Have you had your Trademark used by a competitor? Feels a bit like having your car broken into, doesn’t it? The reality is it’s very much the same. Those that unlawfully use another’s trademark in their marketing or advertising are thieves.
If you’ve carefully built a solid brand around your business you may feel even more ripped off. You’ve taken care to build brand trust, give the best service possible, and make a name for yourself in the community. Then someone swoops in and uses your brand name for an unscrupulous marketing ploy. Or they use your name to drive customers to their website.
In rare cases, I’ve even seen (thief) companies build their website in a similar fashion, using matching colors, layout, and content to further confuse a customer. An unsuspecting customer might bite, hire this intruder, get sub-par service (and product), then associate their bad experience with your brand. No good can come of this.
If you’ve done this to someone else, shame on you. You should be put out of business and stripped of your right to open a new one.
That said, there are legitimate ways you can use another’s brand or trademark in your marketing and sales efforts; but be careful, you don’t want to cross the line here.
On the Internet, like in other mediums, you may be able to use a competitors name on your website and in your search marketing endeavors. The only way I recommend doing this (ethically and legally) though, is for comparison reasons. Say for instance you use a superior adhesive with a fast safe drive time. Your competitor uses the cheapest stuff out there with a horrible safe drive time. It would be okay to have a page on your site that compares your products and service to theirs.
Again with the “careful” though. If you bash your competitor, or talk badly about them, you could open yourself to legal trouble. Be clear, state disclaimers, and be as unbiased in your comparisons as possible – just lay out the facts.
If you feel like someone is using your trademark on Google, you can find out more about their policy and report Trademark infringement at www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?pli=1 (may need a Google account to access). For Yahoo!, go to http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/legal/trademarks.php (no account needed).
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Scott,
Being recently violated (almost literally) by use of my federally trademarked name felt horrible. I did not spend thousands of dollars on trademarking my name to have somone use it. But you did not see me demanding them to be removed from insurance programs and acting like a psycho. We kindly sent a letter to the shop to which we got a go **** letter back. Upon finally showing the shop in question that it was indeed happening he got it fixed. Sometimes in business you can be a professional. Others tend to be psycho and throw the golden boomerang that is never coming home. Whatever you do if you have a well known brand name. Spend the money and trademark.
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