Quick question about internet business tactics

DusT_HounD

Hi guys,
just wanted to access the hive-mind on this one; my sister owns a brick-and-mortar store, however they have recently opened a website. They own a copyright on the name of the place, site etc., and seemed all set to go. However, there is a good deal of price-fixing going on in their field, which has been related to them by suppliers, who have been threatened by larger competitors of my sister if they continue to supply her when she's undercutting them.

Anyway, the current question is this: as of this evening, my sister's site has become inaccessible, and furthermore their biggest competitor is now using her store's name as an adword to draw traffic. This may be just a coincidence, but it just seems too convenient. Does anybody here have sufficient experience with the cutthroat and underhand world of business to know if the first problem could have been caused by the competitors, and whether the second problem is a permissible (i mean legal) tactic?

Big thanks in advance!

Whacktose

Without any background on what the actual business is, the first question is hard to answer. The second question is a bit murky, and I am not a lawyer. You can google to find more legal analysis, but basically what I understand is that they are allowed to do it as long as it is very clear that the ad is for the competitor and not your sister's shop, even though it shows up when someone searches for your sister's shop.

bowen

Are you in the US?

Turn them into US DoJ for violating antitrust laws. And then talk to a lawyer about copyrights and trademarks, mentioning the antitrust practices.

Cash in.

DusT_HounD

Thanks guys
@Bowen- no, in the UK. I'm not in the business itself, so don't know anything about the laws in this area, but it's good to get people's advice on the matter- please everyone do keep chipping in!

Also, any do web-heads know whether it's possible that a competitor could be blocking the website itself? Like, i don't even know if such a thing is possible, as i have no clue about the internet's under-the-hood stuff.

Simpsonia

Disclaimer time: I am an attorney, I am not your (or your sister's) attorney, this does not constitute legal advice.

First and foremost, your sister should get herself to a qualified intellectual property attorney. You mention that your sister had a copyright, do you mean trademark? What she really needs to have here is a federal trademark registration for her business to protect her business' name.

While adword trademark infringement hasn't been decided in all Federal circuits, it's starting to look like adword infringement will catch on in other circuits and go against the infringer. Absent a federal TM registration she might be to argue that she has common law protection of the trademark even if it wasn't registered (but this cuts down on a lot of remedies).

However, when coupled with her website being taken down this smacks of someone else (probably a competitor) claiming that your sister was the one infringing on their trademark (it might have been delisted by the registrar upon notice, but your sister should have received some sort of notice from the registrar.) It's really hard to tell what's going on here with the limited information, but as I said before, if she ever wants to get her business back up and running she needs to get herself to an IP attorney, even if just for a consultation.

Edit: made the post before I saw you were in the UK, most of this was assuming you were in the US, but the delisting of the website and advice to get an IP attorney still stands.

DusT_HounD

@simpsonia:
oops, yeah- sorry, she has the Trademark.

She didn't mention having received any infringement notices, and was very careful in her research beforehand. I'll definitely pass on the advice to get an IP attorney, though.

Sincerely,guys, thank you, and if anyone else has a take on the situation, do please post.

bowen

https://www.gov.uk/competition-law-unfair-pricing-agreements

Get some lawyers.