Forum Moderators: not2easy
The copyright with my client's name only appears on one of the large company's thousands of pages. The rest of their pages use their own copyright statement.
For clarity, the large company's copyright line says:
Copyright 2002 Mydomainname.com
My client copyrighted this business name and url in 1996 and uses the domain name for his primary business website.
What can be done about this? I realize that they would probably remove it upon request, but my client is considering other legal options. I'm not even sure if this is illegal. They haven't used any of my client's content, only his copyright line.
The thing is that trademark law does not provide you with control over the use of the word, it gives you protection from dilution of your brand by someone representing that brand as their own.
And the only thing a court is likely to give you in a trademark case is injunctive relief, they will make the other company stop using it.
So your client is not going to gain anything for going after them, but he could lose a lot in legal fees.
And why make an enemy over something so minor? Point out the error and ask them to change it. Someone made a copy and paste mistake, why get wound up about it.
I thought it was a copy and paste mistake too. I also hope that my client doesn't make a big deal out of it. However, he did ask me about his options so I thought I would ask someone who knew.
