Legal Action Against Me For Complaint Website/URL/Trademark Infringement

[RV1]

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Hi,

I wanted to get some advice about being sued for trademark possible infringement. My wife and I used a conveyancing solicitor to purchase a property and received a very very bad service from them (enough so for me to create a website about it as I’ve never complained before and my wife was deeply upset).

I Googled and recently found several bad reviews about them too. What I want to do is register a domain name and write about my bad experience with then and warn other people from using their firm. My site is not commercial in any way.

If the legal company is called XWZ law LLP and have a URL XWZ.co.uk, I wanted to register XWZ-AVOID.co.uk to host my site. The name XWZ or their logos are not registered trademarks.

1) Will/could I be liable by the firm for trademark infringement by using the domain name XWZ-AVOID.co.uk (If so, is there any ways around this?)
2) Could I be liable for defamation by the firm, I am not bad mouthing the firm, just writing about my experience and what I discovered (factual) and trying to warn others?
3) What grounds can I be liable for given the site is not commercial and I am not trying to "pass off" as them for any financial gain?
4) Any other advice will be gratefully received.

PS: I know potentially ticking off a solicitors/lawyer cannot be the smartest thing to do and then worry about being sued, its just I feel that this firm is dishonest cheats and hides behind the law believing no one will have the courage to stand up for what is right. They are mainly an online service so naturally having my review online about them will be very effective.

Thanks,
RV

[martinjc]

Hi RV,

To be honest, I don't know what the letter of the law is in this situation, but my gut reaction would be not to specifically include the firm's name in your domain. It's potentially asking for trouble, and could end up causing you more hassle than these guys have already generated for you.

What I would do is set up a domain called solicitor-reviews.co.uk (that's just off the top of my head), then place the bulk of the content in a folder called XWZ, making the URL something like www.solicitor-reviews.co.uk/XWZ/conveyancing.htm. That way you still get the firm's name in your main URL, but you're (hopefully) sidestepping the potential pitfalls from having in your actual domain name. I would imagine (I haven't done any research on this) that people are liable to search for terms such as "XWZ solicitor review" or "XWZ conveyancing" and suchlike to get more info on the company before deciding to use them. XWZ-AVOID is quite a satisfying domain from your point of view, but people will search on more neutral terms when looking for info on a company they're thinking of using.

If you really want to get the word out, the other thing I would do would be to write a series of short reviews of the firm for as many consumer feedback sites as possible. I'd make them all different, and try to include links such as "Find out more about our experiences with XWZ" and "Read our full review of XWZ" (if the site allows) which all point back to the solicitor-reviews.co.uk/XWZ/conveyancing.htm URL. Not only will these reviews eventually show up in the SERPs when people search for XWZ, the links will help to add weight to the main site in the eyes of the search engines.

As to possible legal consequences, I would imagine that, provided that you can back up your claims with evidence (such as emails, letters, etc.) there probably isn't a lot they can do about it. But I'm not a lawyer - hopefully someone on here can give you more qualified advice...

Hope this helps,
Martin.

[RV1]

Hi RV,

To be honest, I don't know what the letter of the law is in this situation, but my gut reaction would be not to specifically include the firm's name in your domain. It's potentially asking for trouble, and could end up causing you more hassle than these guys have already generated for you.

What I would do is set up a domain called solicitor-reviews.co.uk (that's just off the top of my head), then place the bulk of the content in a folder called XWZ, making the URL something like www.solicitor-reviews.co.uk/XWZ/conveyancing.htm. That way you still get the firm's name in your main URL, but you're (hopefully) sidestepping the potential pitfalls from having in your actual domain name. I would imagine (I haven't done any research on this) that people are liable to search for terms such as "XWZ solicitor review" or "XWZ conveyancing" and suchlike to get more info on the company before deciding to use them. XWZ-AVOID is quite a satisfying domain from your point of view, but people will search on more neutral terms when looking for info on a company they're thinking of using.

