

Ask HN: Competitor smear campaign. What to do? - onetimeacct

*Using a one time account to hide my name/company name (but I am very active on HN).<p>One of our competitors decided to start attacking us using Google and Bing ads.<p>So if you search for our company name (company or company.com) it will show their ad saying that our main product has many issues and linking to their site where they criticize us and try to sell their own product.<p>Most of the ads are very aggressive in tone, which I didn't think Google/Bing would even allow (Company X product is flawed or Company X product won't do what it promised, Company X is lying and similar things).<p>Have anyone dealt with such a situation? What can we do? They are a smaller company and trying to use our name to gain attention..<p>Any help or suggestion is appreciated.
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_sh
My helpful suggestion: get a lawyer. Don't bother contacting Google/Bing or
doing anything else until this is done first. Doing anything else is stupid,
risky and futile.

On the plus side, this is a great opportunity for some clever PR spin provided
you are savvy enough to out-manoeuvre your competitors. Also, depending
whether you are the plucky upstart or the entrenched power in your space, your
competitors have just validated your business model and your company's worth.

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LarryMade
Well from my perspective, you are either doing a better job or they are idiots
when it comes to marketing.

My first thought is putting a page on your site about how the competition is
scared, address the false claims they make and maybe note that it is a sign of
desperation on their part to employ such tactics. Have fun with it - never
sink to their level, and then ignore them and get back to doing what it is
that makes them nervous.

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knes
Yes we did. We contacted Google and asked them to remove our competitor ads.
We had to prove that we own the copyright for the name of our company in all
the countries that the ads where running. After that, they banned / removed
all the ads. It was a long & slow process though.

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UnoriginalGuy
You cannot copyright a name. I assume you mean trademark; and even then unless
the ad network has rules against it there is nothing in law that specifically
forbids using a competitor's name in this way.

Trademark is mostly concerned with "pretending to be someone you're not." So
if you pretend to be Nike and sell fake shoes, then it is a powerful set of
laws, but if someone writes a critical review of a Nike's tennis shoes then
they cannot demand it be pulled down.

As I said Google/Bing might have specific rules against this kind of thing but
you really don't have the law on your side. They're allowed to be critical of
you as long as they don't misrepresent themselves as being you.

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andrewhillman
This has a few paragraphs that might be helpful...
[http://www.inc.com/magazine/201207/april-joyner/online-
stalk...](http://www.inc.com/magazine/201207/april-joyner/online-stalker-was-
killing-veritas-preps-reputation.html)

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staunch
Get a lawyer to draft a letter demanding that they cease and desist. This much
will stop 90% of people. If necessary escalate with the guidance of your
lawyer.

Google will definitely stop them from using your trademarks.

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lightyrs
More specifics please.

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pizza
Well, you should ask specifically what you need him to tell you.

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brucend
i don't know

