Hi people, sorry for asking a question on my first post, but I am having a very similar issue at the moment.. I've just registered a domain name, which is basically someone's else's registered trademark with "Your" prefixed to it. The trademark isn't a product name, and it's not another business name, but a standard... let's call it DVD. In this case, is it legal to take the well known "DVD" logo, place a "Your" over the top of it, and sell DVD's on yourdvd.com.au? Normally I'd be able to figure this one out myself, but it's not like i'm trying to 'impersonate' the 'DVD' standard or pretend to be the creators/owners of the original 'DVD' trademark? Obviously I haven't picked 'dvd' as that's all a bit dated now. Thanks for any help you can offer, I'll appreciate anything - no amount of searching forums or search engines can give me a knowledgeable enough answer!
sorry to waste all of your time, but of course I posted the question and then may have promptly found my answer. I have found another registered business, with a trademarked business name which has done a similar action on the same existing trademark. They've even taken the existing trademarked logo, and just put black capital "systems" under it - i've removed the words from below the registered trademark, to only be left with the acronym plus "your". They're all on and registered with ipaustralia.gov.au so I guess this kind of (what I kind of consider) 'trademark squatting' is legal..
in my opinion it can be beneficial, but only for certain domain types. .com's - anyone can buy them, no matter who you are or who you're trying to impersonate. .com.au for example (and many other countries) - if you buy toshibanotebook.com.au, toshiba has every right to apply to have it taken off you, and given to them - because your business name and/or trademark could never be "Toshiba" or "Toshiba notebook". if you were lucky enough to get a .com domain like cornflakes.com or callofduty.com before the respective trademark owners got it, lucky you - they can buy it off you, or you can reap the rewards of having a well searched keyphrase domain.
NO, if it's registered by someone else. .com Domains are First come first serve basis, regardless who you are.
You mean registering a domain bearing a brand name like Toyota, YouTube, etc.? I guess it's indeed worthwhile to register it and make whatever you can from that... ...until its brand owner finally decides to take it away from you via UDRP or suit, depends what means of domain-trademark dispute resolution there is. But I suppose that's no big deal either, even if you put a lot of effort into that. Good luck to you. Just don't complain if a brand owner finally takes action against you for that, considering you've been warned.
Yes, I agreed with you pal! This is definitely a no no. There is a potential of facing trademark infringement issue. Not worth our effort and time doing it. Richman25
I would not register it, but some companies, like Microsoft are now allowing use of their name to sell their products.
What URDP? What Suit? I am not going to infringe the company on any ways. I just want to make use of the name. No one can stop me
You've gotten good advice. If you choose to ignore it, then don't come back crying when a UDRP action removes the domain from your account and gives it to the TM holder. They don't need your permission or authorization to take it.
Even if they are a new company, a TM is established upon first use in commerce. They don't need to register it. Basically, the law is that you can't come along and use the name of another company to ride their goodwill (use it for anything related to their business).
Or...be held liable if the trademark holder likes a challenge. Some of them actually do. Codbox, a basic idea here is you can't use the domain name bearing its trademark name- sake to make money off without their permission. That's remedied by measures such as the UDRP as said earlier, or suing under a law such as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) in the U.S. Especially if it's a .com being discussed here, the UDRP applies to .com domain regardless where it's registered anywhere on the planet. While this one's hypothetical, that same party could sue, get a favorable judgment, and either try to enforce it in your area if it's got some applicable agreement with the U.S., or issue a judgment and serve it on you if they find you visit the U.S. As a side note, the UDRP and ACPA are two different measures with their own thingies. The UDRP acts only to grab the domain, while the ACPA might (again, theoretically) be used to both get the domain and impose a fine that might or might not be collected. Now, maybe you won't be held liable, maybe you won't be fined and just lose only that domain name, who really knows? Sure it's lucrative, but I guess you will not mind seeing your "hardwork" go to waste if that party decides to go after the domain at least? Let me ask you and whoever else something: if you register a domain name bearing its brand namesake, do you honestly think people are going to look for you online? Or are they searching for the source of that brand, which is what a trademark does? Given that intellectual property like trademarks give its holder a sort of exclusive claim only for its established use or class, do you really think you can use that, especially for financial gain, without that holder's permission? While you might think you're promoting them or giving them more business, who are those internet users intending to look for in the first place? Besides, there are other ways to make money than this. This one's temptingly easy.... and got more risk written all over it than other ventures. If you don't want to conveniently take my word for it, go ahead and search for ACPA and UDRP online. You'll find various decisions as well as exceptional scenarios, but very little of them help protect a user's domain bearing a brand if especially used to make money. At any rate, again, you've been made aware what can happen. Obviously only you can decide for yourself, but it'll be really funny if you suddenly complain over something like this. Good luck. You'll seriously need it. And DhrubaJyotiDeka, only trademarks apply to domain names. Patents and copyrights don't as various intellectual property, licensed legal pros with real-world experience will tell you if you want to check with any of them.