Dirty Tricks:

The Internet has often been described as the new Wild West, an environment where anything goes and there is little accountability for otherwise unacceptable behavior. This is particularly true within the automobile retail industry. As illustrated in the following examples, there needs to exist a general understanding of, and agreement to, what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behavior among all parties involved in automotive retail Internet commerce. This will play itself out over time through cause and effect, with the former ’s frequency decreasing over time. But no matter how infrequent trademark infringement eventually becomes, one must always be vigilant of such tactics and confront those responsible when it occurs.

How Did My Logo Get on My Competitor's Website?

I periodically check search engine results for my clients, and in doing so one day I came across a listing for a competitor ranking very highly on two different search engines. The listing featured my client’s name and address, but the link was to the competitor’s website. Clicking the link took me to a special page on the competitor’s site that featured my client’s name, address, telephone number and, to my complete shock, my client’s logo – the logo image having been “borrowed” right from my client’s site.

The page also featured links to new and used inventory, which of course, led to the competitor’s inventory. This was the competitor’s objective, to misdirect people searching for my client on search engines, to their site, and to their inventory.

(The website in question also featured similar pages for each of four other competitors.)

On behalf of my client, I contacted the competitor and spoke with the owner who was very gracious. He stated he was unaware of the offending pages, but did go on to relate that he had recently hired a website design firm (specializing in increasing traffic) to help increase their visibility on search engines, and that this must be how the situation occurred.

The next day, all pages referencing my client were removed from the competitor’s site, and soon thereafter disappeared from all search results.

The lesson here is to keep an eye on your search engine results, and although there may be grounds for legal recourse (depending on trademark) should you fall prey to such tactics, a simple phone call will often suffice.

In this case the infringement was perpetrated by a vendor, (it remains unclear whether the owner was complicit) but the act was so egregious, it can only be founded upon either ignorance or an underlying sentiment that anything on the Internet is fair game. Either way, upon infringement, your protest will make it known to those responsible that this practice is unacceptable, not to mention a detriment to the industry; for not only does it make the intended beneficiary appear unscrupulous to those web surfers who recognize the trick, it further contributes to the overall negative stereotype of the automobile retail experience.

Why is My Competitor Showing Up in Searches for My Keywords?

Many companies routinely embed their competitor’s keywords within their website’s pages, yet these keywords are not usually visible on the pages when they are viewed in a browser, as they are most often placed in the page’s META tags. (Sometimes keywords are actually on the page and could otherwise be seen, but their color has been set to match the background color, thus rendering them invisible.) Search engines however, can “see” these keywords either way, and this can explain why your competitor’s site may show up in search results for your company's keywords.

Where a company name is generic, for example, “Springfield Dodge”, both “Springfield” and “Dodge” are terms that can be used by competitors in such a way that it would be very difficult to establish trademark infringement. These keywords could be placed both in META tags and plain text visible on the page, simply in the form of “Shady Dodge, we want to be your Springfield Dodge dealer” or “Shady Dodge, serving Springfield, Haddonfield and Hightstown”. This type of keyword usage is generally acceptable.

Should a competitor (most likely a small one) be so bold as to feature your trademark on their site in such a way that it is obviously infringement; for example, Shady Dodge featuring a page with the title “Welcome to Springfield Dodge”, a phone call to the owner or principal (as mentioned above) will often take care of it. Should you encounter any difficulty having the infringement removed, you might then explain (feigning) that you too, can do the same with your site and exploit their trademark. Hopefully, the competitor will then realize the futility of the exercise and comply. Otherwise, legal intervention may be necessary.

Why Does My Business Map Listing Link to My Competitor's Site?

Both Bing and Google local business listings provide maps, directions and general information about organizations, and sometimes include direct links to company websites. As such, when searching for a business with either search engine (depending upon the keywords used) a map may appear before all other search results at the top of the page.

However, the website link the map provides may not be to the business being sought. For, unfortunately, these services often add business information and maps automatically and can sometimes get it wrong, and in other instances competitors may have taken advantage by creating new (or modifying orphan) listings in the effort of redirecting this traffic.

I’ve personally come across maps for some of my client’s locations featuring links to their competitor’s sites, and in one case in particular a map with a client’s address containing a link to a third-party lead provider's website. (Imagine the contempt the lead provider had for its car dealership customers in it's brazen assumption that it could get away with charging them for leads sourced via the redirection of their own organic search traffic.)

In any event, the good news here is that you can easily create an account with both services and create (or update) map entries to accurately reflect your business and supersede any previously erroneous listings.

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Internet / BDC reference