I haven't put anything up for a while, but this morning's events got me going. It started with an email from a lady in the UK wanting to know where her Amazon order for two bowler hats was. At first I thought it was a phishing attempt, but I decided to reply stating that we'd never sold on Amazon, only through our own website and that my wife doesn't make men's hats. She replied that 'there must be more than one AB Hats' and thanked me for the note.
That got my interest - when I Googled "ab hats", our website came up first (A. B. Hats, abhats.com), and then something on Amazon.UK - "AB Hats". Turns out AB Hats is a reseller of factory things (read 'junk') in the UK. We registered our company name (based on my wife's initials, not a trick to get at the beginning of an alphabetical list) almost ten years age. This is now the second time we've found someone somewhere trying to use the name. The first was a trade school in China that apparently starts companies for its students to sell factory products through. They've either quit using it or are only selling in their immediate area. Since Amazon is global, we've a much bigger concern.
I've swapped several messages through Amazon with the person in the UK trying to impress upon him/her that we don't appreciate what's going on. They must be relatively new (oldest feedback is May 5, 2011), while we have years of business relationships with several UK millinery supply companies and milliners and don't need any issues with them being identified as us. So far, the person on the other end doesn't seem to understand our concerns. Maybe Amazon itself will get it. Meanwhile, we're going to send out emails to all of them disclaiming any linkage and hope for the best.
I guess the bottom line is that its a really good idea to periodically search the internet for your own company name to see what pops up. Make certain you're searching outside the US too!
Comments
Google Alerts is great. It keeps you from having to do all the looking. You put in what you want to keep track of and they will send any info on to you. Try it.
Jacki B
Sign up for Google Alerts ( www.google.com/alerts ). This is an easy way to keep track of what is being said about you and your company on the internet. This is also a great way to see what is being said by reviewers. There may be malicious reviews on reviewer sites around the web. They can basically say anything they want. If you don't know about it, you will have no chance to counter the bad press or comments.
What you don't know can definitely hurt your business!
We're registered which works just as well to prove date of creation. It also doesn't help overseas.
Have you trademarked your name? You can do it yourself with out an attorney. It took me 1 1/2 years for this to go through, but I finally got it. This only protects me in the US. From what I understand, I will need to pay a lot more to protect it in Europe and I'm not ready for the extra cost at this time. One step at a time.
Very sound advise! I searched before I started using the name, and about once annually since, just to check on things. Will continue, as I don't want any legal issues happening.