Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

We used to have this problem with PPC ads because my company was a thought leader in our industry. Our lawyer would send a "cease & desist" letter to the company and I would also notify Google (or Yahoo or whomever) about the infraction. Our company name was trademarked though, which I believe was part of the basis of our claim.

Can you post a sample of the ad? Are they using your company name in the ad (which they can do unless you have it trademarked with Google AdWords)?

If they are just bidding on your company name, then there is nothing wrong with that. it is oft employed tactic in paid search. It looks like the URL is just pointing to their site and that they are tracking the clicks (the parameters in the URL is for tracking).

Donna,

First of all, for legal questions, I'd advise you talk with a lawyer. There may be some folks on here who have experience and know, but because laws are different country to country, state to state, it's a risk taking any "legal" advice from here from people - IF they are even willing to give it. Most of us, unless we are lawyers, should be willing to give it anyway. It's an ethical line to cross.

But, anyway, I know that it's a copyright infringement to use a copyrighted name in a URL - ex: www.Ford_Trucks.com for a truck dealer would need Ford's permission to use that. I didn't read anything in the copyright law that precluded it from being in a link as you describe, but I wouldn't be surprised if this could be a copyright infringement. IF your company name is copyrighted - that is. If not, you don't have that to hang your hat on. If they are defaming you, then you may have grounds.

Best thing to do - go talk to a lawyer! He/she can evaluate it and decide what can be done. The start will probably be a cease and desist letter from your attorney. That may end it.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

I agree, this is an intellectual property rather than a SEO issue. You should speak with an IP attorney.

You should also consider contacting each of the sites where these links are located and inform them of the issue and request the links be removed. They don't wish to become entangled in these types of disputes and many will be helpful once they are alerted of the issue.

Use a reputation management tool (Google Alerts is useful for this but there are paid tools specifically designed for this type of monitoring) to receive notices of when pages containing your company name (in all its forms) are indexed in Google. Yahoo has a similar service.

Using competitive names/brands is not uncommon with pay-per-click usually in the keywords but also in ad copy and occasionally you'll see it in display URLs.

Since Google and Yahoo each have their own policies on this, you should check them out so you are up-to-date on what they do and do not allow.

Trademark issues also come into play.

Most of the time when you see competitors doing this it is due to ignorance, not maliciousness, and when not challenged, the potential "violator" just continues to do it.

Talk to an attorney. Usually a short letter from them will put a stop to it, they deal with these issues all the time.

I was in a client's office a few months ago and we noticed a competitor did something similar to your situation and my client reached for his phone, called his attorney, talked to him for 1 minute, and that was it, problem solved, in 2 weeks the ad was gone and his attorney billed him for less than 30 minutes of work.