Can I build a webpage mentioning my local competitor?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Ammon Johns: Yes you can, although there are legal issues around using someone else`s Brand if they have trademarked it, etc. Even if they have trademarked the brand, there is still `Fair Use`, which allows you to use their name and mention them in relevant ways, such as a direct comparison.
  
  
• 
  Melanie Jayne: Ammon Johns thank you- it doesn’t look like it’s trademarked but I will double check before doing anything!
  
  
• 
  Christine Hansen: In fear of infringement, I wouldn`t go down that lane.
  
  
• 
  Ammon Johns: Christine Hansen and that`s fine too. We all have our own levels of acceptable risk or worry, from zero to, well, pretty high in some cases out there.
  
  But I do think it worth remembering that not only do thousands of companies do this, they are also actively encouraged to bid on rival brands in AdWords, provided they have the content to justify the search term (i.e. reviews, comparisons, etc.) that is `fair use`.
  
  Google are even kind enough to spell out what kind of content that should be so that you can create it. This is not really that surprising, of course, because how else can Google push the bidding up on a company`s own name and brands quite legally?
  
  
• 
  Christine Hansen: Ammon Johns - In the EU it would be illegal to use another company´s name in one`s own marketing - and it doesn`t matter whether it would be positive or negative mentions. It would be a clear infringement court case that would cost a lot of money. As long as one does not mention the other company, everything would be fine. And as for Google - when it comes to law - it really does not matter what Google does or does not do - They too have to abide by the law.
  
  
• 
  Ammon Johns: Christine Hansen I spent most of my 26 years in this business working with EU clients. It was only the first 4-5 years where it was mostly USA, Australia and Canada, and that only because the EU brands were slower to take online investment seriously, and were especially wary of SEO (which didn`t even have that name for the first few years, and after it adopted it it still took another couple of years using it to become widely adopted as an essential part of online marketing).
  
  While much of my main work has been with major UK and EU brands, including several major banks and financial institutions, who I assure you all have very strong legal teams necessary for all the extra regulations finance industry clients have to deal with, there is almost no sector I haven`t covered and worked, and I always have a dozen smaller projects going on as well at any time.
  
  In addition to my own professional experience, I have been constantly involved in SEO groups and forums since the 90s, including 5 years as an admin for one of the big SEO forums of the day, which has added indirect experience of literally thousands of other projects, clients, and cases.
  
  All of which is on top of the fact that understanding the basics of copyright, fair use, and some intellectual property law, as it applies to commercial writing, is something I`d first started to study in the 80s, and is the subject of a whole section of the marvellous Writers and Artists Yearbook that I`d always have to hand, long before the web was a thing.
  
  However, if you feel yourself to be more versed in EU IP laws regarding publishing than I, go right ahead and keep telling me how it works in the EU.
  
  
• 
  Christine Hansen: I am sure you do not disagree with what I wrote.
  
  
• 
  Ammon Johns: Christine Hansen I entirely disagree with what you wrote. You seem to have no clue how the law, or marketing, work.
  
  Let me introduce you to a little company you may have heard of named `Google`. Run a search in Google for any of their competitors, be that other tech companies, other email providers, other office software, other cloud hosting, other advertising networks, or other search engines.
  
  Now actively search for negative opinions or complaints, or legal cases against those competitors, on Google.
  
  Welcome to `fair use`.
  
  
• 
  Christine Hansen: Btw I would definitely run a court case, if someone used my name as mentioned in the post above. 100% sure of that!
  
  
• 
  Ammon Johns: Christine Hansen back in the Noughties, I was working with a major finance industry brand. One of the ones that advertised on TV a lot with all the multi-million expense a single ad shooting and distribution would incur.
  
  They came to me originally for advice in dealing with someone ranking above them for "their brand complaints". They`d gone the legal route first, with three rounds of court battles, and had finally won the domain name their domaincomplaints.com, but not that any of the content had to be taken down. It had cost them 10s of thousands (GBP), and all they got was the domain name, because, as the law states, that was the only part likely to cause any confusion to a reasonable mind. Everything else was `fair use`.
  
  Obviously it took very little time to create their own online complaints procedure page, and some other content, and push the disgruntled persecutor down (and eventually completely off) the first page of SERPs, and at a far lower cost in real terms than had been wasted on the doomed legal case.
  
  All of that despite the fact that the disgruntled author was obviously on a persecution campaign, going out of his/her way to find any and all complaints, even in forums, and publish them for the express purpose of hurting the company and brand. And despite them having a legal department as you`d expect of a major, long-established financial services brand dominating the insurance and investment sector at the time.
  
  To win a case, you generally have to prove that it either causes confusion in a reasonable person`s view, and/or (esp. to win any kind of action or compensation) prove damages were caused. i.e. you have to convince and demonstrate to a court of law that the use in some way damaged your company in real terms.
  
  None of which necessarily prevent a company that have a lot of money to burn bringing a frivolous case they cannot win in the hopes that either you`ll give up in fear, or that they can harm you with legal costs even though *they* can`t win.
  
  But in this specific, which I took into account, we are talking about a business that closed its office and website. They probably couldn`t afford to bring a case they could win, never mind a money-loser just to be annoying.
  
  COMPLAINTS.COMComplaints.comComplaints.com
  
  
• 
  Perry Bernard: You shouldn’t mention your competition on your site without expecting to be sued.
  
  
• 
  Melanie Jayne: Perry Bernard thank you Perry. I’ve got a follow up question if you don’t mind? I’m fairly new to seo. The brand name I’m looking at is made up of 3 commonly used words from the English language so if I used synonyms and the brand name broken down across the copy could I still potentially show up in search results for the band name without infringing any trademarks and putting us at risk?
  
  
• 
  Perry Bernard: Melanie Jayne using keywords that don’t specifically quote their name is likely to be just fine.
  
  
• 
  Perry Bernard: Melanie Jayne your best tactic is to be your best self and optimise your own brand.
  
  
• 
  Melanie Jayne: Perry Bernard thank you- I wouldn’t be considering it if they hadn’t closed the office down and existing website down
  
  
• 
  Christine Hansen: Melanie Jayne A closed office and no website does not mean you can go ahead and use their name. They may still own the name.
  
  
• 
  Tim Brownson: Perry Bernard as long as you don`t lie and/or use anything trademarked nobody can sue you.
  
  
• 
  Ammon Johns: Tim Brownson they can still often bring an annoyance case. Basically this is how the big companies bully the small ones, by bringing cases they can`t win to court incurring legal fees the smaller party cannot afford, even if sure to win.
  
  But in this specific case we are talking about a business that has completely shut down its office and website both, and, so far as we know thus far, doesn`t even have a trademark on its name.