Someone has stolen my business name!

[Leahukhairstylist]

Ok, She hasnt completely stolen my name as i am 'hair by leah evans' and she is 'Hair by Lea'

I am really upset as i searched for months before deciding on my name and sorting out business cards, leaflets, websites. She has come along obviously not checking, or not caring and as her name is shorter then mine her business comes up first on all the search engines. Ive just wrote to my local council and informed them that this person is breaching hmrc guidelines as she is in the same city as me but i just wanted to get thoughts on what i should do?

Ive already had 2 customers ring her thinking she was me and she even said that she could fit them in even thought they were asking for me!

 

[BannerPenguin]

There are no guidelines unfortunately on this as I presume you're not trademarked.
Anyone can trade with similar names as she probably doesn't even realise it's not classed as passing off and as I'm guessing it's both your names - it's so generic it would be fairly impossible to rule on legally. It's not like your name is something extremely unique which someone then copied.

Also have shorter domain names etc. mean absolute nothing in the search engines. Also because you've looked at her website Google is probably showing you it in a higher position then it actually is. Google is a funny monster at times.

 

[Nails<3]

You can't do anything. It's unfortunately both of your names.

It's not an original business name, there are many hair by... or nails by .... so you wouldn't be able to stop her using the name she has chosen.

What do you expect the council or HMRC to do? She isn't breaching any guidelines or laws by having a similar name to you unless you have your business name protected.

 

[surf girl]

Same has happened to me even down to the theme & motto of my shop name, it's disgusting isn't it, I had a lady messaging me back and forth the other day about colours and hair in general and then she asked me if she could have an appointment, I was confused because I knew she's from Blackpool because it said on her profile but she didn't realise I was in Wales! The copy salon is right by her house

Just Gotta make sure your better than them in my opinion! There's nothing else you can do about it!

 

[surf girl]

For the record my shop name is unique too, very unique and they still copied it

 

[nickysnails200]

She probably hasn't copied you it will just be her name hundreds of people use the name 'hair by...' It's not very original or unique no offence so if she has the same name as you or similar it's probably just cause that's her name. As far as I'm aware you can't prove that she's copied you so you don't have a leg to stand on. It might be if you had a really unique name or if you'd trademarked your name as annoying as it is you'll just have to deal with it. Take a look at your website and try adjusting your search engine optimisation bit and see if that makes you rank higher x

 

[Verve Designs]

Ok, She hasnt completely stolen my name as i am 'hair by leah evans' and she is 'Hair by Lea'

I am really upset as i searched for months before deciding on my name and sorting out business cards, leaflets, websites. She has come along obviously not checking, or not caring and as her name is shorter then mine her business comes up first on all the search engines. Ive just wrote to my local council and informed them that this person is breaching hmrc guidelines as she is in the same city as me but i just wanted to get thoughts on what i should do?

Ive already had 2 customers ring her thinking she was me and she even said that she could fit them in even thought they were asking for me!

I'm afraid, as folks have said above, she's not in breach of any law. If someone had copywritten the "Hair by..." you'd be the one having to change your name

Unless you have very specific legally binding proof that she's "passing off" (i.e. she's literally pretending she's you- and you'd spend lots of time and money pursuing that, with it probably being a waste of time) there's nothing you can do about it.

I wouldn't sweat it. It's really no big deal. There's a million "Verve's" out there- but people know who we are.

Just build your own brand ........or think about rebranding to something entirely more unique.

 

[House Beauty]

Change your name. Or change your business name. A salon near me ripped off and copied my entire website and they had some absolutely foul reviews online to do with the owner being nasty/not caring attitude and the towels and rooms being really dirty, naff treatments.. I couldn't believe it! I sent them a lovely email about it and politely explained how important it is to set ourselves apart and that I'm not angry but I am concerned our customers would mix us up but they didn't even bother replying to me.

In the end I completely changed my website design. It cost me about £50 to rebrand eg leaflets and business cards to match. It was £50 well spent as I couldn't imagine if someone went to her and had a bad experience and left the review on my website or something after simply happening across me on google. Probably saved me a lot of money in the long run.