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Discreet RP
11-08-2013, 09:48 PM
Hi,

I have a quick question. I own a small business and have hired mainly family members and family friends since we started.

One of these family members decided to go off on his own after a full 8 months of training in the industry. He copied our sales pitch, website is almost word for word the same as ours, he is servicing the same area and based out of the same city. It was a very disrespectful to say the least, but is it legal? He is lying on all his advertising stating that he has worked for years in the industry, etc... but should I look into taking legal action? He is also lying to potential customers about our practices so he would get hired instead of us. Luckily we have very faithful customers who stick with us and let us know whats going on.

I'm just not sure how to approach this. Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kristine

Freelancier
11-09-2013, 06:40 AM
Did you have a written contract with him? If not, the answer is: you messed up.

All employees and contractors need to sign a non-compete, non-disclosure, non-solicitation agreement (terms varying by the person's job and status as an employee or a contractor).

I know you love family and all, but this is why I won't work with them (not your family, MY family :) ). I'd rather have a nice Thanksgiving with them instead of having to worry about people taking sides in a business dispute.

Discreet RP
11-09-2013, 10:38 PM
Yes, that's what I figured. That I messed up. I am having all my employees sign an agreement now. Lesson learned I guess.

Thanks for the reply!

ARMGenius
12-29-2013, 05:30 AM
Hi,

I have a quick question. I own a small business and have hired mainly family members and family friends since we started.

One of these family members decided to go off on his own after a full 8 months of training in the industry. He copied our sales pitch, website is almost word for word the same as ours, he is servicing the same area and based out of the same city. It was a very disrespectful to say the least, but is it legal? He is lying on all his advertising stating that he has worked for years in the industry, etc... but should I look into taking legal action? He is also lying to potential customers about our practices so he would get hired instead of us. Luckily we have very faithful customers who stick with us and let us know whats going on.

I'm just not sure how to approach this. Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kristine

Kristine,

Good luck! There is nothing you're going to be able to accomplish by litigating. It sounds like your relative is what we call judgment proof (i.e.: he doesn't have a lot of money or assets to pursue in the event you obtained a judgment). The only benefit of filing a lawsuit would be to request injunctive relief which would prevent him from operating his business. However, this is going to require a perfect argument; one that shows there was some wrong doing.

If there was no employment contract between you and your relative, which could have been as simple as a Non-Solicitaiton Agreement, then you need to swallow your tongue and face reality... You've created your own competition!

Harold Mansfield
12-29-2013, 05:57 PM
Not much you can do, but I would ding him on the website copy. If it is pretty much just a recreation and he's even using exact copy from your site or any other marketing materials I'd file a copyright claim against him in court and force him to rewrite his own stuff and at least do some of the work.

Actually, you may not even have to file anything in court. Threaten to report his site to Google for copyright infringement. It is a valid threat and by the publish dates they can easily see that your copy was first and his is straight theft. It could take Google weeks to respond to the claim, but he doesn't know that. It is a valid claim. You could even threaten to report the infringement to his hosting company.

If Google sees the infringement, they could choose to de-list his site or put it so far back in the sandbox that you'll never have to worry about him getting any web traffic.

It's basically an annoyance complaint, but depending on how web savvy he is, he will at least be aware that you know he stole from you and you will not stand for it.