My jurisdiction is: Florida US
My trade name was registered in my state in 2002. When I moved online I checked to make sure the domain name was available and that no one else was using the name on the internet within the same industry. A year later a business in another state with a similar name purchased a domain name but changed their actual name on their website to the exact name I use.
For example, if my business and domain name are redwidgetseverywhere and redwidgetseverywhere. com, they use redwidgetshere. com but the business name they use on their website and on the title of their page is redwidgetseverywhere. So they essentially dropped their third word and adopted mine. The first two words are definitely descriptive and I now even have a line of products with that name on the label. They sell the same type of merchandise and I've already had a couple of customers call me and ask if we were affiliated with each other.
Also, when you type my business name into a search engine, their website now comes up within the first few results.
Do I have any rights at all to prevent them from doing this? I have every intention of expanding my product line and I'm forseeing a problem here if they are confusing customers as to who is who.
My trade name was registered in my state in 2002. When I moved online I checked to make sure the domain name was available and that no one else was using the name on the internet within the same industry. A year later a business in another state with a similar name purchased a domain name but changed their actual name on their website to the exact name I use.
For example, if my business and domain name are redwidgetseverywhere and redwidgetseverywhere. com, they use redwidgetshere. com but the business name they use on their website and on the title of their page is redwidgetseverywhere. So they essentially dropped their third word and adopted mine. The first two words are definitely descriptive and I now even have a line of products with that name on the label. They sell the same type of merchandise and I've already had a couple of customers call me and ask if we were affiliated with each other.
Also, when you type my business name into a search engine, their website now comes up within the first few results.
Do I have any rights at all to prevent them from doing this? I have every intention of expanding my product line and I'm forseeing a problem here if they are confusing customers as to who is who.
