Hey everyone!
tl;dr at the bottom
I'll preface this by saying it's a semi-rhetorical post so please bear that in mind. I also wanted to have a little fun with this, so I included a poll. Please answer it honestly. It won't dictate my actions. I just want to know what you would do.
I've got a business that I've been working on for just over a year now. We launched in March and things have been going fairly well considering we're only selling through our online store and local shows while we are refining our products/processes and waiting for our trademarks to come in for Amazon Brand Registration. The Trademarks aren't stopping us from proceeding, we just wanted to get everything sorted a bit more to ensure we are ready to scale. (Yeah, we've been ungated blah blah blah... And as an FYI the Canadian trademark office is backed up over 10 months and counting ...yeesh).
Anyway, we were changing our product line up a bit and timed some inventory overlap with the first run of the new line for the BFCM period. There's one other competitor with a similar product in Canada and one in the US. That's about it. So I ran AdWords campaigns against each of their business names... as most good marketers would. Neither was running ads at the time so I came up #1 on the results page every time. The ads ran something like this.
Those have been running for about a month and my Canadian competitor finally took notice (In their defense they aren't getting that much traffic this time of year).
How do I know they caught on?
Today I got a call from them. I know the business is run by women but it was a man who called and identified that he was calling on behalf of them. I was a little surprised at first. The purpose of his call was to talk "man-to-man" with me to see if he could "avoid litigation" and save me "a lot of money on legal bills".
I said, "What litigation?" He said, "Well, the owners here are threatening to sue you for slander because of your ads. They don't even want to bother with a cease and desist order."
I played dumb.
"Slander? Wow...that sound serious. Can you explain more about these ads and what is so offensive?"
He went on to say "I don't know if you have someone else running them or a marketing company or what but..." and went on to read the ad verbatim. He said "You can't use another company's name in our ads. It's illegal. It's our name."
I admit that I mentally chuckled when he said it's illegal. Again I played dumb rather than escalating it with him and simply told him I'd look into it.
I know I'm in the clear for slander. Everything I said was factual. The only time I even mentioned the competitor's name was in the promo code. So I'm not worried about that. I just don't like it when someone tries to intimidate me. I'm the type that wants to give them the big
My wife told me to change the ad and let it go. I know she's right. They're too small to worry about.
But I mentioned that I can be a dick, right?
So for fun, I checked out their site. Immediately I noticed that they have a 'TM' next to their wordmark. They've been in business about 6 months longer than we have. I was surprised that they had their trademarks but we are still waiting. So I searched the trademark application database to see when they got it. Wouldn't you know it, the search came up empty. Hmmm...
They use 'International' in the company name so I thought maybe they decided to register in the US instead of Canada. Another quick search and... nothing again.
Now that, 'F*ck You' part of my brain started to kick in.
I remember reading that @AllenCrawley (?) had an issue before where his contract manufacturer trademarked his company's name right out from under him. Hmmm.... *evil laugh* If I have the trademark to their name, surely they can't bitch about me using it slanderously, can they?
Trademark registration in Canada is about $450. Not as much as US registration so it could be done relatively inexpensively. It just takes time.
Anyone know the going rate for IP held ransome?
I won't do it. It's a dick move. But damn it's tempting.
----
tl;dr
Competitor threatened to sue because I used their name in an ad.
I found out their company names aren't trademarked.
Half-tempted to trademark it out from under them.
tl;dr at the bottom
I'll preface this by saying it's a semi-rhetorical post so please bear that in mind. I also wanted to have a little fun with this, so I included a poll. Please answer it honestly. It won't dictate my actions. I just want to know what you would do.
I've got a business that I've been working on for just over a year now. We launched in March and things have been going fairly well considering we're only selling through our online store and local shows while we are refining our products/processes and waiting for our trademarks to come in for Amazon Brand Registration. The Trademarks aren't stopping us from proceeding, we just wanted to get everything sorted a bit more to ensure we are ready to scale. (Yeah, we've been ungated blah blah blah... And as an FYI the Canadian trademark office is backed up over 10 months and counting ...yeesh).
Anyway, we were changing our product line up a bit and timed some inventory overlap with the first run of the new line for the BFCM period. There's one other competitor with a similar product in Canada and one in the US. That's about it. So I ran AdWords campaigns against each of their business names... as most good marketers would. Neither was running ads at the time so I came up #1 on the results page every time. The ads ran something like this.
"Why settle for (competitor's limited product feature) - Buy (My Brand) Today!
(Explained my value-added benefits)"
I included the usual site extensions and an offer extension for 20% off your first order when you use promo code "Sorry(Competitor)"
(Explained my value-added benefits)"
I included the usual site extensions and an offer extension for 20% off your first order when you use promo code "Sorry(Competitor)"
Those have been running for about a month and my Canadian competitor finally took notice (In their defense they aren't getting that much traffic this time of year).
How do I know they caught on?
Today I got a call from them. I know the business is run by women but it was a man who called and identified that he was calling on behalf of them. I was a little surprised at first. The purpose of his call was to talk "man-to-man" with me to see if he could "avoid litigation" and save me "a lot of money on legal bills".
I said, "What litigation?" He said, "Well, the owners here are threatening to sue you for slander because of your ads. They don't even want to bother with a cease and desist order."
I played dumb.
"Slander? Wow...that sound serious. Can you explain more about these ads and what is so offensive?"
He went on to say "I don't know if you have someone else running them or a marketing company or what but..." and went on to read the ad verbatim. He said "You can't use another company's name in our ads. It's illegal. It's our name."
I admit that I mentally chuckled when he said it's illegal. Again I played dumb rather than escalating it with him and simply told him I'd look into it.
I know I'm in the clear for slander. Everything I said was factual. The only time I even mentioned the competitor's name was in the promo code. So I'm not worried about that. I just don't like it when someone tries to intimidate me. I'm the type that wants to give them the big
F*ck YOU!
...and dial it up a few more notches.
I can be a dick like that.
...and dial it up a few more notches.
I can be a dick like that.
My wife told me to change the ad and let it go. I know she's right. They're too small to worry about.
But I mentioned that I can be a dick, right?
So for fun, I checked out their site. Immediately I noticed that they have a 'TM' next to their wordmark. They've been in business about 6 months longer than we have. I was surprised that they had their trademarks but we are still waiting. So I searched the trademark application database to see when they got it. Wouldn't you know it, the search came up empty. Hmmm...
They use 'International' in the company name so I thought maybe they decided to register in the US instead of Canada. Another quick search and... nothing again.
Now that, 'F*ck You' part of my brain started to kick in.
I remember reading that @AllenCrawley (?) had an issue before where his contract manufacturer trademarked his company's name right out from under him. Hmmm.... *evil laugh* If I have the trademark to their name, surely they can't bitch about me using it slanderously, can they?
Trademark registration in Canada is about $450. Not as much as US registration so it could be done relatively inexpensively. It just takes time.
Anyone know the going rate for IP held ransome?
I won't do it. It's a dick move. But damn it's tempting.
----
tl;dr
Competitor threatened to sue because I used their name in an ad.
I found out their company names aren't trademarked.
Half-tempted to trademark it out from under them.
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