Is it legal to use name of product/service in domain name for fansite?

I was wondering it is could cause a problem down the road if you chose the domain name to be the name of some game or product for a fan-site? Ex: H o n d a F o r u m . c o m , W o r l d O f W a r c r a f t F o r u m. com.

I believe i have seem people do this plenty of times and its probably a wide practice but are there any rules to that matter and can the product service owner ever turn to you and say that they want you to stop using the name in domain? Also, would you need to put visible some text that says you are an Unofficial fan site and are not owner operated by service or product you are talking about?

Common sense says that nobody would actually mind you making a website about their product and further spreading the word as long as you don't make it sound like you are an official source and dont do anything crazy that would give the product a bad association. However, im just wondering a little about the legal side and if anyone know of any bad experiences with this.

Thank you!

 

Hehe, if there's one thing I learned, it's that common sense isn't as common as some people expect it to be.

For the most part, fan sites - especially non-commercial ones - are legal even if they bear their trademark holders' names. Even better if one can secure permission from the mark holder in question.

Just because some are doing it, and seemingly getting away with it, doesn't always mean others will, too. Not all drivers who break speeding laws get caught, but those that do...well...you get the idea.

Where things get gray/grey are if the domain name causes confusion with its trademark namesake, much more makes money out of that without the latter's consent. Unfortunately it also sometimes depends on how (un)reasonable the trademark holder may be towards such things.

If you really want to pursue the idea further even without their permission, then it helps to try not putting any hint of commercial use (i.e. Adsense ads) on the site. Of course, that means one can't make money out of that.

Do an online search to find clues on how protective or not the one in question is.

 

Try Googling "Good Google SEO Services"

See MasterGoogle.com

Now given that MasterGoogle.com secure such a high ranking ripping the piss out of the G name every SEO service could do so to in theory I guess as if one can get away with seeming to be a Google domain or get confused as such why not others/you to?

 

I would check if there are other sites out there using their name for a fan site, and if so, chances are the company will not go after you. One that does, from what I recall, is BMW. They at least used to go after everyone including their brand anywhere in a domain. Not sure about Honda, but if you see others not having a problem with it, then why not give it a shot.

http://www.nissan.com/ still operates independently. But their legal bills must be in the 10s of Millions by now.

 

hehe I have never seen thta Nissan domain before. Very interesting and sort of makes you want to check the dates of Nissan becoming a car giant.

eBay pursue people to. I know as I was sent a polite cease and desist after registering ebay-learner.co.uk a few years back for a book my partner and I wrote which went out the window as the whole concept was gone without the name .

 

Thanks everyone for the good info!


Love the nissan site!

 

Its simple: You can not legally use a registered trademark in the domain name unless you have permission from the holder of the registered trademark.

Lots of people do it and get away with it. However, at any moment the owner of that trademark can request the domain name be handed over to them. That does not mean that they will or will not do it. ICANN will do it and there is nothing you can do about it. There have been a couple of high profile cases where this is did not happen, but they were unique circumstances.

 

So how come Disney or Norton have not sent me a cease and desist for this then ?

It's not always so cut and dry. eBay cease and desisted me for ebay-learner.co.uk right in the middle of my Mrs and I writing a book (and I mean a book of many pages not a cheap crappy one) that never got a chance for the light of day and tbh that was as much ebays loss as mine IMHO, as the book we we're writing was for teaching how to use eBay, but ebay are good at thinking about #1 (in a blinkered way) so hey ho.

But it's not always a case of names can't be used without permission it's sometimes a matter of being creative to.

I know some Google (inclusive) names (available - a one word one to) it would be possible to get away with using with Google having a difficult legal position on and if they did the press/(likely free publicity/possible > high profile cases) would likely be worth it anyway.

 

Simple. Either you have stayed under the radar scope and they do not know about it or they have decided not to pursue it.
They do not have to issue a cease and desist; a simple request to ICANN and you will loose the domain ... that is if they choose to do so.

 

You can run into some harsh intellectual property violations. Many companies like Apple persue those that remotely violate any intellectual property name or term, with an iron fist. Others ofter overlook it, as it brings them recognition.

But it's playing with fire, you can easily get burnt. A real attorney would be best to consult with.

 

Hmmm, some posts in this thread are actually missing. Oh well, I guess something happened.

 

All posts for last two weeks got wiped. Forum was rolled back to May 15 back-up or something around that date. You can read about it in the feedback/support forum.

 

I have a domain that has the words "phpBB" in it, and I was told by a staff member there, it's fine but not recommend, this is for phpBB though

 

You very well might be fine but just as an FYI, a random staff member rarely has the right to license or give permission for use of intellectual property. If you really wanted to protect yourself you would need it in writing from someone with the authority to give such permission.

 

You can buy any domain, but you have to reckon with the fact that if someone has a right to a particular brand then sooner or later you may lost it. However, there are cases in which the company had problems with this. For example, Google wanted to recover the domain Gmail.pl from Poland. However, it turned out that it belongs to the people who created the abstract GMAIL name of their organization and Google could not take from them this domain. Personally, I would not recommend buying domains of known brands.