If you really want to get the word out, the other thing I would do would be to write a series of short reviews of the firm for as many consumer feedback sites as possible. I'd make them all different, and try to include links such as "Find out more about our experiences with XWZ" and "Read our full review of XWZ" (if the site allows) which all point back to the solicitor-reviews.co.uk/XWZ/conveyancing.htm URL. Not only will these reviews eventually show up in the SERPs when people search for XWZ, the links will help to add weight to the main site in the eyes of the search engines.

As to possible legal consequences, I would imagine that, provided that you can back up your claims with evidence (such as emails, letters, etc.) there probably isn't a lot they can do about it. But I'm not a lawyer - hopefully someone on here can give you more qualified advice...

Hope this helps,
Martin.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the swift reply. I think the solution you suggested about not having the company name in the URL is definitely the safest/most hassles free. From what I understand there could be issues with trademark infringement if the name is within the URL. It’s just as the site was not commercial I wasn’t sure if this was still valid.

On the ire of safety and causing less hassle for myself I will go with leaving their name from the direct URL like you suggested and to also make use of the customer review sites.

1) If I hosted my review on a site for example called simply WorstConveyancingAgent.co.etc.. and had it on the home page, so not created a second page/folder to have the XWZ part in the URL, how detrimental from an SEO point of view will not having the name XYZ in any part of the URL be? I believe having a home page linked to a second page for XWZ may not be as highly ranked from an SEO perspective and I would not have much to write about on a home page.

2) Can anyone clarify whether if I was to pay for Google advert’s and have my site come up in the sponsored links section (next to theirs) when someone enters XWZ into Google, then I should not be liable as I am not infringing their trademark (assuming I have not violated it by using their name in the origin URL like Martin suggested and within the site itself? Isn’t this similar for example if people type in Coke-Cola into Google and Pepsi having a sponsored link next to Coke-Cola?

This approach, although meaning I will need to pay for google ads for when someone enters the company name, the cost of the adverts will be a minimum as the search is very unique (ie XWZ ) and thus should be effective and go hand in hand with my efforts of making the site in the first place.

Thanks,
RV

[martinjc]

To be honest, having the XWZ in your URL won't make a huge difference in terms of SEO, but best practice is always to do everything you possibly can to coax search engines into favouring your site above others.

Thinking in SEO terms, your home page isn't really that important. Given the purpose of your site, you want people to find it through search engines when people type in XWZ. Your main review page is liable to be the one that features XWZ on it the most, so that will probably be the one featured in the search results. You could make the review page your home page, but then you miss out on the (admittedly possibly quite slight) advantage of having XWZ in the URL. One of the main points about SEO that I've found is not to think of the site as something you design (with a home page, etc), but in terms of how visitors will actually find it and experience it. The "point" of your site is the review, so think of that as the "landing page", even if it isn't the actual homepage. The homepage could even be something as simple as "Hello, I recently had a bad experience with XWZ, and want to warn people of the poor service I had before they choose this firm as their conveyancer. Read my review of XWZ for more information".

You also mentioned that you'd found a few more negative reviews of the company when you searched for them - I'd create a page on your site linking to those reviews (using phrases such as "here's another bad experience with XWZ" and "This person also posted a negative review of XWZ") to help to boost the rankings of those pages in the SERPs as well.

Sorry I can't help with the PPC question - not really my area of expertise. I have read about a few legal wranglings on this issue, but can't recall offhand if they were in the UK or the US. Although I must say that if I searched on a solicitor and saw that someone had taken the time and effort (and potential expense) to run a PPC campaign warning others about their bad service, I'd avoid the firm like the plague without even clicking on the ad. That's the beauty of search (and the challenge of SEO) - if you don't immediately like what you see, you can always opt for a competitor with just a few clicks of your mouse...

By the way, I'd also incorporate your location into your review page quite heavily (and also perhaps make the page URL conveyancing-*location*.htm), to give the page added weight when people search for "conveyancing *location*" or "solicitor *location*". Also, it might be an idea to create a page that links to competing conveyancing solicitors in your local area (preferably ones with good reviews, of course). Giving them a little link love might help to drive down the offending firm in the SERPs and ensure that less people share your bad experience in future...

Best of luck with your site!