Group buying site Cudo has cracked down on deals aggregator Buyii, accusing it of copyright infringement in a cease and desist letter that demands the site stop using any content from Cudo including logs, pictures, descriptions of deals and even URLs.
But Buyii founder Zhen Lim says the aggregator will continue to link to Cudo’s deals despite receiving a “cease and desists” letter from the company. He also denies the accusation that customers could be misled into believing the Buyii site is actually owned or operated by Cudo.
“Buyii will continue to update the site with Cudo’s daily and side deals each and every single day. We disagree with many of the statements the letter implies such as ‘trading off’ the Cudo brand name and reputation.”
“We do not agree with the allegations that we are misleading visitors into thinking Buyii are official partners of Cudo.”
But Cudo chief executive Billy Tucker tols SmartCompany this morning that the issue is that Buyii is not just aggregating deals and then using the site’s content, but that it is actively optimising the site to appear as Cudo itself in Google.
“The key problem with aggregators like Buyii, who I believe to be acting irresponsibly, is that they optimise their sites from an SEO perspective to compete with Cudo.”
Tucker points to Google results, which show that when users search for the word “Cudo”, Buyii shows up in the first few results with the description, “Cudo’s daily deals plus more deals from other daily deal sites on one page”.
The main description of the site also reads “Cudo Daily Deals”.
“If they actively want me to participate, they shouldn’t contact me and then try and compete with me. I feel that I have no choice but to protect my brand.”
The issue highlights both the growing power of group buying sites and the potential legal issues associated with aggregators, which have gained popularity due to the explosion of Groupon clones.
The cease and desist letter, seen by SmartComapny, accuses Buyii of reproducing the exact text used on Cudo’s sites, and as a result infringes on Cudo’s exclusive rights.
Cudo also says that displaying the Cudo name and logo without the company’s consent and publishing a “co-branded webpage” means Buyii is “passing off” that it is actually in some type of partnership.
It demands that Buyii withdraws from using Cudo’s content, including any URLs, and requires the site cease to make any representation or reference to the Cudo logo and brand with any future product or service.
“If you do not comply with the above requirements, Cudo will pursue the necessary legal action against you in order to protect its rights,” the statement reads.
Lim has said Buyii will continue to update the site with Cudo’s deals, but that it will make a few changes. Deal titles will be written, there won’t be any more copy and paste descriptions, and the Cudo logo will no longer be displayed.
However, it also says that direct links to the Cudo URLs will remain.
“This is the first time we have heard of a company claiming copyright infringement over their URLs being syndicated or hyper-linked on a 3rd party site. If Cudo wishes to take Buyii over copyright infringement of publishing a URL, this would be to my knowledge be a first in Australia if not the world.”
Lim also claims that Buyii contacted Cudo regarding the possibility of establishing an affiliate marketing program, but didn’t receive a reply, save a short response from Billy Tucker.
However, Tucker has a different version of that story.
“I was contacted to see if Cudo would be interested in participating in this site. At that time, I said I had no desire to be featured on an aggregator site at that point, but that the site itself looked pretty nice.”
“But I didn’t hear back. I sent a note on December 7, asking what had happened because we appeared to be on the site. I wanted to know what happened, so I sent him emails, and called his mobile three or four times.”
Tucker says that he initially declined because he had no idea what the site was or how it operated, and wanted more time to become familiar with it.
“In December, our lawyers asked me if I wanted to send a cease and desist, and I said no, because I was still waiting to hear back from him. But I heard nothing, so earlier this month I requested that an instruction be sent.”
Despite Cudo’s protest over being featured on Buyii, there are plenty of other aggregators featuring Cudo’s content.
However, Tucker says he is happy to appear on other sites if he has an agreement to ensure control over the brand.
“The key issue is feeling like you have a control over the use of your brand. If you have a commercial agreement with them, like with Lasoo, we have legal requirements that are adhered to. But with some aggregators, they’re just scrapped up together by home built tools that have no quality guarantee.”
Tucker points to aggregators such as AllTheDeals, and says he is happy to work with them as they are able to work together to increase traffic.
AllTheDeals general manager Alexei Petrou says partnering with aggregators can be beneficial for these group buying sites attempting to gain leverage in a highly competitive market.
“I think it’s a traffic issue. We’re sending them over a couple of thousand clicks a day, and they’d be pretty crazy to turn that down.”
But despite the legal trouble brewing, Lim says Buyii isn’t going to back down.
“Buyii views this action as bullying and we’ll continue to fight for our users and for the sake of principles, that such information should be readily available for all readers and visitors of daily deal aggregator sites, not just Buyii.com.au.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
