Trademark Infringement Concern from CB

by AffiliatingAlan

Posted: 10 years ago 19 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have a clickbank product review type site that is earning a good chunk of change for me and the vendor.

I just got an email the other day from clickbank stating that my site is being requested to be taken down by the vendor for trademark infringement on their name.

My site is the typical (product-name).net

Their brand/product isnt even really a brand, its more of a sentence they whipped up. Its like "our acne solution" (example).

Of coarse the rest of the SERPs is full of similar ("product-name".org) ("product-name.info") ("product-name-review.com") etc, etc.

My site also clearly has "Review" in the SERP title as well.

Should I take the site down and rebuilt it under a different domain? Obviously don't wanna get the ban hammer for clickbank, but this seems really stupid as all their affiliates have the keyword in their domains.

TBH im not even sure if they are "trademarked", I mean any goon can whip up an ebook, make dot.com and say their a "company". Now everyone on the planet cant use any of their associated words in a domain? Seems pretty stupid to me.

#concern #infringement #trademark

Jeff Lenney 10 years ago

Honestly Alan, you'll probably want to check with a lawyer on this one. Good luck - thats unfortunately they're treating their affiliate that way... have you tried contacting them directly to ask about their complaint?
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kindsvater 10 years ago

It doesn't matter if you are legally right to use the name, if you don't want to risk a CB ban hammer then either remove your CB links from the domain or take it down.

I'd be expecting a message soon enough from your web host about the same issue.

Personally, I'd stop promoting the seller. If the domain is truly generic and not a name or trademark, you could promote just about any other acne product on it. But since no one knows your domain you can't use this post as an excuse to do that.
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Adie 10 years ago

Meet a lawyer and promote similar product of their competitor.Greed vendors like this one don't deserve help from affiliates.
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- AffiliatingAlan 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Adie
  
  Meet a lawyer and promote similar product of their competitor.Greed vendors like this one don't deserve help from affiliates.
  
  I like the way you think and I would agree except I really don't have the funds to do this, by that I mean the lawyer.
  
  I find this pretty ridiculous tbh as I had recieved a letter from them thanking me for promoting their product a month prior.
  
  There SEO is weak so I may rebuild on a different domain and just overtake them in the SERPs. I find this ridiculous as they will have to go after about 15 websites that have "keyword" hq, review, .org, info etc
  
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HelpingYouBeAnExpert 10 years ago

This amazes me one day someone will trademark "fly the sky" and sue everyone who uses that in the email or blog. I would just promote their competitor out of principle. it's lie that copany that is sueing people after they post a picture that they took, they just mass sue. It's horible what we are coming to in regards to freedom.
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- wordwizard 10 years ago
  
  Imagine when people start trademarking "Buy one get one free" and "One Time Special Offer" and such...
  
  Seriously though, Alan, you have the right plan. I would definitely START with setting up an alternative domain and building an authority site on the subject. Get a head start on that right away and THEN promote their competitors. And yes, beat them in the SERPs, maybe multiple times, with videos etc. too.
  
  And sure, talking to an attorney is always a good idea, though it could be costly and may not be worth the trouble and cost. And actually fighting it out with that company could cost you big, so it's NOT worth it, I would think.
  
  Kindsvater is giving some great advice above.
  
  Also, for all we know the company might be going after all the OTHER domain names too!
  
  Pretty stupid. Removing their affiliates. What the heck are they thinking!
  
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- kindsvater 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by HelpingYouBeAnExpert
  
  This amazes me one day someone will trademark "fly the sky"
  
  FYI - "fly thru the sky" has a registered trademarked. Even the word "trademark" has a registered trademark! Using a term in commerce can create a trademark, even if it is not registered.
  
  .
  
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Josh Anderson 10 years ago

1. Don't get legal advice in the warrior forum.

2. Contact a qualified attorney if you want the right answer.

3. My two cents:

A. An email from clickbank asking you to take down your review site reviewing a vendors product? Ummm... you sure it's from clickbank?

