Stealing Company Names

My SL family and I have had a successful business in SL for 6 months+. Today I checked the traffic as I do everyday, and saw that there is another company that has just appeared WITH OUR SAME EXACT COMPANY NAME, doing the EXACT same business we do! Granted, our name is not copyrighted and or patented, however my question is, is this in volation of a TOS? Can they just steal our name? In th search, to get around the name stealing they put stars before and after the exact name to make the search accept it. I'm so angry I could scream! I calmy talked with the owners of that other company who seemed to blow me off as "not wanting competition" I don't care about competition, bring it! But to take our NAME????

Does anyone have any idea of what we can do?

First file an abuse report. What they are doing is trademark infringement.

The company name is not trademarked.. can I still do that?

Yes. As long as you can prove prior use, you have a case for infringement. However, if it should go to a RL legal dispute, having a *registered* trademark/company name/logo will strengthen your case. I doubt it will go that far...actual lawsuits generally cost FAR more than any SL business is worth.

OP I certainly empathize with you as the same thing happened to us. They way I found out about it was they visited my sim and I greeted them. I checked their profile and lo and behold why used our name but added an apostrophe which was grammatically incorrect.

I said something her and she her response was so sue me. Lindall, I didn't know that was AR-able. That is good to know.

Would it cost a bundle to trademark one's name? In RL I mean...

Not sure how much it would cost but there certainly would be court costs......which in itself would probably be more than what the SL company is worth in terms of real dollars (or whatever currency the OP uses).

And I'm not sure if LL will get involved.......this seems to fall in that catagory of "resident to resident disputes". Which they have stated and demonstrated that they will not get into.

That's not quite what I said. I said the OP has a case for infringement. The OP certainly CAN AR...however, LL doesn't get involved in resident to resident disputes, so most likely nothing would come of it. The OP could try a DMCA takedown notice. However, the DMCA only applies to copyrighted material, NOT trademarks or logos (which are protected under a different legal umbrella). By submitting the DMCA, the OP would be hoping that LL would overlook this, or allow the definition to stretch to cover the situation.

I would:

1. First IM the infringer, if you haven't already. Point out (politely) that you were here first and ask them to cease and desist. Ban them from your property, to keep them from stealing and spying more.
2. AR (probably no result, but it can't hurt)
3. DMCA takedown notice
4. None of the above will work, more than likely. So next you will have to start calling them out in public. Blog about it. Post notices in your store. Send out group notices. Put a notice in your Profile. Keep all of this professional, something like, "On December 1, 2009, avatars Sly Nogood and Swill Piggly began doing business as "MyLittleStore". Nogood and Piggly are not authorized to use the "MyLittleStore" name, logo, or products. Please only buy MyLittleStore products at THIS store!"

They've offline, go figure right. We've all written 4 ARs today and hoping they change it in a hurry or LL steps in. I've already got 2 i.m's from customers saying in not so many words, WTF. GRRRRR makes me angry the time and RL money and building for hours to make something nice and low and behold people with less creativity than a snail come and bum it. Just want to tell them GET YOUR OWN TRAFFIC PEOPLE!

I'll try the above. thanks for your info. Definately will be doing number 4!

$325 to 375.00

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2009september15.htm#tm

Is it a common name? Are you sure they knew you were using it? Did they do it on purpose?

damage control - send a note to your customers/group and let them know right away. Make it business-like, matter-of-fact....not dramatic.

How does that qualify as a DMCA?

Well this go tme thinking and I did a little exploring on something called LegalZoom.com - wonder what one fills out when you get to 'send us a sample of how you will be using your logo"? "Well you see, I run this virtual store. Yes that's right... virtual, yes, no you can't touch it. Uhuh, I want other virtual people to not take my virtual name..." I can't imagine how this would play out.. And it seems to cost a a few hundred bux though i did not go to the end of the application.

Thanks - found that- won't be doing THAT anytime soon!

Lindall, my apologizes you didn't say that. I meant to say Mila. But thank you for the suggestions.

Your company name is a trademark, just not a registered trademark. You still have a legitimate complaint.


Send them a screenshot of how your logo is used.

Is a virtual store in SL really significantly different from something like the Apple Music Store?

