Domain & Company Issue!

Hi

This is driving me mad. Please help.

I want to start a software company and am looking for a domain to buy for my company.

Here is my question: If I buy a domain for example " cyberlogikz.com " but someone has trademarked the word " cyber " can they cause problems for me?

Please forgive me, I don't know about legal stuff but must make sure I am okay.

Thanks

 

There are several things to consider.

1) Are you in the same category of business as their trademark of "cyber"? If they sell apples and you are doing virtual 3d, then you are more protected. If you both do virtual 3d, then you are at high risk.

2) What kind of trademark do they have? Some words cannot be trademarked by businesses because the words(s) is merely descriptive of what they do. In these cases, they may simply have a trademark on word art (meaning you cannot make your logo look like theirs). You should be able to tell what kind of trademark they have by doing a search in the USPTO database. Be careful when reading though, some trademarks are for both the word/phrase and the wordart.

3) Is the word merely descriptiive? If you do computer repair, then "computer repair" is fair game.

4) No matter what you do, they can always try to cause problems for you. But, if you are smart about it, you can do everything you can to make sure the odds are stacked in your favor.

 

Druidelder has offered you very good advice. I'd suggest that you think about your example and the word "Apple." If you wanted to offer software that was called "decade Y" and you wanted the domain "AppleOSdecadeY.com" do you think you would have a problem? Similarly, if you had a service offering repair, I don't think you would have a problem with a domain like "Appletechrepairs.com."

There is no bright line where you can say you are safe. The more like an established trademark your business sounds the easier it will be for an existing trademark holder to claim infringement. You might wish to consider making up a word that is not currently used and branding for your own purposes. Think Kodak and xerox, or the names of many drugs, xanax, oxycontin. All these meant nothing until given meaning by branding.

 

I am sure it wouldn't be a problem. Some names which we use in our daily lives cannot be copyrighted. 'Cyber' is something we HAVE to use now and then over the web. Anyways, if the word 'cyber' is copyrighted, forget yourself dude. The CYBER police and the CYBER crime department would be fighting first