We have established our trademark and company name since 2006. It has been in continual use and we have placed a TM on it since that time. We have spent over hundreds of thousands to promote our name and have established a reputation, integrity and accountability with thousands of customers around the Nation who have come to trust us. Our return customer rate, well over industry average is proof of this. Recently we have been approved by the BBB as an official company that is deemed worthy of their stamp of approval.
On February 23 Ted Doughty of Tiki Shack Importer stole our identity and trademark by impersonating our company in a website that he created in addition to his own. He used our name, Tropical Tikis to essentially deceive the consumer and trick them into thinking that they were in fact shopping with a trustworthy brand Tropical Tikis and not Tiki Shack Importer, his own company.
This action was a clear violation of unfair business practices and arguably unethical. Our repeat customers that we have worked diligently to attain and please through effortless customer service and resources; Mainlanders DBA tropical Tikis currently staffs a whole array of qualified staff including Customer representatives, Design Consultants, Carpenters, Carvers and Graphic designers while Tiki Shack Importer is he and his wife at their home with a container in their backyard deceiving innocent people with their too good to be true prices, exaggerated claims, our photo images of products and now our name.
Our higher than average rate of referral customers would be disappointed to find themselves in the hands of an imposter rather than the real Tropical Tikis that they were actually looking for. So far he has done this to 2 known companies; the first one he counterfeited was www.tropicaltikis.com (registered 07-Nov by Culbertson Imports LLC) with Tropical Tikis (Trademark) on it since 2006. He purchased the domain www.tropicaltikis. Ws on February 23, and then he called the site Tropical Tikis and began acting as us. His site states "Welcome to Tropical Tikis" but that is our company name. The second competitor he did this to is www.foreverbamboo.com, the site has been called Forever Bamboo since Feb (registered 06-Feb-08). He purchased the domain www.foreverbamboo.net on February 23, and then he called the site Forever Bamboo and began impersonating them as well. His site states "Welcome to Forever Bamboo. It is fact that consumers are likely to mistake the Tiki Shack Importers imposter website for ours. It is also probable that they are being misled about our trademark being used by him. We have requested in writing that he remove this deceptive website and he has refused. Once Tiki Shack Importer steals another companies business name (As he has done), he then advertises the name to get maximum customers by using the competitors name to steal the competitors customers by deception. He does this because he himself has lost many customers through his own practices of promising what he cannot deliver and outlandish claims about his products that he cannot back up.in addition to acting as if he were a competitor and taking their names to unfairly compete; Ted Doughty of Tiki Shack Importer also steals competitors photos and shows them on his site as though they are his. He has done this to Culbertson Imports Thatch Roll Photos (can be verified using the way back machine) and Benson Imports Photos (Also can be verified by comparing the website www.bambooandthatchetc.com with Ted Doughty's Tiki Shack Importer site http://www.tikishackimporter.com/. We are disappointed that a company would go through willful deception to hurt the competitors and misled customers into believing his sites are theirs.in addition, this behavior has cause extreme quantitative damages to the industry as a whole by initiating a stigma of distrust that cannot be reversed. We have incurred damages as a result of his unspeakable and unethical practices that include Lying to the consumers, robbing our sales by acting as Tropical Tikis, stealing our trademark, deceptive business practices and unfair competition, stealing our customers, advertising products by with untrue statements or misleading verbiage, and damaging the intellectual property of Culbertson Imports, in addition any other companies he has done this to suffered the same loss. Make sure you watermark your images so people like this guy do not steal them and get a lawyer if this happens to you or contact me at 619-520-2607. We will work with you to save the reputation of our industry and weed out quasi business men who are so greedy they are willing to steal, hide and deceive for a profit.
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