Hi, I'm wanting to make a site, but i want to know how legal it is to make a site such as "paypalsucks.com" Basicly copying the domain name, with the words "sucks" at the end. I dont understand why paypal has not forced the handing over of the domain name? Any info would be great before i buy the domain i need. Cheers.
lol, yeah, thats my thoughts aswell. Hopefully someone will know where you stand legally when all you are doing is letting people complain about a company. -- and using their domain name.
You're not *actually* using their domain name. You are (will be or may be attempting to be) using their trading name, company name, brand, brand name, whatever, as part of your domain name. I don't actually have an answer but my gut feeling is to be careful, particularly with organisations who may have a lot of financial & legal clout, as I've no doubt PayPal have. As an example I can't find any site for the domain microsoftsucks.com although I guess this would be one of the most popular sucks domains on the planet... it makes me wonder why...? As for FarnboroughSucks.co.uk that's OK, 'cos Farnborough does suck and it can't sue me
Try a varient to avoid any complications, eg www.ppsucks.com or www.paypussie.com etc. Just an example, use your imagination with it. There was a kid who's name was Mike Rouw (or something like that), he bought the domain www.mikerowsoft.com. It caused a huge stir with MS as they couldnt really do anything, he ended up giving up the name to MS for an Xbox 360 and a tour around MS head office.
I would say it is not legal. You will more than likely get a cease and desist letter in the mail. It is like when people were using myspace in their urls... same idea.
Completely legal. Most companies buy that domain and either park it or stash it, just to avoid someone else having it. RegisterflySucks.com is owned by (you guessed it) - RegisterFly.
Unless the guy who is biitching registerfly is using them as their register Cheers for the help guys, I think im going to go along with the purchase, and have some horror stories along with a forum. All the best.
If PayPal Sucks registers that name as a trade name, legally, then it's completely different unrelated trademark and PayPal have no say over what happens with it.
So a www.xxxxxxxsucks.com is an ideal Adsense domain then Use of possible trademark with potentially a vast amount of traffic and backlinks. Sounds good to me!!
hmmm..what about this myspacemarketingsucks adding-friends-in-myspace-sucks commenting-in-myspace-sucks youtubemarketingsucks videomarketingsucks everythingsucks hehe, just for laugh !
Since it's a COMMENTARY (protected in the US by the First Amendment), those are legal. I believe there's appellate cases establishing this.
There are various decisions going both ways. What's important is being aware of what you can and can't do, and what things to avoid to prevent others from possibly throwing the books at you. More importantly, be RAW (Ready, Able, and Willing) to demonstrate whatever claims you have should it reach dispute, knock on wood. Nowadays there's lots of unreasonable people in this world.
Very true. Be ready for that C & D letter. Many are just bluff jobs but you never know which one is playing for keeps.
Paypalsucks .com was faced with a C&D order, and they actually went to court. They won the right to keep on doing business, because they never lied about what paypal did. The really bad lies were posted by users on the forum, and they have no right to infringe upon free speech. The basic rule is that you just can't lie about what they're doing. Tell the truth and open a forum that allows people to vent their hatred. It should work well. As far as copyright infringement goes. Paypalsucks .com can not be reasonably mistaken for paypal .com Therefore it isn't trying to deceive customers of paypal. It also is obviously not profiting directly from the use of the trademark. They are simply venting their opinion. An example of a problem would be richjerkscams. com. There was a huge discussion in the legal folder over whether the richjerk could actually go ahead and sue the guy. In his case, he was infringing on the trademark name to drive traffic to his site, where he tried to sell them affiliate programs without overly discussing the rich jerk ebook.