B. An email? Ingore it. A demand letter from clickbank? Talk to an attorney. A demand letter with the letter head of legal council representing the vendor? Talk to an attorney.
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TrafficFlow 10 years ago

Did you do a trademark search on the name. Very easy to do and it is free.
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Brent Stangel 10 years ago

that is earning a good chunk of change for me and the vendor.

Have you contacted the vendor? That should have been step #1.

If you are truly earning a "good chunk of change" for them I find it hard to believe they would try to stop you.
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Karol Z 10 years ago

Contact a lawyer or next thing you know you'll be in court being sued for copyright infringement. If you choose not to than I recommend relocating to a different domain. I would not take the risk of ignoring them, especially since they're the ones paying you out.
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- serryjw 10 years ago
  
  There are a dozen well know Domain( IP) attorney...here are a few
  ARI
  John Berryhill
  Karen Bernstein
  
  This is a very specialized field. IF you are going to proceed, use an expert
  
  Thanks
  
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mediamarket 10 years ago

If its a phrase. Legally you are in the clear. Just use that site and promote a competitor.
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serryjw 10 years ago

Alan..with all the new domain extensions coming out, it is getting very ugly out there. It isn't whether you COULD win a challege, it is going to cost you dearly. When you WIN, there is no recourse against the reverse UDRP hijacker. Personally, unless you see BIG money in the domain & you have deep pockets, let it go.
UDRP - ICANNWiki
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Randall Magwood

10 years ago

Take the site down. (headache)

Promote my product. (solution)

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AffiliatingAlan

10 years ago

Update:

The concern is product name in url. They claim they should have registered all extensions of it, but forgot and only regged the .com. Said brand is "proprietary".

I feel they are asking it to be taken down now because the popularity of their product has slightly increased and they are ranking poorly in serps. Eliminating their product name from all urls would knock out 3 affiliate sites in the serp and give them better rankings.

I'm not prepared to see a lawyer over a 300$ a month site.

Im more so worried about clickbank having an issue with this and locking my account or something. How does this typically work? Would clickbank take the vendors side and just cancel my account or do they need some sort of proof that their brand cannot be used in a url?

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savidge4

10 years ago

I am by no means a lawyer. But this is what I would do. Find a similar product outside of clickbank. Use your current site to push that new product. If you wish to sell that product, develop a new site.

What they are asking is pretty normal affiliate terms and conditions. All the companies I affiliate with say in the terms that you cant have the product name in the URL. Look at your terms with them.. is the wording there?

At this point you need to keep your ability to sell CB products. Just for that it is not worth the fight. However, remove CB and its a whole new ball game. your site is worth 5 years of revenue. $300.00 * 12 * 5 = $18,000. I by no means would dump the site, I would at the very least keep it up out of spite. You know they want it!

Good luck!

Originally Posted by AffiliatingAlan

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Nail Yener 10 years ago

It sounds to me that the vendor decided to take action against the sites that have the product name in their domain. Maybe they all got notices at the same time you did and trying to figure out what to do like yourself. I am also thinking that the reason might be the vendor does not want competition even if you are an affiliate and generating sales for them. Some vendors like that, some don't.

Register a new domain, transfer your site to that. Take this as a lesson and do not create another affiliate site using the product name in it unless it is a subdomain.
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- Harvey Segal 10 years ago
  
  How about this letter
  
  "Dear Vendor
  
  No problem with this.
  
  I am in the process of switching to a rival product outside of ClickBank with a higher commission.
  
  I have had my site redesigned by SEO experts and am about to launch massive promotions. I estimate this would have brought you $x,000 in sales per month but it's not to be.
  
  Of course I will be happy to continue as your affiliate but I will require a new commission rate of x%. This offer will expire at midnight tomorrow after which the new rate will be y%"
  
  .
  
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Trademark Infringement Concern from CB

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