Find solution
How To Clone Website?

Is it Illegal for my competitor to clone and redirect my website?

  • Recently a competitor of my local business has cloned the main page of my website and subtracted one letter from the url name (Ex. www.davidswebsite.com to www.davidwebsite.com), and has made it redirect to his companies site. I feel this is illegal in some way, but not quite sure how to go about taking action on the matter. What should I do? Any advice would be much appreciated.

  • Answer:

    If the name of your company is a registered trademark, yes you could go after them for trademark infridgement. Trademarks are based on the sound of the word. I'm not a trademark attorney but I think David stuff and David's stuff would be the same trademark. I have own a company that one word of your name has multiple spelling and meanings, like: reel = as in movies reel = as in fishing ~ this tied our trademark application up for a long time. It took almost 4 years to eventually be approved because of it.

David at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

Since there is a letter difference in domain name, do not worry about his web site taking credit for yours in search engine eyes. I know you don't think like that but you should be proud that he copied your site, that means you did great job :) If I was you, I would put somewhere on your web site information for your visitors to be aware that your web site was copied without your permission and that copy web site has no relation to yours.

Actually, its not illegal or cloning. That one extra character makes it a legitimate and different domain name. So really theres nothing you can do. If both of you were using davidswebsite.com, then thats called phishing and thats illegal which means the owner of the cloned website can be arrested under federal laws. But thats not the case here. Both domain names in this example are different by that extra character, so its legal and legit. As far as "redirecting", thats not something anyone can easily do without the assistance of the company whos hosting your competitors domain name which they would never legally risk.

There is nothing you can do with this. Both domains are different and are legal in eyes of cyber law. But, yes, if you have patent of your original web-content or web-templates, then in this case you can sue on him.

It may not be called phishing, not sure. but its not because of the different domain names. because that's how fishing works, they have to use different domain names.

This is just my honest answer. If someone clones your website it may be very hard to prove this or defend it in court unless you are a big corporation. If it is a basic format or general format then I am sure this happens with websites all the time. Unless I would say your artwork is extremely individual that your type of buttons are found no where else on the internet. As far as redirecting your website I am pretty sure that is illegal and I am not sure how he would do this when he doesn't own your domain name. I guess what I am saying is that I think the redirecting of your website is definitely illegal because I can't see how he would do that without your consent or the consent of the person you bought your domain name from. Don't know much about computers and I am not a lawyer. Hope this helps and that you get your situation resolved.

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.