my friend told me about frysforum.com since his friend - a frys worker created it. they finally found out who it was and the fired him. anyhow, i'm surprised the site remains available since i was under the impression that a trademark shouldn't be in a domain name. but then on their site they list fair use of trademark: http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-ip.php#trademark i guess it's best to avoid the lawyer fees and court battles but i found this interesting.
You can use a trademark in a domain name as long as you have a fair use for it. Generally, satire, commentary and parody qualify as fair use. Deena ____________________________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
thanks for the info DeenaEsq. i wasn't aware of that. anyhow, this leads to another question. i'm developing my site outsourced[dot]me and was thinking of putting the company in the subdomain. it's basically about the inner workings of being outsourced and so far it's mostly commentary and satire. would this be fair use?
It's hard to tell without seeing the site whether or not it would qualify as fair use, but I agree with Dave's statement that the more non-commercial the site is, the better chance you have of it holding up under scrutiny... Deena _____________________________________________________________________ Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
Fry's is an interesting example. There are many stores that use the Fry name. I know of at least two: an electronics chain in CA and of a grocery chain in AZ. So, the name frysforum could be legally used by more than one company. That is in addition to the other fair use examples given above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry's_Electronics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry's_Food_and_Drug
Isn't it also a shoe company? I think it might be... It's a great example of using the same trademark by different companies for different classes of goods. It's like Apple Computers and Apple Records.... Deena
I think you are talking about Frye Boots, pronounced the same, but spelled with an "e" on the end. http://www.fryeboots.com/ Trademarks are difficult for many people to understand because the same mark can be used by multiple people, each using it in different types of business or in different geographic territories. I think the geographic distinctions are becoming harder to justify since everyone has a website which makes their business larger in geographic scope. But you can go to just about every city in America and find some pizza restaurants using the same name used in every other city. Even that is becoming an issue with many restaurants, each wanting the name exclusively. Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles was recently embroiled in a dispute, as is Wolfgang Puck currently with another restaurateur named Wolfgang who opened a restaurant down the street from Puck's Spago restaurant using the name Wolfgang. Those two parties are fighting even though they have already make agreements amongst themselves in the past regarding the use of the name Wolfgang.
If you're starting to develop your own trademark, I would highly suggest you getting it protected as soon as possible. Although there are some common law rights to trademark, registration is the surest way to protect your mark...