Web sites catering to online reviews of businesses – including sites dedicated to reviewing (some might say attacking) only one business – have created public relations nightmares for many businesses.  In some cases, the targeted businesses perceive the content of the gripe sites to be defamatory or infringing of the target’s intellectual property rights. However, while it may tempting to threaten legal action against these sites, companies are learning that such action may cost more than it achieves and may risk further bad publicity as a result of so-called oppressive prosecution. A good example is the recent case of Career Agents Network, Inc. v. CareerAgentsNetwork.Biz.

Career Agents Network, Inc. (“CAN”) brought suit against a former customer, Lawrence White, who had developed a web site called careeragentsnetwork.biz solely to warn prospective customers against doing business with CAN.  The lawsuit included claims under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, alleging that White registered the web site in bad faith in an effort to profit from his use of CAN’s trademark. The complaint also included a more traditional trademark infringement claim under the Lanham Act.  White prevailed, with the court finding that his site was simply meant as a forum to express dissatisfaction with CAN and not to reap profit by stealing potential customers from CAN.  As a result, White not only succeeded in obtaining a dismissal of CAN’s claims but also received an award of attorney’s fees – the court determined CAN had brought the suit in an oppressive manner and that its claims were unfounded.

The case should be viewed as a warning to businesses to think carefully before retaliating against gripe sites and online critics with legal action. Litigation is always an expensive proposition, but the costs in this kind of scenario are augmented by the reputational damage that can result even from sending a threatening letter to a targeted business. Such letters have a habit of being posted on the sites in question and of further exacerbating the existing publicity problem.

A better solution, when possible, is usually to engage critics in an effort to resolve a negative experience through customer service efforts. Barring that, an effective search engine optimization strategy can help to bury search results pointing to gripe sites and to keep the majority of potential customers from encountering the negative content. A knowledgeable attorney can assist with those efforts and can provide an effective battle plan when informal efforts are found to be ineffective.