Interflora Raises it's Ugly Head

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Apparently this has been sent out to a number of affiliates.

Important notice - Interflora may terminate this agreement with immediate effect:

Affiliates' use of Interflora's Trade Marks must be limited to the creative and text supplied by Interflora through TradeDoubler. Any other use is not permitted unless prior permission has been granted by Interflora. The Interflora Trade Marks or any confusingly similar names, such as (but not limited to) "Inteflora," must not be used:

(1) as 'keywords', 'Metatags', 'alt tags', or any other such device;

(2) in any part of a site's HTML;

(3) as part of the Uniform Resources Locator (URL), a path name, a directory name.or an e-mail address;

(4) in banner advertising or any other type of electronic advertising, that would, in the opinion of the Association, mislead the consumer to believe the site belongs to the Association;

(5) For the purpose of diverting users to sites not owned by Interflora or to give priority to sites not owned by Interflora over interflora.co.uk.

(6) The contents of Interflora's literature and all websites owned by Interflora, including but not limited to interflora.co.uk, are protected by copyright.

(7) Affiliates must not directly or indirectly bid on the Word Mark 'Interflora' or derivatives or confusingly similar words (see Interflora FAQ) in order to procure a higher listing within Internet search engines.

Here is the Juicy Bit.

If you do not remove the trade mark infringements contained within your site Interflora reserves all its rights and may transfer the matter to its Trade Mark Attorneys.

[Malcolm Cowley]

Well may I casually suggest Blooming Britain as the receiver :-)

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Unacceptable - We write independant reviews on merchants, last I heard this was a democratic country.

(1) Unacceptable - Alt Tag to an image...Why not it's up to the publisher, apart from the fact we don't use their images or creatives.

Unacceptable - Metatags are they referring to Title Tags, Keywords Tags or Descriptive Meta Tags.

(2) Unacceptable - So that means the word Interflora cannot appear anywhere, even within copy on the site. Well what about your ppc feeds. Also this means they cannot even appear within a hypertext link.

(3) Not sure on this so is a static page created from

http://mysite.co.uk/shopreview/interflora

Anyway this unacceptable

(4) Don't use their banners

(5) What are they suggesting by this?

We cannot promote other merchants over and above them?

(6) How about "Interflora bullies affiliates" or even better "We do not recommend Interflora" OR

"Dear consumer Interflora do not allow us as an affiliate to write independant reviews otherwise they may threaten us with legal action. Infer to this as you feel appropiate to the kind of company we are dealing with"

(7) No problems there: But, Remember their attitude / policy towards generic terms.

So do they intend to take probably 100,000 sites to court inclusing those search engines that index them, since their terms suggest not even the slighest reference to them. Even looking at their supposedly premium partners, they are in default.

[ianm]

I don't know why TD don't jsut dump them as a merchant.

I can't imagine getting many clicks if I promote them within their rules -

"Click here to buy a product that we are not allowed to name, from a merchant we are not allowed to name"

[edit]
In fact I think I'll use that wording for all my links from now on - I expect Aunty Gladys will get a nice surprise when she opens her Ruby Wedding aniversary present and finds one of Natural Instinct's products!
[/edit]

[getvisible]

(2) in any part of a site's HTML;

so it's ok in xml, php, asp, cfm aspx ???

cool - I would tell them to shove their flowers up their anus - but I think they've possibly allready got their heads up there??

Why don't they just get a decent seo company??

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Okay starting here, we need someone who is good at writing press releases in a coherent and mature manner with a good persuasive argument.

Then together generate a list of media publications email addys on the off chance they may publish it.

Obviously the merchant cannot be negotiated with sensibly.

With - thankfully very rare - anal minded merchants like this, doesn't it make you want to optimise for every generic term going and drive customers to their competition.

I think it would only take a few good affiliates to create a notiable dent in their UK turnover.

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Someone just posted a message of a recommended site and something along the lines of Interflora Alienating their strategic partners could they repost it as it was accidently deleted by myself.

I am incredibly sorry

[pericom]

Well we just used the word interflora in this thread.. maybe its capitalising on their trademark.

Companies like this arent worth bothering about, if its not now it will be sooner or later they will dump you.. I suggest promote their competitors...they dont pay much anyway.

[Mogga]

Or maybe they'll start charging to allow you to use the word on your website.

[getvisible]

but surely we're allowed to mention their name in general discussion like:

last night I had a mcdonalds that made me chunder
the coke was very fizzy
are interflora an expensive online florist?

or does it make a difference if we aim to profit by mentioning that trademark???

[Qui Gon Jinn]

We have simply just deleted affiliate links from our site and affiliate hypertext links and copy.

Are we allowed to mention "interflora" on an affiliate forum, without the fear of being excluded from the program.

As a moderator should I edit every thread with Interflora in it?

What is a Press Office url for creating and sub-mitting releases?

In the long run are they not damaging the businesses of the small high street florist.

It's not TD's fault and they have tried to be diplomatic about unreasonable constraints from their clients...don't shoot the messenger.