ComplaintsforMelen LLC

• Initial Complaint

  11/19/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  It has come to our attention that parent company Melen, LLC / DBA SmartSites has engaged in unethical advertising practices, including using our trademarked name in their paid Google ads under their SmartSites brand without authorization. Such actions are a direct violation of intellectual property rights and a breach of industry ethics. In our research, we discovered they are also using other rival brand names (We are not sure if theirs are trademarked, but OpGo Marketing is). This behavior undermines trust within the marketing community and tarnishes the integrity of our profession. As a result, we have filed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau and Google to address this matter and protect our brand. We strongly encourage all marketing professionals to uphold ethical standards and respect the intellectual property of others.

  Business response

  11/19/2024

  The ads in question are not specifically targeting or violating any trademark laws. The Google Ads operate via dynamic keyword insertion, in other words, it dynamically places the keyword searched into the ad-copy and is fully compliant with both US trademark laws and Google Ads policy. The best way to prevent an actual trademark from coming up via dynamic keyword insertion is to submit your valid trademark information to Google. Once they have the information they can officially file your trademark in their system and prevent the trademarked term to be triggered via dynamic keyword insertion. Having said that, our team has already manually negatived your keyword from the campaign. However, I would strongly suggest you just file your trademark with Google as it would prevent it being triggered by anyone's DKI (dynamic keyword insertion) ads, not just ours.

  Customer response

  11/19/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:

  We already knew it was dynamic keyword insertion, and they might be able to say it is legal because of comparative advertising but they are wrong about Google Ads policy which specifically says you can't use a direct competitor's trademark. 
  
  Also dynamic keyword insertion is already well known for risk of trademark violations.

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. But their advertising practices were definitely in violation, which is why they removed our Trademark'd name.
  
  Regards,
  
  ******** ********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