I was in an IRC the other day and someone asked about my site, so I showed them. Then they posted this link and said that I'm violating trademark: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:su48sj.2.1 My site's name is Certifiedethicalhackers (or Certified Ethical Hackers) not Certifiedethicalhacker (or Certified Ethical Hacker). I don't use or claim the symbol "C|EH". I don't issue certifications, and I don't teach from copyrighted material. Heck I haven't even setup a training classroom yet. The entire idea of the site is to teach people what hacking is all about and to teach them about certified ethical hacking. There's no copyright on talking about ethical hacking. I don't see how anything I'm doing on my site is illegal in any way at all. Can someone explain this to me? Or a way I can reword and rework what I'm doing so that it doesn't break the copyright? I haven't ever meddled in this stuff but I don't want any legal crap on my hands here. -ZuFu
The link you posted is no longer valid: "This search session has expired. Please start a search session again by clicking on the TRADEMARK icon, if you wish to continue. " Regardless if it is legal or not they can still cause a great headache for you. Something does not have to be illegal for someone to sue you or try to take your domain away. It is up to you to decide if it is worth trouble. Can you change the name if you are still in the 'coinstruction' phase. How about drop certified and just make it ethical hackers or ethical hacking. How about using a different word than certified? How about registered?
Based on comparing registration dates, I would say they have a case against you. Adding an s to the end of a domain name will undoutedly be looked on as trying to pass off as the original domain.
I have no comment on that. As far as I am concerned hackers should be terminated with extream predudice.
In that case you will be fine. The name is not the same as theirs so they would no longer have a case against you.
I think you misunderstand what a hacker is. You have a very negative feeling about hackers in general. There are Ethical Hackers. These are the people who protect your websites, your bank firms, your schools, everything. They follow the law and do nothing, absolutely nothing, illegal. They're just as qualified in hacking, but it's for security purposes only.
As far as I am concerned a hacker is a hacker and in all the cases I have read about the hacker was hired AFTER carrying out illegal activities. Tell me this. Just how can you guatrantee that the people you teach are going to be 100% honest people that will not abuse the information you want to teach them?
What they do with the information I give them is not up to me. I would hope and expect them to be true white hat hackers. What you're thinking of is a Cracker. That's a malicious hacker. If you want to know the true definitions of what a hacker is take a look at my home page: certifiedethicalhackers.org/home.php I'm trained to shoot a gun, does that mean the person who taught me how to use a gun is responsible for my actions if I get pissed off and go shooting people in the head? No, they aren't responsible in any way, shape, or form. And neither am I. What you are concerned about and what is truth is something totally different. What you don't like is a Cracker, not a hacker. There are two very different people with two very different mind sets.
If I'm starting a new soda product, called "This New Soda," then registering PEPSIisdeliciousbutnotasdeliciousasTHISNEWSODA.com would still infringe on Pepsi. Best Regards, vip-ip.
Trademark cases are all about proving that an "infringing" name could cause confusion and easily be mistaken for the trademarked name. In your case, it would be extremely easy to get the two confused. You'd lose if their trademark is registered. The "ethical-hackers.org" bit sounds like a logical next attempt. Make sure you do your homework on this name before you run with it though.