Try replying to one of the posts asking them to contact you directly - we had a similar issue and through discussion brought them on board as our official IG presence.
I mean, this worked out awesome for everyone involved because what he was doing basically aligned with what we would have been doing had we been doing it ourselves. But an Instagram account for a business selling stuff is pretty darn different - our profile is just a feed of cool pictures and information. A profile claiming to be NCASE is going to be something people rely on for information as
customers, and that they'll associate with the brand directly.
The marginal effect is way different, too - if a few folks get disenchanted with SFF Network because of something else, well, whatever, we have tens of thousands of unique visitors at any given week/month. But if a few feel the same about NCASE, well, that's potentially a big business liability since the scale is so much smaller.
Basically, the risk is pretty high not only from this person doing something malicious, but even from just misrepresenting NCASE's views/plans, or not being as diligent in answering questions and directing them to NCASE proper as NCASE would themselves. So I really do hope this gets figured out quickly...
(And I've made sure that Kimera Industries owns our names on the most popular social media sites, as well. Would encourage everyone working on a project to do so, as encountering this sort of thing can't be any fun at all)
Not yet, and hopefully we won't have to. I think this falls under their rules as a claim of trademark violation, which requires us to provide proof of trademark registration... which is something we don't have yet.
This isn't actually the case - registration is helpful because it formalizes the validity of a trademark before you might have to protect it (especially from people challenging its validity to begin with) so it's more a pre-emptive thing than anything else. But in the US, at least, you gain the rights to a trademark simply by using one.
More specifically, if you can demonstrate original prior use, and you're using it actively now, it's considered to be yours for the most part. I don't know what the reporting and enforcement schemes are for companies like Instagram, but I have no doubt that you fulfill that fundamental definition. I just don't know that Instagram will care given that you aren't a very big company.
EDIT: I don't use Instagram, but if it has reporting functionality, I'd encourage anyone reading this who's on the platform to report the account in question as fraudulent. A sea of folks calling them out might get more action from Facebook when compared to one guy on the internet saying it's his.
