To be really, really pissed off?

[Sarahlou63]

I'll try to keep this short. In 2016 me, my partner and a friend decided to start a new business and brought in an outside expert to train us and certify us to practice (it's a coaching type business). My partner works full time and my friend also works freelance and wasn't resident in Portugal so it was agreed that I would be the sole director of the company.

In 2017 it became apparent that my friend and I had very different views on how to take the business forward and it was amicably agreed that she would step down in order to preserve the friendship. She subsequently went on to do several life coaching courses in her home country.

My friend always wanted to move to Portugal as a life coach and is currently looking for property here. Today I saw a FB announcement of her new website - not only is she using our website logo (albeit reversed) but is using photographs and client reviews - lifted directly from our FB page - from the courses we ran together at our (my and my DP's) property. It is designed to look as though she has an established business with no mention of where and when the courses were held.

Is there anything I can do about this? The kicker is that I had surgery in November which means that I can't run courses for the foreseeable and she is well aware of what a devastating effect this has had on me.

Ouch. That’s a kick in the teeth!

It depends.... when she parted did she sign anything to pass all intellectual rights of the company to you agreeing not to use any information etc from when she was part of the company?

@2birds1stone - no she didn't. But arguably she wasn't a part of the company in a legal sense

You would probably need a solicitor that can deal in copyright law. By the sounds of it you had no protection in place and therefore she is allowed to lift the information and re use it (not ethical it morally right though)

She is clearly aware of a gap In the market and taking advantage while she can. Which again as she is a friend got morally or ethically right but I guess if no companies did it then there would be a major decline in business.

Were these reviews left when she was part of the business or later?

If it was when she was part of the business, it's not so clear cut. But if it was after then she clearly had NOTHING to do with it.

The photos were taken and reviews given were when she was involved in the business. She's omitted the parts that thank me (and her) and my company name but otherwise they are quoted verbatim. From my brief googling it looks like a case of 'passing off' but I don't know enough of the law.

Apart from being very, very pissed off (if I haven't mentioned that before!) what if someone books a course with her, on the back of the reviews of courses organised and run at my premises, and has a bad experience, is there any comeback on me?

Have you spoken to her about it?

Been there, unfortunately it happens and there’s not a lot you can do bar sending her a letter requesting she take them down. There is legal recourse available but it’s costly and lengthy. If you run a business, the people who work for you will often try to replicate what you’ve done for themselves. They’ll even steal confidential documentation & poach clients. Which is why you should never work with friends. It ruins your trust in humanity.

It may be that you will just have to learn from this, legal advice is most likely very expensive.

@DoJo - not yet, I need to talk to my partner about it, he's home tonight

Depends on whether employment contracts were in place and whether there were clauses in those contracts regarding copyright of images and text, and taking/approaching clients when a person leaves the company

Update. I spoke to my cousin who's an intellectual property lawyer (handy!) and he gave me some very useful advice about copyright, licensing and business assets. We compose a factual and polite letter which was read on Saturday but no reply or changes to the website thus far. However I checked the code of ethics for her coaching accreditation and it's very clearly against the rules so that's the next step (I don't want to report her at this stage so that's a last resort).