Copycat Website is Stealing My Business

Copycat Website

[Anro]

I am a little infuriated about someone posing as 'me', trying to fool the public into thinking she is ME.
She did this by registering a dot com one year AFTER I registered mine, but she left out ONE letter...but the site still sounds the exact same with that dropped letter.
Worse, when I google or yahoo my site, HER site comes up either before or right after mine. Her pictures of her work or of her at work come up in the same search results as my portfolio pictures.
I do not want to mention what site it is but will do so in private if anyone can help me out.
I've looked at the rules with ICANN but still not clear.
I would really apprecatiate any help with this.
Thank you!

[lucy24]

Is one of you significantly better known than the other?

:: detour to lookup ::

1. Post hoc ergo propter hoc
2. Argument from final consequences
3. Affirming the consequent

Can we rigorously exclude all three?

[Anro]

@lucy24, thank you for your reply.
I am the much better known online presence since years ago. I have been in the said business for 15 years; she has been in it for 6. I have had a website and other portfolio type sites online for over ten years. She created her online presence only one or so years ago. I periodically have done online searches on my name over the years I have been on, to see how my site is ranking etc. and I have only recently seen her search results in all this time. With my exact name, minus the one letter, but our names sound exactly alike in speech.
The 'detour to lookup' and the list, I am not sure what you mean...can you please explain in layman's terms.
thanks so much again...

[Anro]

I am looking up what these terms mean. Thanks

[lucy24]

Oh, dear. Well, education never did any harm. But all I meant was: are you certain that the observed result was the other person's intention?

[Anro]

I'm sure she is trying to feed off of my online success. She is doing the exact same work, and there she is doing the same work under MY search results and vice versa. I do not want to be mistaken for her, because her work is mediocre. I'm certain she doesn't mind being mistaken for me, however.
It's pretty obvious what she intended to do. There are other people in the same business, who have the same name as me and her, yet they chose completely different url's and terms to describe themselves, to set themselves apart from others that have same first name. Why would this particular person put her extension exactly the same as mine when she could easily have chosen differently to set herself apart from me?

[lucy24]

Next question: Is there a real danger of confusion? It seems as if it's a type of work that relies to some extent on physical location. So long as one of you is in Whitehorse and the other is in Fairbanks,* how much of your business can she steal?

Are there any registered trademarks involved? I'm assuming no, or you would have said.


* I am making this up.

[Anro]

What I mean by stealing my business, is:
If I give someone my card, and they look me up, then click on her stuff, unless the location is clearly displayed, they will not be able to differentiate. When I give someone my url name, sometimes I don't have cards to give out...and they go online, they can easily get confused, esp. people who aren't internet saavy. This can cause me to lose business, because her work and experience is inferior to mine. On her splash page or entry page, there is no clearly defined location. Even in the Contact page, there is no clearly defined location. Only in the ABOUT section.
Here are a couple of exerpts from the ICANN rules for this situation, which I believe apply in this case.

(iv) by using the domain name, you have intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to your web site or other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant's mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of your web site or location or of a product or service on your web site or location.

AND
(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights;

[lucy24]

On her splash page or entry page, there is no clearly defined location. Even in the Contact page, there is no clearly defined location.

You're right. (Note for people reading along later: I've seen the two sites, and it does seem to go beyond unlucky coincidence.) When I did find a location-- which was not easy-- it's pretty vague. Surprisingly so, for a type of business that can't possibly be done by mail!

Sticking with the made-up example: if Real Site says Whitehorse while Copycat Site says Alaska, it's totally possible for the unsuspecting customer to think it's all the same person covering the whole region.

Sit back a week or two. For many people, this forum counts as work rather than entertainment. A quick look at the calendar will suggest that there isn't much work going on this week.

[Anro]

Thank you for your analysis. I felt you would agree once you had more info. My bio also almost always says that I work in Canada and the USA. So hence the vagueness on her site...