under what circumstances could a link to a website be considered illegal or trademark infringement?
By Yahoo User • Category: Trademarks InfringementI run a weblog and recently received an email asking me to remove a link to a company’s website and threatening legal action because I infringed on their trademark by exposing them to “innapropriate media.” My site can deal with what might be considered innapropriate topics, but the actual link in question was directly related to the products they sell and neutral in opinion. (Sorry I can’t be more specific, don’t want to make it seem like I’m advertising or bring any attention to this if I can avoid it). Based on information I found on my own the only situations when an html link can be deemed illegal is if it is to illegal content, if the link text is defamatory, or if there is an implied relationship between the two sites. My situation doesn’t invlove anything like that. I will most likely remove the link anyway, but I’d like to know that I am okay, and I would also like to be able to explain to them why they are wrong in threatening legal action when no laws have been broken.
I would not subcomb to corporate pressure. I don’t believe you sound like you are in any real trouble, and this corporation is probably just flexing it’s muscles to try to get you to remove the link. Perhaps it would be wise to add a pop-up window stating that the user is leaving your site and that you do not own nor claim any responsibility for any content on the website to which you are linking.It would also be very wise to verify this with someone with a legal background.
Really the only trouble you can get into with any website is linking directly to their graphics and pictures without them being hosted on your local server that your blog is at. Posting a blog with a link to a website is not infringing on anything. If I were you I would launch a DoS (Denial of Service) attack at them and then tell them to choke on that one! Serves them right!
They sent you a nastygram because they have lawyer on retainer and most of the time, letters from lawyers scare people. There’s a trademark concept called tarnishment, where they would claim that the association with your site diminishes their product in consumers eyes. If you’re not selling goods that could be confused with their goods, and especially if you’re not selling goods at all, then you’re not using their mark in commerce. In general, even if you’re using something in commerce, you can refer to other people’s products, as long as you’re not saying anything untrue. For example, many ads refer to competing products. As long as the claims in the ads are true, there’s really not a trademark issue.They shouldn’t really have a case against you. Of course, they still have lawyers and money and will use both to scare you. And while I can give you my opinion on this, I’m not a lawyer — that’s the person you’d have to go to for any advice of how best to handle this.
dunno