This is a question I've been pondering for a while. In a truly free market, your reputation is your livlihood -- there is no other way for someone to know with whom they are dealing other than the past experiences of other customers. At the same time, your reputation is not something you own (I think anyway), it exists as the sum total of the experiences of other people. Given those two things, how would you handle something like a deliberate campaign to destroy your reputation? What I mean is that someone wishing to destroy your reputation and business might, for example, release a shoddy product to the market with your brand markings. Is there a principled way to prevent or effectively respond to this? I suspect that in reality it would end up being tried in the courts, but I can't figure out exactly what the charges would be starting from basic principles.
Here are my best answers so far, though I don't think they fully address the problem:
1 (my best) As the real "owner" of the brand, you would investigate to see who is doing the impersonation, then initiate a class action style suit against him with your duped customers as claimants. The claimed damages would be a result of his deceiving them into buying an inferior product through the inappropriate use of your brand.
2) You could directly sue on the grounds that he is aggressing against you by destroying your business purposefully. I think this is pretty shakey because the attacks are only against reputation, which is something you don't really own.
This is a question I've been pondering for a while. In a truly free market, your reputation is your livlihood -- there is no other way for someone to know with whom they are dealing other than the past experiences of other customers. At the same time, your reputation is not something you own (I think anyway), it exists as the sum total of the experiences of other people. Given those two things, how would you handle something like a deliberate campaign to destroy your reputation? What I mean is that someone wishing to destroy your reputation and business might, for example, release a shoddy product to the market with your brand markings. Is there a principled way to prevent or effectively respond to this? I suspect that in reality it would end up being tried in the courts, but I can't figure out exactly what the charges would be starting from basic principles.
Here are my best answers so far, though I don't think they fully address the problem:
1 (my best) As the real "owner" of the brand, you would investigate to see who is doing the impersonation, then initiate a class action style suit against him with your duped customers as claimants. The claimed damages would be a result of his deceiving them into buying an inferior product through the inappropriate use of your brand.
2) You could directly sue on the grounds that he is aggressing against you by destroying your business purposefully. I think this is pretty shakey because the attacks are only against reputation, which is something you don't really own.
Any other ideas?