If you are in a competitive industry for example car autos and I work for Ford Could i put the name of my competitoers in a website for example If you have been let down by your Toyota, BMW Mercedes etc then go hereto end your trouble and a link to your company (in this example ford) site cars is just a general example what I mean is to use your competitors name to target their perspective customers to a site will then reroute them to yours I hope i have explained what I mean properly thanks
Your post is a tad confusing, but what I think you are asking is one company use another companies trademark in bad faith. The answer to that is no, both ethically and legally.
If the trademarks are mentioned in comments left by "visitors" on your website. Then you are fine. You get what I mean?
IF you are putting your competitors on your site by you then it is illegal, but when it comes to someone else or someone who passes by and leaves a link or comment, then it is okay since it is a "comment"
thanks for the info guys was just a notion I had I had seen companies come up in a negative light when I searched for them and I thought I could use this to my advantage but maybe not as it seems a murky way to do things
i dont know if thats illegal or not, interesting question. i would think that as long as your not lying anywhere, you would be ok but yea, thats not something i would do. but ive known many people that would, assuming its legal
Here's the scoop. If you post a TRUE story on your site, ie: you had a bad experience with Ford... and you post an ACCURATE account of the experience, the fact that it's negative does not make it illegal to post. So sites like epinions.com or others, where folks post their personal feelings about a particular good or service with a specific company, are 100% legal. You can also have an OPINION site, where you state your personal opinion about any company. I love Mitsubishi or I hate Toyota, for example. What gets most people into trouble is when you say something untrue and pose it as fact (ie: you post an INACCURATE account of an experience that libels the company). Celebrities also put themselves into the stream of commerce, so these rules generally apply to sites about them, too. With private citizens (ie: you/me), however, things get a bit trickier and you have to worry more about libel when posting your opinion. But stating something that's TRUE is an absolute defense to any defamation accusation. I hope that's clear.
In addition to the defamation issues mentioned by jigordon, you also have to consider trademark issues. Trademark law does allow you to use another company's trademark for a legitimate comparison under certain fiar use conditions. For example, if you were working for Ford and you wanted to do a comparison of the features of the newest Ford truck to the newest Toyota truck, that's a fair use of the competitor's trademark. However, what you're proposing may be more than fair use permits... Let me know if you have other questions... Deena ______________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
I think its ok, as long as you dont defame those companies like if you said. "Toyota has been ripping people off by doing this this and that" Statements for which you made up to defame them;
I wouldnt be going down the defamation rout. i would be asking if you have had a bad experience with X, Y and Z then give us a try sort of thing