I am planning to start a company. I mistakenly purchases domains before checking if similar domains exist. Now i found out that similar domains exist. Let us say the existing domain (other owner) is: www.examplewebhosting.com The one I bought is: www.example-web-hosting.com My only problem is that i have already purchased .net .com .org .info of these domains for 5 years, so there is a lot of money to loose here. Yet i don't want any legal issues in the future. What do you think? have you experienced any similar situation? Is it possible for the other company to sue me? thank you in advance
Whether or not it is infringement is going to depend on the actual domain name. It is impossible to give an answer using "example". Having said that, adding hyphens does not get around trademark infringement. Yes, it is absolutely possible for the other company to sue you if they "think" you are infringing upon their mark. Losing a couple hundred dollars in domain registration fees is nothing compared to the cost of defending yourself in a lawsuit. I find it hard to believe you would choose to purchase a domain with hyphens without checking to see if the non-hyphen version was taken. It is your responsibility to check for prior usage BEFORE registering a domain.
Well i doubt the name of the original company is copyrighted since it's just a domain name and doesn't sound like a big one. So it would be immoral to do this however not illegal. If the name of the first domain is copyrighted then it could be a problem if you register it after they copyrighted it (see Grandfather clause) and they can take action. Check to see if it's copyrighted. Most likely its not unless it's something like facebook or google etc
Copyrights have nothing to do with domain names. Common law trademarks are established by usage - no registration is required. A good trademark search runs at least a few hundred dollars.
Check to see if the domain that is similar to yours is globally trademarked. If they are not and you live in a different country then you should not have any issues.
Wrong. You idiots should stop posting in the legal section when you have no clue about what you are posting.
100% agree with you. These idiots dont know their a$$ from their elbow. Anyone taking any notice of what they post will be in deep s**t.