Are people allowed to use my domain name in their marketing

My Site name used in other peoples marketing...

[ca3le]

ALL MIGHTY WEBMASTER WORLD!

I don't post here often, I usually just read. But I know that this is the right place to get this question answered.

I'm curious, are people allowed to use my domain name in their marketing.

I've been seeing this for years and one that I saw today was so blatant I had to ask. Is there anything I can do? Is it against any law or anything?

The one I saw today literally had my domain name plastered at the top, and throughout the content... in an obvious attempt to use my sites success to crutch for his site.

I'd really like to contact Bing about that one, it even says my domain name in the title tag of the ad, total BS... people shouldn't be allowed to do that, it's my domain and my business.

I've noticed that google has thankfully stopped showing ads when people type a domain name in the search... so one can assume they must be aware of the problem.

Could someone with experience tell me what's up with this.

Thanks,
- Damon

[edited by: tedster at 5:47 pm (utc) on Aug 21, 2010]

[piatkow]

Is it against any law or anything?

1. This is an international forum, replies may not be applicable to the country where you live.
2. People here are not lawyers, while you may get good general advice replies will not be valid legal opinions

It would help to know where you are located, where the offender is located and where his hosting is located.

[ca3le]

I understand that it's not legal advice... I just wanted to get the opinions of some other webmasters.

I'm in the United States, Arizona to be more specific.

Thanks in advance.

- Damon

[CyBerAliEn]

I'm not a legal expert. I am an Industrial, Systems & Operations Engineer. But I live in Arizona. lol

For what it's worth...

There's no law that says "bob can't use john's domain address in material". The state attorneys aren't going to consider your case if you present it before them. Why? It isn't an outright "crime" (in a literal sense; even if you feel it is one).

What you will likely have to do is bring a case against the perpetrator via civil courts. Hire an attorney and seek their counsel. In all likelihood, they will simply send a cease-and-desist letter... which will likely scare the "bad man" into stopping.

However, this likely won't work well because: (1) you probably won't be able to identify who this person is; (2) this person may not be in the US, and if they're not, you'll have a hell of time trying to get them in a US court or abiding US laws.

Secondly... assuming you do know who the person is and they are in the US: (1) hiring an attorney is going to be costly $$$; (2) you may or may not have a case to bring (hence seek legal counsel).

For what it is worth... you'll have to weigh: how much am I losing by this other individual conducting in this manner? Am losing business? How much? Am I being tarnished? How so; how badly? All of this combined... what's the reasonable value? Does this value exceed anticipated attorney costs of going to court? (which could easily be several thousand+)

The only avenue I see this potentially going is "they make visitors thing, via the ad, that their site is my site because they put my domain in the ad/title/etc". You could begin to consider this a form of marketing deception on some level. However... I'm willing to bet this other site has a completely different design/feel/etc, and they only list your domain some manner. This isn't inherently wrong; maybe unethical, but not wrong.


My ending advice...
(1) What they're doing is not outright criminal. So "nobody else" cares.
(2) If it is a big enough issue that you want to try and fight it... go to an attorney and discuss your situation. They'll provide general counsel on what your options are and how the law stands. The counsel may be free; it may be a few hundred $$$.



Best of luck. Take my advice lightly... it has no basis in attorney/law aspect, other than reasonable common advice from what I do know, which is not law. :)

[kaled]

A domain name is effectively a trademark. Use of a trade mark without permission is not normally permitted. In particular, using someone else's trademark for commercial gain is not permitted. However, it's normally a civil matter (that means you'll have to pay lawyers) rather than a criminal matter (that you can report to the police).

Nevertheless, trading in counterfeit goods is a criminal matter and so is fraud so you could maybe bluff the guy if you know what you're doing.

Kaled.

[Hoople]

Might only take a strongly worded 'cease and desist' letter worded in a legal sounding way to dissuade him. Plenty of templates on the net. Find out the local (to him) government agency that regulate private businesses and CC (carbon copy) them (note it in the letter).

Give him a time-line to respond by taking your domain name off his site. State that at the end of that time period you will contact Bing to have his site removed for copyright violations.

He may not know how far you can actually go with this action (hopefully he doesn't read here also!) and actually comply! Worth a shot as it cost you little (modify template letter, print, stuff in envelope and post). $1 USD at most? E-mail if available is free. Do both though.

[phranque]

send it certified mail.

[MWpro]

$1 USD at most? Assuming he doesn't haul you into court himself seeking a declaratory judgment that he is allowed to use your domain because it constitutes fair use.

This probably won't happen in this context; but for other situations, this is a very real consequence of sending a cease and desist letter... especially if your domain name isn't even trademarkable to begin with.