Corporate Bullies
July 5, 2007 by Laura | Trackback URI
I just got a very frustrating phone call from a client. There are text links to his site - and the text is neutral, it’s not even insulting - to the website of a much larger organization in a similar - not identical - business. Attorneys from this large organization just contacted him to demand he remove the links. Even though he has done absolutely nothing wrong, rather than go through an expensive legal battle he wants to remove the links that weren’t important to him in any event.
For the record - you can link to anybody, anytime, and they legally can’t do a thing about it. You are restricted from violating their trademarks and copyrights, of course, but a text link to their site does not do that. This organization is just bullying a smaller company because they can get away with it. Jerks.
UPDATE: Heh heh heh… While the links are being removed from the website because they didn’t want him associating his company with theirs by linking to it, the name of their company includes the name of a physical location. So my client has asked me to immediately set up a website with a URL that includes the name of the physical location, and includes the name of the location repeatedly in the content. It’s legit - it’s directly related to what he is selling; which is why he very courteously linked to them in the first place. I’m going to SEO that site for free because I’d like it to rank higher than theirs on their own name. It’s a busy day, but a good one after all.
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