US Design Patent No. D366,908<ref>[ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00366908  Toy Catapult Patent]</ref>) and then successfully launch a penny about 10 feet across a marked line.<ref>[http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2010/12/12/patently-impossible-ip-lawyers-raise-8000-for-legal-aid/id=13769/ IP Lawyer Fundraiser]</ref>

In March 2011, Marksmen entered into a domain name co-brokering agreement with [[Moniker]] & [[SnapNames]].<ref>[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/juicecom-and-ecoorg-leading-the-pack-at-monikers-premium-domain-name-auction-being-held-at-the-domainfest-global-conference-2012-137923488.html Marksmen Domain Name Auction]</ref>

On May 1, 2015 Marksmen and Com Laude unveiled their joint venture, MCL Domains, a corporate domain name management Service.<ref>[http://www.marksmen.com/marksmen-and-com-laude-introduce-an-advanced-corporate-domain-name-management-service-in-north-america/ Marksmen announces joint venture with Com Laude]</ref>

==Products and Services==
===Investigations===
Marksmen employs licensed private investigators & affiliates worldwide for trademark investigations (first use, scope of use, infringement, abandonment, goods/services offered, etc.), litigation support, test purchases and on-site inspections; patent investigations (business methods/processes, product samples/ literature, locating inventors/experts/ex-employees, etc.); provides enforcement support (counterfeiting, gray market goods and back channel sales).  Marksmen’s Investigations group was named as one of Twitter’s ‘Top 100 Investigators On Twitter’ for 2014.<ref>[http://www.pinow.com/articles/2024/top-100-investigators-on-twitter-2014 Twitter Top 100 Investigations]</ref>

===Acquisition/Sales===
Marksmen’s analysts negotiate the anonymous purchase/recovery of intellectual property rights (copyrights, [[domain names]], trademarks, apps, images, logos, patents, social media, taglines, vanity phone numbers, etc.), broker select premium domains, offer payment/transfer support for asset recovery and provide domain name valuations.  Although most transactions are confidential, Marksmen is known to have completed some of the top transactions in the industry.<ref>[http://www.thedomains.com/2015/07/24/publicly-traded-co-that-owns-apartment-comapartments-com-buys-land-com/ Land.com Sale]</ref>

===eBeagle===
Detailed brand monitoring report which Marksmen delivers after a thorough analysis of the results of an intense customized crawl of the searchable [[internet]], free of the typical false positives, redundancies and hits outside of set parameters.

===MCL Domains===
A joint venture between Marksmen, Inc. & Com Laude USA, MCL Domains is a corporate domain portfolio management company offering domain registrations, renewals, assignments and website hosting via a state-of-the-art domain management portal.  MCL domains is certified for both ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 for system security and quality management.  The registrar supports all TLDs, including existing [[gTLD|gTLDs]], [[ccTLD|ccTLDs]] and every [[New gTLD Program|new gTLD]].

===Name Quiver===
Marksmen’s domain name brokering service, Name Quiver leverages connections in both the corporate and domaining worlds to privately broker premium domain names or domain portfolios.  Marksmen partnered w/ Moniker auctions to complete the top domain transaction of 2011 selling Social.com for $2,600,000.<ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/22/social-com-reportedly-sold-for-2-6-million-whos-the-buyer/ Social.com sale]</ref>

==Corporate Structure==
===Board of Directors===
As of January 1, 2016, the board of directors include:
*Jeff Crapo, Chairman and CEO
*[[Ken Taylor]], Founder and former CEO, continues to support the company and heads business development of MCL Domains, a new corporate domain management venture with Com Laude. Mr. Taylor has published articles on IP investigations, is a frequent speaker and is a member and has served on various committees of the [[Intellectual Property Constituency]] of [[ICANN]], Computer Law Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, International Trademark Association, Marques, International Anti-Counterfeiting Association, Triangle Intellectual Property Law Association and the California Association of Licensed Investigators (he’s licensed both in California and North Carolina).

===Management===
As of January 1,2016, the management team includes:
*Jeff Crapo, CEO
*Matt Wichser, CFO
*[[Ken Taylor]]

===Industry Leadership===
*Rudy Gaines:Chair, [[ICANN]] Leadership Development Committee<br />
:::::&nbsp;Chair, [[INTA]] Public and Media Relations Committee
*Ken Taylor: Co-chair, INTA Bulletin Association News Subcommittee (former)
::::&nbsp;&nbsp;Member, Membership Committee (former)
::::&nbsp;&nbsp;Member, [[INTA]] Internet Committee (former, twice)
===Business Memberships===
*International Trademark Association (INTA)
*Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
*MARQUES
*Pharmarceutical Trade Marks Group
*World Association of Detectives

==References==
{{reflist}





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[[Category: Companies]]
[[Category: Companies]]