Brand Protection Online has become a front-and-center priority for many of our clients.  We have learned how important it is to build relationships across the Legal, IT, and Marketing departments, in a united effort to effectivley combat Brand Abuse.

Brand Abuse is a serious issue online and must be addressed by corporate leaders with a fiduciary responsibility to the company, in order to protect the brand and ensure future growth.

Brand Abuse includes trademark infringement in all forms (products, logos, etc), copyright violations, as well as defamatory or malicious claims made against your brand.

Brand Abuse runs rampant for several reasons, and today, many large enterprises have several instances of Brand Abuse that their leadership is unaware of.

In the screenshot below, we take a look at Allstate Insurance by searching Google with the keyword “Allstate.”

The third result is a website entitled, “Allstate Insurance Sucks.” Not only is the copy destructive to the brand and highly visible, but the domain for this site is www.allstateinsurancesucks.com, which can be ruled as trademark infringement. See Diageo PLC (Guinness Beer) v. John Zuccarini.  In a similar case, Taubman v. Webfeats, a Circuit court held that defendant’s registration of gripe sites incorporating plaintiff’s trademarks into the domain names was protected by the First Amendment.

Companies face a difficult battle when attempting to take down “complaint” sites online where disgruntled customers and employees publish their grievances publicly. 

When the “complaint” site is engaged in commercial activity, Federal trademark infringement, dilution and trade libel laws may protect a company against disparaging use of corporate names and trademarks and confusing domain names.  However, when the purpose of the disparagement is solely customer complaint and parody, these laws will provide far less protection.

In addition to legal actions, brands should utilize other strategies as well. Our Brand Command methodology dictates that brands need to dominate brand real estate in both natural and the paid results of search engines.  Download our Brand Command white paper to learn how you can effectively remove negative or unwanted websites out of prominent search engine visibility.

There isn’t much a company can do if another party uses their trademark in a sub-domain or sub-folder (below), see Interactive Products Corporation v. a2z Mobile Office Solutions, Inc. However, if another party is using your trademark in a top-level domain, such as this case, you have every right to force them to surrender the domain.

The Allstateinsurancesucks.com domain was registered in May of 1999 and to the best of my recollection, I remember having first seen it ranking about three years ago.

Note: Allstateinsurancesucks.com runs ads on their “customer complaint” site, thereby leveraging the Allstate Insurance brand to engage in commerce.

Example – Trademark in a sub-domain
http://allstateinsurancesucks.imcomplaining.com

Example – Trademark in a sub-folder
http://www.imcomplaining.com/allstateinsurancesucks