Explosm has spent nearly two decades building its webcomic Cyanide & Happiness into one of the internet’s most recognised comedy brands. The Texas-based studio has 13 million YouTube subscribers, raised $3.5 million on Kickstarter for its card game Joking Hazard, and now runs three game divisions spanning adult, family, and strategy titles.
When counterfeiters started replicating its characters on merchandise across multiple e-commerce platforms, the small studio did not have the resources to fight back. Enforcement on many marketplaces typically requires lengthy reporting processes, and takedowns are still not a given.
That was not the case with Temu, which proactively reached out in August 2024 to invite Explosm to join its Brand Guardian Initiative. The programme monitors listings on behalf of brands and removes fakes before they need to file a report, addressing a key pain point for many rights owners facing intellectual property infringements.
“We didn’t have the manpower to search for fakes every day, file reports, and follow up on them,” said Rebecca Humphreys, a representative of the studio. “Temu made the often difficult and time-consuming task of reporting infringing product listings a thing of the past.”
Counterfeit and pirated goods is a global, industry-wide problem for retail and e-commerce, accounting for nearly $500 billion in global trade annually, according to the OECD and EUIPO. For small creators without legal teams, it’s a fight they can’t win alone.
“Robust intellectual property protection is essential for a healthy marketplace,” a Temu spokesperson said. “It protects legitimate brand owners, helps consumers avoid misleading or infringing products, and safeguards the credibility of the platform. Initiatives such as Temu’s Brand Guardian Initiative form part of our ongoing efforts to protect IP across the platform.”
Building the shield
As part of the partnership, the Temu Brand Guardian team loaded more of Explosm’s product portfolio into its proprietary monitoring system and expanded keyword alerts to widen the net for infringements. The two parties also established a direct communications channel to coordinate action.
“We’ve saved staff time that would otherwise be spent reporting infringing listings,” Humphreys said. “This allows us to better benefit from the work our team has put into building the brand.”
Temu’s monitoring system combines automated scanning with human review. The platform’s image database has grown from 1.1 million to 5 million, and the keywords it tracks have expanded from 8.5 million to 9 million. The number of protected brands doubled from 2,500 to more than 5,000 between 2024 and 2025.
More than 1,500 brands now use the Brand Guardian Initiative. The Op Games, a California-based publisher of family and party games, said the initiative reduced infringing listings and freed staff to focus on new titles.
Tokyo-based GLOBERIDE, the company behind fishing brand DAIWA, has also seen results. “Among all e-commerce platforms we work with, Temu has demonstrated exceptional speed and efficiency in IP cooperation, resulting in seamless collaboration,” said the head of IP at GLOBERIDE’s Intellectual Property & Legal Department.
Broader commitment
The Brand Guardian Initiative is part of Temu’s system for protecting intellectual property rights. Temu invested $100 million in compliance and quality control in 2025, with plans to double that to $200 million in 2026. The platform resolves 99% of takedown requests within an average of 24 hours.
Temu works with major industry groups such as the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) and INTA. It hosted roundtables at the IACC’s annual conferences in 2024 and 2025 and serves on the IACC’s Marketplace Advisory Council.
