Forum Moderators: phranque
Now the trademark owner company is coming after me, requesting that I transfer the domain immediately and take my site down.
I have a great disclaimer that states that I am not affiliated with company...
According to ICANN laws, they may be able to snatch my domain. I'm thinking of giving it up to avoid the hassle.
What do you think?
Can you be a bit more specific about this (without actually naming the brand)?
They only have protection for the full name as registered. You need to check if the part you're using is also protected seperately. If not, then you have some chances of getting away, especially if that part is a common word.
WITHOUT ADMITTING ANY LIABILITY, you could offer to sell both the domain and content. Of course, that presupposes that they wish to use the domain name for similar content and you don't plan to use the content elsewhere.
Kaled.
There are sites like this that get away with it...
Thanks for your help and replies.
The owner of the trademark has the exclusive right to decide who may use their mark and for what purposes. If you're using their name without their permission, then you're infringing, and no disclaimer can get you out of that.
It's not just a hassle, they're simply right. The correct thing to do is to give up the name, and establish your site under a different label.
Whether you want to admit anything to them is a seperate question. If you're lucky, they might be happy just to see the domain offline. And of course they also don't have any right in the content of your site.
There are sites like this that get away with it...
There are people getting away with various kinds of illegal activities all the time. That doesn't make them right.
I did contact a lawyer, although I don't think I'm going to waste my cash.
Looks like I will be responding to their letter giving in to taking the site down.
In the US, a trademark holder does NOT have absolute right to determine what happens with their trademark. There are some permitted reasons a person can use someone else's trademark. The common test is whether there is a likelyhood of confusion between your product/service and the product/service of the TM owner. Would a person looking at your use of the TM believe you were actually the TM owner?
For example:
1. Creating a website that critics another company (eg. tmwordsucks.com (think paypal).
2. If you sell a product, you have the right to use the TM'ed name of that product. You might be able to use a TM'd word as a domain to sell ONLY that product, but probably not any other products on the same site.
3. You can compare your product to another TM'd product. Eg. Generic Beer tastes just like Bud.
4. For most TM'd words, the TM only extends to that product category. For example, a TM for a line of clothing does not prevent someone else from using that same TM on a car. But, if a TM is famous enough (think big burger chain) you probably can't use it on anything else.
On the web, however, a domain name will be taken from you if you are making money off of another persons trademark. You can run a fan/hate site of TM'd product, but you probably can't make any money (no adsense, etc).
IAL.
Hope that helps.
The site is doing nothing wrong and there have been cases just like this taken to court where the trademark holder has lost.
<snip>
Kaled.
[edited by: trillianjedi at 10:08 am (utc) on Sep. 14, 2005]
[edit reason] Original thread deleted because that one is a hoax ;-) [/edit]