Registering a domain name and setting up a web site is a good way to establish a unique company and brand presence. < yourcompanynamehere >.com can't be used by anyone else. It will probably end up costing more than registering a trademark, but will be an effective differentiator for any company in SL. Put the web link into all profiles associated with the company. If a competitor with the same company name links to the page then let everyone know who they are and what they are doing on that very same page. They'll probably pull the link faster than one can say "fraud".

Linden Lab could probably make a few extra $$ by providing a service similar to domain registration for SL company names, thereby eliminating the situation described by the OP.

Now there is a good idea.

What do you think will happen to it?

1. LL will never read this thread and the idea will die.

2. LL will read this thread and do nothing with the idea.

3. LL will read this thread and say they will be offering this Real Soon Now but do nothing further.

4. LL will offer this service to "preferred customers"...i.e. corporations and universities paying $50,000 a year and more to LL

5. LL will offer the service, but muck it up so that a bunch of fly-by-night operators register names like SexGen, PixelDolls, and Second Skin Labs.

6. LL will offer the service to everyone, sign up a bunch of merchants, but not enforce sanctions against people who infringe.

You created the name, you are using the name, it is copyrighted then. Trademarking is a different animal, costs are approx. $600 USD, takes about six months to a year last I checked.

1. Probably

2. Maybe

3. Unlikely

4. No need when those companies can protect their name better than LL ever can under such a service.

5. That might happen, but would last about as long as an epileptic tightrope walker.

6. If that's the case they should offer the service for free, since it won't require any maintenance. Still it's better than what we have now (nothing).

No, a name can't be copyrighted. It's the particular expression of an idea that is copyrightable. IANAL however.

Not quite. For the name of a business, trademark is the applicable intellectual property. Copyright applies to creative works fixed in tangible form, for example, to designs, text, artwork and such. It's not for protecting the name of one's business - that's trademark.

As for trademark: Any name under which you do business is a trademark. The mere fact that you use a name in commerce can be enough to confer certain rights. Of course, enforcing those rights in RL (for example, in US court) usually requires, as a practical and legal matter, that you register your trademark (for example, with the US Patent and Trademark office).

Again: you have a trademark merely by using some name (or logo) in commerce to identify your business as the source of goods or services. You don't need a registration to say you have a trademark. You do need a registration to have access to most (but not all) types of RL enforcement of your trademark.

Registration with the USPTO includes, as has been noted, a few hundred dollars worth of fees. If, however, you lob in an application without competent legal advice, you're most likely wasting your few hundred dollars. At best your application will be rejected. At worst, your application will be allowed but the registration will be worthless because it doesn't cover what you think it covers. You need to have a solid understanding of the classifications of goods and services, the standards for proving use of the trademark use for your classification, and a good guess in advance of whether your registration is even allowable. Chances are you will have to make arguments to the USPTO as to why your registration will be allowed. Even though it is legally possible for you to do this without a lawyer, if you are serious about obtaining a useful registration I don't recommend it.

(Disclaimer: I am a registered US patent and trademark attorney. I left the active practice of law earlier this year. The above is a general description of some legal concepts, not legal advice. I just hate to see common misconceptions about IP law propagated, so I sometimes pop up to try to clear them up. Hope you found it helpful.)

I once thought that this is a vital service that Linden Lab was sorely lacking. However, considering how much money they might have to spend on staff to enforce Second Life reserved company names, they may not be able to price the service less than what it would cost someone to actually just register the trademark legally.

I personally would mod your biz name to something like "the ORIGINAL xyz" and make sure you use that in all communications, ads etc. i would also add to your profile that any other store, location etc except yours is not affiliated in any way. tbh, the whole copyright, trademark stuff is more trouble than it is worth unless you risk losing thousands of dollars by the other company having the same name. in RL, a company i work with has been fighting this exact thing in the courts for going on 3 years....lots of money spent for very very little return. the most effective thing is to be proactive on your end and make it clear who you are and who they are not. if they are new to SL, they prob wont last long in biz anyway and you will outlive them.

i would also send a clarifying msg to your own customers to explain the situation and then hit the grid hard with free advertising any way you can to also clarify that you are the "original." other than that, dont sweat it. many huge names in SL biz have completely changed their name and continute to do well because of the customer base and quality products

oh please. who cares. i bet there are 20+ stores now with the exact same name as mine. i know for a fact i had mine first. but so what?