widget-example.com vs widgetexample.com

legal protection?

[nzmatt]

I would like to buy widgetexample.com - for a reasonable amount of cash.

Question is: Does the owner of widget-example.com, which is a large successful website, have legal redress if I buy widgetexample.com and start trading under that name and selling the same thing?

More Info: Competition widget-example.com doesn't advertise the fact (or appear to have) a trademark registered.

Thanks for any info - I have noticed that there are many .com and .net competitors, but haven't seen any with the same tld; just with the "-" as the only difference.

[Teknorat]

Is the widget a trademarked name? Is it a general item or a made up word? Is example any of the above? Work out these first. Also don't expect any legal advice here ;)

[nzmatt]

It's similar to www.widget-store.com vs www.widgetstore.com.

Not trademarked.

Don't expect legal advice, just any experiences...

[Teknorat]

Well hey they can certaintly try- at worst they could drag you through courts long enough that you're forced to settle with them.

[submitx]

I think you should be ok, but then again anything could happen, best thing is to consult with an attorney. You should also see if the other company has registered the name as a DBA. The reason being that normally whoever uses a name first in ecommerce has the right to it, but then there are exception, such as business in differenet geographic locations or industeries. I am assuming both your businesses are national or worldwide (since you are operating over the internet), so you are in a grey area.

[StupidScript]

I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, but ...

The key is the protection of the name and how easily the two domains and the products thereon could be confused.

i.e.
hertzrental.com = well-known, well-protected
hertz-rental.com = if this is you and you rent cars, you're going to court.

joespizza.com = very hard to trademark globally
joes-pizza.com = if this is you and you sell pizza, you're probably okay due to the sheer proliferation of independent Joe's Pizzas around the world.

esteelauder.com = don't even think about it
playboy.com = it's okay! :)

These last two pretty much defined the rules in this area during the early days of the WWW. Both companies (Playboy Enterprises and Estee Lauder Cosmetics) took the people who registered the above two domains to court to get them to quit. Playboy lost, because "playboy" is a generic word, but Estee Lauder won, because Estee Lauder is a personal name. It didn't matter that the owner of that domain sold Estee Lauder Cosmetics ... the real deal had more right to it.

If your intent is to cause enough confusion between your hyphenated site and the real deal non-hyphenated site so that potential customers for the other are tricked into giving you their business, then that's a serious problem, as your intent will be the deciding factor in any court case, and could result in criminal fraud charges in addition to the trademark dispute. (remember ... NOT legal advice ...)

And this is all aside from the policies being decided on at Overture and Google and the rest of the world regarding use of trademarks in paid online advertising campaigns (buying keywords for AdWords, etc.) Be careful ...