Iminta - Allen_MVP's intas

They call it a Small Business Credit Card - WRONG :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:26:15 CDT

As a small business owner you probably have a "business credit card". Let me ask you a question. Did you provide your social security number and personal information when applying?
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Is MerchantCircle.com Stealing your Customers or Traffic? :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:26:52 CDT

What I did not like is that MerchantCircle.com's listings appeared before my clients own websites. From a business standpoint, this is not good as it may dilute the company’s visitors, provide erroneous information, and take potential search engine traffic away from the company.
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Is MerchantCircle.com Stealing your Customers or Traffic? :: Allen_MVP :: blog

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:26:52 CDT

For companies without a website MerchantCircle.com may be a good thing. However, for an established business such as mine, MerchantCircle.com can be a headache. MerchantCircle.com could be confusing my customers and diluting, tarnishing, and possibly monetarily benefiting from our tradename and/or trademark.

I ran into MerchantCircle.com several times in the last couple of weeks, while adding company information for a local business magazine I publish. At the time, I didn't give them much thought. Even after seeing several advertising clients listed in the search engines as:

merchantcircle.com/companyname.phonenumber

Early this morning I performed several searches for my own company name and discovered a MerchantCircle.com listing on my company, right below my companies website listing on Google. It's bad enough that online yellow pages often get my companies information wrong, now I have a site listing my company and it ranked #2 for my companies name and phone number. This is very misleading to me as a business owner. It is diluting all of the hard work I have put into being "the" only search referral for my business.

MerchantCircle is making money from your businesses name and phone number

Not only that MerchantCircle.com is running advertising on the listings and making money off of people searching for my business. That is misleading, confusing and a dilution of my trademark as protected under federal trademark law.

If you own a business in the US you should search for your company name and phone number on Google to see if MerchantCircle.com is running a listing on your business. If so they do have a remove listing page to remove your listing. Whatever happened to opt-in versus opt-out?

MerchantCircle.com is treading on a fine line regarding mis-use of a company’s famous name (trademark) and by running advertising on their site they are diluting businesses tradename and confusing potential (and probably current) customers. These may be violations of the Landham Act even if it is not a registered tradename or trademark.

They are tarnishing and diluting my tradename and profiting from it

If you do find your company listed on MerchantCircle.com, I suggest that you use their form to remove your listing.

Removal / Contact Form

http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/contact.html

Be sure to select the "Remove Listing" option from the drop-down box on the contact form.

My Thoughts

As a business owner this type of mis-use is completely unacceptable and if MerchantCircle doesn't remove all information on any listing associated with my company or company phone number, I have a great intellectual property attorney that just loves to hammer on companies that dilute my tradename, confuse potential customers and profit from my companies name and company specific information.

I want to make sure that as many people as possible know about MerchantCircle and their shady activities.

SEE ALSO

Tech Soapbox - MerchantCircle: We love the scum

Google Search Results for MerchantCircle.com Complaints

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Tired of Credit Card and Insurance Offers In Your Postal Mai :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:28:19 CDT

Did you know you can optout from receving those pre-approved credit card offers and cheap insurance that fill up your postmail box? You might just want to read this...
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Twitter, Identi.ca, and Plurk - A Quick Comparison :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:27:08 CDT

When comparing the three, I found that each service had something to offer that that other two did not. The only "feature" that each has in common is the 140 character limit. However, with that being said I think that each micro-blogging service could borrow at least one feature from each of the other services.
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Single Mom - Free Picture Mail for the Kids Equals Screwed b :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:30:11 CDT

When I received my first bill, it was over $200.00 because of the picture mail the kids had been using. I called Sprint and argued the charges with them because the FREE Picture Mail is part of my plan.
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Twitter, Identi.ca, and Plurk - A Quick Comparison :: Allen_MVP :: blog

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:27:09 CDT

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Two Women Sentenced to ‘Re-education’ in China :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:28:47 CDT

Two elderly Chinese women have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates.
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Famous People Who Were Mentally Ill :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:27:36 CDT

Recent studies have suggested that there may be a link between mental disorders and increased creativity. These are a selection of highly gifted, intelligent and creative individuals who have contributed significantly to society, either in spite of, or prior to, suffering mental health issues.
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Cayenne Pepper for Weight Loss, Pain Relief and Arthritis :: Allen_MVP :: digg

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:27:36 CDT

In recent research there is evidence that capsaicin from cayenne and other chili peppers may inhibit the growth of fat cells by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is found in muscle and other human tissue.
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