Legal service engine Trademarkia just launched a service that allows companies to check whether someone is impersonating them on social networks.

Of course, you can check this stuff on your own, either by visiting each social network or by running a Google or Bing search. But if youa4‚¬a4„re a small business or startup, ita4‚¬a4„s a challenge to check everything. VentureBeat, for example, has accounts on major social networks like Facebook and Twitter, but I dona4‚¬a4„t think wea4‚¬a4„ve checked to see if anyone else has started a VentureBeat account on Xanga or Ehow.

Through Trademarkia, you can search for company names on more than 500 social networking sites at once. (It searches for both the name and near-spellings of the name.) Trademarkia shows you a preview of the account on each site, so you can see if ita4‚¬a4„s really yours. If ita4‚¬a4„s not, you can pay $185 to have chief executive Raj Abhyankera4‚¬a4„s law firm write a cease-and-desist letter to get the fake account taken down.

The Mountain View, Calif. startup first launched last year as a trademark search engine and has been adding features since. As you may already have guessed, Abhyanker isna4‚¬a4„t your typical CEO &8212' hea4‚¬a4„s both a tech entrepreneur (his last company was a local social networking startup called Fatdoor) and a corporate/patent attorney. He said his latest venture is an attempt to combine what hea4‚¬a4„s learned from the tech and legal worlds. The company is self-funded.

Next Story: Andreessen Horowitz writes big check for Factuala4‚¬a4„s data platform Previous Story: San Diego companies: Get feedback from Avalon Ventures, and cocktails

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Tags: brand management, social media impostors, social network impostors

Companies: Trademarkia

People: Raj Abhyanker

Tags: brand management, social media impostors, social network impostors

Companies: Trademarkia

People: Raj Abhyanker

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

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