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

Classmates is simply a word. I dont think they have the right to close your forum. If I made a website about eating apples, apple.com wouldn't be able to do shit. Just because they own a trademark for a word doesn't mean no one else can ever use it anywhere. tell em to piss off!!

 

thats how i see it as well.. good post

 

So are Tide, Shell and Caterpillar. Yet you see people buying Tide detergent,
loading up Shell gas, or seeing Caterpillar bulldozers.

I agree a trademark doesn't necessarily prevent one from using it, say, for a
non-commercial site. However, it so happens the OP's domain name and use
was potentially infringing Classmates' trademark, and Classmates intends to
defend its trademark to the fullest.

 

thanks for detailed response, so after my analysis I can actually trademark bestcar .com and use bestcaar .com domain name... right? The whole point is, I dont want the owner of bestcar .com basically lift our concept.

thanks!.

 

You're talking logic and ethics here. Law doesn't always swing that way ......

Can i register Windowswashing.com, a site about window washing and maintenance.

 

You'd probably be best off just folding and agreeing to their terms. They will claim that you're creating a forum that purposely misleads consumers by posing as a legitimate classmates.com discussion site. It's completely lame, but unfortunately they have a messed up legal system on their side.

 

Without knowing the exact domain name, it would be impossible to even give an opinion. Generic terms, for their generic usage (i.e. apple for a site about the fruit, couldn't be trademarked). If your concept is unique, and no one else has used the name (just not on the web), you would likely be in a good position to stop someone else from doing the same usage, with the same name. There are so many variables that could prevent your exclusive usage. Unless you have paid for a trademark search, you shouldn't invest a lot of time and money on development or trademarking the name. You just don't need to prove you used the concept before the .com owner, you need to be the very first one. You have no rights if you just used the name before the .com owner, but there were other using the name, in the same classification, before you. If you filed for a trademark tomorrow, you wouldn't even hear anything for about a year.

 

Classmates is a phrase that can not be copyrighted or patented. However, they have a copyright to the phrase by itself, which means, they own all ltds of classmates. However, you still can use %classmates% (eg.: myclassmates.com).

However, the issue at hand seems that you are using a copyrighted phrase "classmates connections".

If you enter the court, you will lose, since "classmates connections" is trademarked.

Peace,

 

You're right that a phrase (or a word in this case) can't be given a patent or
a copyright. But any word or phrase can become a trademark as long as it is
used distinctively from its descriptive meaning.

And no, they don't have or own all the TLDs of classmates. Nor can one use
classmates with an extra character or word if its use will still infringe the TM.

You might want to double-check those first before posting some wrong info.

 

i guess the best and quickest way to do things would be to register a new domain and do a 301 redirect. If its a trademark you have already lost 95% of the battle.

 

I hope things go well ..

 

read the UDRP and go from there.

If they trademarked it for use as an electronic forum (bulletin board is different than forum) then you're screwed, if not they have no legal grounds.

They are basically just trying to police how their name is being used online.

It's like when ClearChannel went after ClearChannelSucks, clearly the owner of the domain was just telling people it sucked, where he screwed up was by redirecting it to another online radio station.

The ICANN UDRP should be the end all for you on domain trademark issues.

http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm

 

its just crazy i agree!

Dont use the domain, but don't give it to them either!

 

sry i just noticed that offer. it could be that the know they dont have legal grounds and they are hoping you either default (dont show for court) or that you cave in.

 

As long as your name doesn't follow along the same content as classmates.com you should be fine.
There are rules and limitations to big companies running in to claim that <word> belongs to them
and you can't have anything similar.

(a) The name isn't being used in bad faith,
(b) The name isn't confusingly similar,
(c) That you have a legitimate interest in the domain name.

You wont go to court but it can be settled through a domain name resolution.

 

I agree. I would reply to them stating you dont believe they have a right to the name and cite the UDRP. They will then contact a domain resolution center certified by ICANN which will side with you... most likely.

 

This is a losing battle - which classmates.com will win, one way or another.

I can only conclude after reading through the whole thread that you DO want the benefits of using the word classmates in your own domain and are counting on traffic being generated by the similarity. I'm not criticizing you for that, but I do think that was part of your traffic strategy.

I would simply find another name and move on ...
~tasty

 

you can do a search at the uspto.gov website and see that classmates.com is registered, you can also check other ideas for trademarks or registered copyrights. It is always a good idea to just run anything through there before you use any business name.

 

sell up your domain , if they bothered to mail you to stop the use, ask them, if they are so considerate,, y not buy your domain, sell it.

 

And you do realize that can be used as proof of bad faith, especially if sued?
Hmm?

It's nice if the trademark holder becomes considerate. But nothing can force
them to be so, especially when the OP made the conscious decision to reg it
and subsequently cause this whole thing in the first place.