Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Jenny Slater on December 31, 2007, 11:25:14 am
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Hi there,
I have noticed that a competitor has copied some of my marketing. Eg. they copied the text from a 2006/7 leaflet into their latest yellow pages ad - it caught my eye as they had even copied a mistake. When I looked on their website - the text had also be lifted word for word from my own.
I spoke to a copyright lawyer in London and was told that it would cost about £500 just to get a letter sent to the competitor, without any follow through to enforce that they change the wording. I'm only a small business and can't afford this legal route. Can anyone offer any advice?
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Had a competitor use my photos once and could do nothing as they blamed YP who thought they were library pictures :o
Just had to alter my next PR to show difference .............. made a mention that i must be that good if xxxxx are using photos of me in their adverts ........ xxxxx moaned but could also do nothing as it was fact ;D
Use situation to your advantage............. every cloud etc ;)
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Thanks - I was trying to take it as a compliment. Its just so frustrating when you have put all of the hard work in yourself. Before starting in this business, I spent 10 years working in advertising agencies, so I knew my copy stood out from the competition and was working. Back to the drawing board I guess!!!
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We had an internet based business until recently and literally hundreds of hours went into it over the years. Some of the information pages were huge and took forever to type and publish. Some moron copied and pasted some of the work in it's entirety onto there website so I phoned a solicitor with the intention of dragging them through every court in the land only to be told it would cost at least £3,000 and there was no guarantee of a win!!!!!
Chris turned it to his advantage which was brilliant, but I bet he was spitting feathers at the time ( in fact I'd like to have been there when he found out ;D ).
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It did end up costing YP something as i did make enough fuss about having to re signwrite van and change flyers etc, they gave me 40% off next advert ............................. never had those pictures on van and never had flyers done ;D
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At least I had the brains to airbrush out the word 'Straker' and replace it with 'Gazza's' on my leaflets and website :P.
Got a company to go and carpet clean today ( might go tomorrow, wish I had gone yesterday ), just trying to find the enthusiasm to go :-\.
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we have been i a simaler thing with a club we run and trust me theres bugger all you can do unless you have a good few quid AND I MEAN A GOOD FEW QUID
ive seen this sort of thing going on for years with the drain cleaning guys you must of seen them ................0..0..0.000.0......000 drain cleaners !
one good company here in the north east as been going for 30 years took a compeiter to court for the same thing as you , it took four years to get there, the day befoure the hearing the other company went bust :'(
swopped it all over into his wifes name leaveing my friend with 50k worth of fees to pay ! and guess what the new company his wife is now running is up to the same tricks but my friend would have to start right from the beging again and put anthor 50k on the line ! so he as just given up
can you afford to take them to court and lose the cash ??
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Jenny
As I understand it you would have to prove a loss to get any compensation and that is difficult .It will probably cost you more in fees.
Cheers
Doug
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Someone linked to some images a created for my website (they stole them basically)..........all the legal going ons are a head ache so I just changed the images so they looked obscure on his advert.
Have a look (its rather funny) its the colour chart you need to look at - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GRISON-LEATHER-RESTORATION-TREAT-REPAIR-RESTORE-COLOUR_W0QQitemZ290194682735QQihZ019QQcategoryZ93676QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I did it a couple of weeks ago and they still haven't changed it!!!
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Pure class ;D
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;D ;D That is funny 8)
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"All items listed and sold will always be of a high standard. We are not the average eBayers - we do not try to hide anything in our listings - what you see in our detailed photographs is what you will receive, so bid with confidence."
This is from there website 'about us' details, I'm off to order some Cognac and Green from them ;D ;D
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Very funny ;D
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Thats wicked Ben! - but rather good.
Wonder how long for them to catch on.
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Ben good one ;)