Re: Company Name Abuse

From: Miki Dzugan <mdzugan_at_markneting.com>
Date: Tue 12 Jun 2001 12:23:34 -0500

DOUGLAS DOANE <ddoane_at_halegroves.com> WROTE:

> I ran across an FFA marketer through the
> http://www.wisenut.com search engine at
> http://www.paysurflist.com and http://paid1.com, using
> our company name over 40 times and linking it to a paid
> affiliate ad that has nothing to do with us. We have
> informed them to cease and desist as we are concerned
> that our reputation will be affected.

> Has anyone else had experiences with this or similar
> abuses of trademark?

On the Wild Wild Web you can expect some unscrupulous
 individual to do something like this. We had a similar
situation with a client bookstore and LookSmart.

The paid links at the top of the search results page
were set up so that any phrase you searched on was
highlighted and linked to the paid vendors. Many of
our bookstore clients were searching on the store name,
because we had radio ads. Imagine our dismay to find
our trademarked name linked to Amazon! My client
complained and the ad was withdrawn.

Now LookSmart has a much more sophisticated "Featured
Sponsors" section which eliminates the linking of our
bookstore name to anything. Yea, LookSmart!
--
Miki Dzugan
MARKnETING
Integrating the 'net into your marketing.
http://www.markneting.com
651-454-5323



Received on Tue Jun 12 2001 - 12:23:34 CDT