Lets say someone owns the domain "goalpost.com" which is somebody's photography website, and I register the domain "goalpostforum.com" which is about football would they be able to sue me?
Dont believe so, because your site is completely different from their niche, so it would not be a threat to them
I think you can use the name but you might want to use .net instead so the other website owner can not complain.
Yeah, the whole .com and .net makes no difference. Since your site is on something different, go ahead. Also, the owner of the original site may not even have a Trade Mark or copyright, so don't worry about it.
As long as you aren't picking in on their niche, I even don't see a starting point for any legal action at all they might undertake. F Of course, if you're going for some large multinational, it's a total different story: remember mikerowsoft.com?
No. People can sue you for what ever they want at any given time, but i don't see any reason for you to be concerned with that. Unless this photographer is some big shot conglomerate, in that case he would have the domain registered.
I did a google search of his name and it turns out that hes a 59 year old photographer who is well known because he has worked for Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. I also did a google search for the word that I want to use and there are domains like "goalpostshowclub.com", "eaglesgoalpost.com", "southgoalpost.com", "ncaagoalpost.com", "thecollegegoalpost.com" etc so I guess he doesn't mind... So I don't know what I should do, he seems like hes pretty "big". I could pick a different domain, but I'll probably just register the one I want.
I agree, you can be sued for anything at anytime. As far as your site, I think goalpost is generic. If you had Iphoneforum.com then I would be worried but you don't. I don't think there is a problem here as long as you don't try and mimic the other site.
I think there's two different questions that can be asked... 1. Using common sense, is there any way that you could see why you might be sued by the other guy? I'd say no - your website content is obviously related to your domain name, while theirs is using the term "goalpost" in a very generic way - there's nothing they would reasonably be able to say that would convince anyone that you're trying to barge in and steal traffic from their target audience. You can easily argue that your use of the word "goalpost" is a valid one and if you are actually running a forum about football, very much linked to your content. 2. Could someone try to sue me? Hell yes, people can be ba***ds And anyone with enough money can just shout loud enough and throw lawyers at you until you give up!
Please keep in mind that it is hard to give advice when you don't have details. People in this thread keep stating goalpost - but you write 'goalpost' - so goal probably isn't in your domain name. Buy the domain, and post it here, so you can get some advice in context. No one could argue about goalpost ... But I'm guessing it's not the case here?
I have to agree, its hard to tell by using the term 'goalpost' however if you were to register 'famousphotographersname-forum' there could be a bit of a grey area particularly if your name isn't 'famousphotographer'! Also I would be interested to see if the person holds the trademark for 'goalpost', whilst this doesn't mean they can cause problems persay, it does make life more difficult for you should you receive a legal challenge from them.
His website is endzone.com and I registered the domain www.endzoneforum.com On his website it doesn't say anything about a trademark..
I would say not a problem, the endzone is a specific area on a sports field (is it not?) in this sense, there sould be no problem so long as you don't talk about his photo's, site etc. Goodluck with the forum.
"endzone" is a trademark held by the NHRA (National Hot Rod Ass.) for providing preferred seating status and viewing locations at auto races. "end zone" is held by: the Russell Corp. in Deleware for inflatable sports balls the Troy Aikman Foundation for indoor amusemant centers Velo Enterprises for bicycle parts Chambers Production Corp. for on-going sports tv shows Zones, Inc. for calzones There are several other trademarks that include end zone or endzone, but there is more to them (such as "end zone towel", "end zone sports bar and grill", etc...). I didn't do an exhaustive search, but it doesn't look like there are any US registered trademarks for endzone and a sports website. That being said, I'm not sure if the law would consider that to fall under the Chambers Production trademark or not.