Just got an email from the Lawyers of Guthy Renker (makers of Proactive) saying I am infringing their copyright...on my website: www.myacnecenter.info I quote: Obviously ill just change my website a bit... but seriously... its a BANS store. Does that mean any company can try and sue you for being an ebay affiliate?
They can tell you to take the material off anytime they want if they own it. Not sure how many will do it but if they want to they can.
They advertise with PPC, so they are probably trying to threaten marketers to save on PPC costs. Since eBay makes money from listing fees, I wonder if they got a similar E-mail.
haha... i should email back saying 'Have you sent this same email to ebay? cause if you havnt why are you targetting me...I'm sure they are making more than me.'
If I were you, I won't try that, who they want to sue is up to them, I would just remove the content and send them a confirmation letter and an apology and that ends the incident. They have a trademark and you are infringing it, the last thing you would want is to have to take litigation actions against you, believe me.
I was joking by my last comment. It just seems stupid. But apologise and remove content is what ill do.
I would just ignore the email, they can't really do anything to you. If it ever goes to court they have to prove damages, which is something they won't be able to do.
They can do a lot, and not only that litigation fees will kill you first, it is better to opt for a Win Win situation rather than to be confrontational in such a case, when you are in the wrong in the first place.
They don't have to prove actual damages. They only have to prove likelihood of confusion (dilution would not apply as in this case we're referring to the actual product being sold by another company), or that the site is defaming the mark. Beyond actual damages there are punitive damages that are designed to reform the infringer rather than reimburse the mark holder. There are also statutory damages that can run into the xxx thousands of dollars per incident in some cases. Actual damages are often the smallest part of any award given in such a case.
Exactly, not forgetting the fees for your lawyers. They can sue even now, just that normally for such cases, they tend to send a C&D and if you obey, most of the time you are save, but if you try to play around, their lawyers have had far more experiences during with such. I don't see why you should be taking such a risk. Of course the ultimate choice is yours.
Wisdomtools wise advice is what you should follow. It's not worth the headache and chance of getting sued.
You are not hosting it so you are not breaking any laws, also if you are not in the same country as them they cant sue you for shit . lol
Best to be careful. Trademark owners are becoming more and more vigilant in the online environment. Why waste time, money, or sleep over this when it doesn't matter? As you said you're going to remove it so good for you! With trademark owners - like one poster said - the main issue is appearing to dilute the value of the trademark. I have a trademark that is a phrase (two words) that is associated with one of my businesses, and the website is that same trademark. A woman launched a website with a different name but on her front page she used my trademarked phrase on the entry page. She didn't even realize that that name had already been trademarked, so I didn't want to slime her or anything, but I still had to have my attorney send a cease and desist order explaining the situation. You see, her business and mine were in the same related industry. And after her website was up for a while, if she left it with my trademarked name within it, people would have brand confusion - was I the original or was she? And this would affect my business. In this case thank goodness the woman was a sweetie and she simply apologized and we gave her some time to have her webmaster remove that page and change it to something else. But here was a case where I was very grateful that the trademark laws are in place to protect business owners who are working to brand themselves. You don't have to be a bad person to have your lawyers send a cease and desist letter. Sometimes it's necessary to protect what you are doing online and prevent dilution of all your hard work online.
WIPO is everywhere and huge MNCs have offices everywhere. Please do not cause the OP problems by telling him to ignore the laws.