Is this allowed??

[YMW]

I just did a search for my sister's business name (it is two words joined together to form the business name) and found a link on a competitor's website :evil: What the competitor has done is put a load of 'key words' but made to look like information eg You can also find....blah blah blah at the bottom of every page. On one of the pages she has used my sister's business name! They could argue that the words seperated are descriptive of their products eg if sisters name was 'Redhot UK' and the competition have 'Redhot Coal' but with regards to the actual business name NO ONE would put the 2 words together so why have they???
I don't want to tell my sis yet as I know she will be upset, it sounds like the competitor is trying to get some of her business.

I there anything that can be done?

[DavidHorn]

It's certainly 'allowed' because nobody is really policing this sort of thing. If you suspect foul play then contacting the business owner should be your first step. Explain to them why you're upset and ask them to change the text accordingly. If they refuse, you could contact Google and ask them to consider them as keyword spammers.

It's debatable whether either action would achieve anything, and I certainly think you'll have more success contacting the business owner directly, but you should give both a shot.

[CG Effect]

Is her business name registered? Maybe the other business was the first with that name and if they have registered their name its your sis that will get in trouble not them.

[bwglaw]

Actually, if the words are being used on a competitor's site and are descriptive of your business then it may be actionable in common law as passing-off.

The example you give is not helpful. If you can give me the exact wording and the two respective sites I can look at them for you. You can either PM or email me the information.

[easyasit]

unless perhaps your sister considered registering it as a trademark.
Would she not then be able to force the other company to change?

Al

[bwglaw]

The one who owns the trademark succeeds. In this case, neither. I have actually spoken to YMW and have looked into it and advised accordingly.

A good example is such a generic word as 'easy' and 'jet' but if you put them both together it forms a trademark (which can be registered/unregistered) and a passing-off claim will succeed where the mark is being used on a similar site, in the example, an airline/travel site. If it was placed on a clothes site it would not necessarily be passing off but possibly an infringement of trademark if you use the name without permission.

In situations like this it is a question of fact upon the circumstances.

Easyasit: your banner is FAR too big! - you can pay a fee to Ozzy for advertising!

[YMW]

Thank you for your replies. Handson has been of great help and I will pass on all the details.

[MinuWeb]

I have had a few clients ask a similar question but regarding google adwords, they were all upset that competitors were using their name for adwords, so that when someone searched for their company name their competitors would be #1 in the advertising section.

Try a few company name seaches, you might be surprised how many people do this kinda thing.....

[bwglaw]

VSHosting - yes, that appears to be common. Little can be done unless the keyword is a registered trademark which is often not the case

[MinuWeb]

VSHosting - yes, that appears to be common. Little can be done unless the keyword is a registered trademark which is often not the case I guess it is immoral and not illegal

[Srivvy]

Hi YMW

If you run a web business, you will always encounter spammers and if you decide to fight this one, will you continue to fight new spammers every week?

The best thing to do is ignore them and promote your own business. Take the fact that they appear higher in search results as a sign that your sister's website could be promoted better and work on competing for more business.

A well run website will always to better in the long run than flash-in-the-pan spam sites that will get penalised by search engines anyway.

[duenna]

Another option YMW

If you feel that the website in mention has flaunted some search engine TOS then submit a spam report.

The major search engines encourage it.

Good luck!

David