Classmates.com going after me for trademark. What to do?

DO NOT DO THIS!!!!

as stated above it is resounding proof of bad faith. You have told us that you just want to make a small forum for classmates to use. Frankly I dont see how you could make it work -- but if you want to simply reply to them that you are not using the name in bad faith to interfere with their trademark and make sure the site appropriately claims it has no affiliation with classmates.com and provide a link to them for users trying to find them.

this will remove the third part of the UDRP making you in compliance.

 

Thats the part that gets most of webmasters. Just having ads on your site could be considered as bad faith i.e profiting from someone elses work

any webmasters doesn't have any ads on their site(s)?

 

Profiting from your site isn't considered bad faith. Name one court case where the judge has said that. Bad Faith is where you intended to take away users looking for the actual site that owns the trademark or the common law trade mark.

i.e. making a site that is www.googlesearchengine.com would most likely be in bad faith if it: A) used a modified or unmodified Google logo. or made the site look like Google B) made no distinction between google and the site. and C) Profited from Googles work either directly or even as a google affiliate. Yes thats right, affiliates do not have the right to use trademarked material without express written permission.

It would not be used in bad faith if: A) The site was an information resource explaining a bit of history about Google and what it is. B) Linked to Google and made users aware that Google owns the trademark and the site is not affiliated with them in any way. and C) had minor ads on the site.

There was a case where ads sealed that it was bad faith usage. When a man bought a bunch of domains for a Papal visit in 1999, one of the Archdioceses sued for infringement of their famous mark and won. The websites had information about St. Louis (the location of the visit) and about the Pope and his itinerary for the duration. The judge noted that the sites would not have been used in bad faith had they not linked to numerous Adult websites also owned by the man or others he was affiliated with. The Archdioceses argued and proved that this caused confusion with their famous mark (as you can imagine).

 

Im Sorry, i Misunderstood the Letter.I apologise for it

 

My $.02...

Though classmates is technically just a word and you should be able to use it anyway you would like to, it is still their trademark which complicates things. There is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable. I'm sure if your domain name was "BadClassmates.com" they would not be after you. However, Classmates-Forum.com does infact violate their legal rights.

Honestly, if you have 0 traffic and your revenue is low you would be a FOOL to not comply with their demands. You have to understand one thing here, you are dealing with a big company. They can drop $20,000+ of BUSINESS FUNDS and each and every one of their workers will go home at the same day still making the same income. If you drop $20k you are decreasing your income and placing yourself in a very poor financial situation JUST to be right, in best case scenario.

Let's face reality... you AREN'T going to battle them in court. And if you tell them you won't comply with their demands, you WILL comply with their demands once a court date is set. So save your self the money, disapointment, and stress and comply right now. It isn't worth it.

They have the legal right. You don't.
They have the business capital. You don't.

 

That's okay. Lots of people make mistakes, but only some apologize for it.

 

It is when you are in the middle of trademark battle..

 

not profiting from it now I agree could help. Offering to sell the site or domain is proof of bad faith, never has a judge cited using ads as a reason of bad faith.

 

look, anything you do with the sole aim of recovering financial consideration from it i.e profiting from (allegedly) someone elses work can be considered bad faith when youre in the heat of the battle.

Offering to sell the site, putting ads, blackmail, anything, the keyword here not what, but why.

 

Hey, there was a UDRP complaint against the person which registered Target.org.

To win a UDRP complaint I think certain conditions have to be met.

Target which is registered in the Principal and runs Target.com still was not able to acquire the Target.org domain name.

Here's some input on that story

http://www.sedo.com/legal/index.php4

 

The KIWI.com case shines some light for you here friend:
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2004/d2004-0848.html

 

I just wanted to bring this post back up and ask a question. Everything that is stated in this thread relates to the word classmateS. How do I check and see if they own the trademark for classmate? I just registered dearclassmate.com and was wondering where this fell in this little situation.

Thanks,
Adam

 

I thought I remember seeing this a long time ago with the same domain. That's too bad they're going after you, I guess companies do have to protect their IP though.

 

There are several owners of a registered trademark on "classmate." Infringement is going to depend on how you use the domain. If your usage is similar to classmates.com, then you could have similar legal problems as domain names to not have to be exact to constitute trademark infringement. Similar spellings, foreign spellings, and phonetic sounding names can all be trademark infringement.

If classmates.com "thinks" it is trademark infringement, they could take legal action and require you to spend a lot of money to try and keep the right to use the name.

 

In the USA anyone can sue for anything. Therefore, whatever use you decide on for the domain still leaves you legally open to a painful and expensive lawsuit.

Classmate is defined as "an acquaintance that you go to school with." Using the domain in this context makes it more difficult for someone to take your domain. However, they probably have much deeper wallets then you.

 

As long as you keep to the domain name title classmate-forum.com
They can not touch you as this is your domain name and registered to you. But its when you start taking the -forum.com off in the title or any where on your site that there becomes a problem.

 

This is completely wrong and another example of bad forum advice.

 

wrong: classmates.com must prove that the trademark is being used in bad faith. Foreign spellings, similar spellings and phonetic sounding names will most likely be viewed as separate marks (according to ICANN at least). Thanks to TRIPS this may not be the case.

as far as using ClassMate.com you are still treading rough waters. Why not try and come up with a unique name. Remember google isnt located at www.bestsearchengine.com and Yahoo! isnt located at www.webportal.com

try getting a bit creative and brainstorming just to avoid potential problems... besides. On the internet the more unique the name the more its remembered.

 

A trademark protects more than identical copying, it extends to anything that is confusingly similar, even if it isn't exactly the same. Unless the mark is considered "famous" - the usage of the domain name will determine infringement. Similar use that causes confusion in the market can be an example of bad-faith.

 

I completely disagree. But so far such a case has yet to be decided (at least that I can see) when it comes to domain names it would appear that the name + the content decides what is trademarked.

for example if you purchased 'dearclassmate.com' and sold greeting cards for class reunions etc.. this would not infringe on the trademark of 'classmates.com'

in fact to get a final word on it the owner of what you assume to be confusingly similar, such as the author of this topic, could simply file for a trademark either here in the USA or in any TRIPS nation. If the trademark is approved then the host nation is saying that they dont believe one dictionary word should be able to encompass so many uses as does classmates.com or that by adding the -forums onto the tld makes it a completely new mark.

Its like Ben and Jerry's cant mark the use of B&J it's just too common. While the PTO might actually grant such a mark a later challenge or approval of a similar mark would be likely.

and since you're just gonna keep disagreeing:
this is from the target case posted above. the idea here is 'legitimate interest'. I think the author could argue that he has a legitimate interest in the domain.