Hello guys, Many companies have a copyright for their names. Example : Scitec Nutrition. So you can't create a domain name like this scitecnutrition.com without their authorization right ? But if I look at their product names, let's take for example "Warrior Juice" (http://www.sciteconline.com/language/en/products/muscle_army/proteins/warrior_juice). It look like there is no copyright, do I have the right to create let's say a site with the domain name warriorjuice.net without any problems ? Or even a domain name with partial words like : warriorprotein.com ? Thank you
As taken from the official copyright.gov website: "Copyright law does not protect names, titles, or short phrases or expressions. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright. The Copyright Office cannot register claims to exclusive rights in brief combinations of words such as: • Names of products or services • Names of businesses, organizations, or groups (including the names of performing groups) • Pseudonyms of individuals (including pen or stage names) • Titles of works • Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions • Listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe or formula is accompanied by an explanation or directions, the text directions may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains uncopyrightable." And also: "To be protected by copyright, a work must contain a certain minimum amount of authorship in the form of original literary, musical, pictorial, or graphic expression. Names, titles, and other short phrases do not meet these requirements." Sorry its a little long, I just think that its important to see the full info In short...there isn't a logical reason that you should not use the name. Another thing I always like to include is that I have no law education myself, so I always advice if you know someone with such knowledge to double-check with them also, so you are not mislead
Product names would be a Trademark issue, not copyright. Using the name of another company's products is always a cause for concern. I would avoid it. If it is likely to cause any confusion, such as someone going to your site thinking it has a connection to the company or their products, then you are likely infringing in their trademark. Further, a trademark does not need to be registered to be valid and enforceable. It merely need to be in use by a company in commerce.
Good question though , but I have an famous example that I can quote at this moment. As you all know WordPress is blogging script & its widely used , Automattic - the company owns wordpress trademark or copyright or license puts on restrictions that there should be no website registered with domain name that has WordPress in it. You can check their official page at https://wordpress.org/about/domains/ Similarly whatever domain you plan to register , make sure there is no trademarked or copyrighted word is included , otherwise at some point of time you may have to spend time / money & effort to resolve it. Hope it helps
I would expect that will be really hard to enforce. For example SwordPress.com WordPressure.com I think the key to trademark infringement is that to be infringing you have to be providing a similar product or service
Yes true , thats the reason I asked to check the trademarked or copyrighted info for the respective words that you are going to use in your domain name. If they seem to be different from your products or service & if you are sure that you can prove it , then you may use it It is better to have precaution than suffering later
Actually, if your domain name contains the name of a product that is trademarked and the company wanted to push the issue, you would have to change it. While copyright law may state that "The Copyright Office cannot register claims to exclusive rights in brief combinations of words such as: Names of products or services...", Bit Law is a little more strict and can register such claims where domain names are concerned. Some well publicized examples of these types of domain names disputes are: candyland.com: Both Hasbro and an adult entertainment provider desired the candyland.com domain name. Hasbro was too late to register the name itself, but it is never too late to sue (well, almost never). The domain name is now safely in the hands of Hasbro. mcdonalds.com: This domain name was taken by an author from Wired magazine who was writing a story on the value of domain names. In his article, the author requested that people contact him at with suggestions of what to do with the domain name. In exchange for returning the domain name to McDonalds, the author convinced the company to make a charitable contribution. micros0ft.com: The company Zero Micro Software obtained a registration for micros0ft.com (with a zero in place of the second 'o'), but the registration was suspended after Microsoft filed a protest. When the domain name went abandoned for non-payment of fees, the domain name was picked up by someone else: Vision Enterprises of Roanoke, TX mtv.com: The MTV domain name was originally taken by MTV video jockey Adam Curry. Although MTV originally showed little interest in the domain name or the Internet, when Adam Curry left MTV the company wanted to control the domain name. After a federal court action was brought, the dispute settled out of court. peta.org: An organization entitled "People Eating Tasty Animals" obtained the peta.org domain name, much to the disgust of the better know People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This domain name was suspended, but as of May 2000 the domain name was still registered in the name of People Eating Tasty Animals. roadrunner.com: When NSI threatened to suspend the roadrunner.com domain name after a protest by Warner Brothers, the New Mexico Internet access provider who was using the domain name filed suit to prevent the suspension. Although the access provider was able to prevent the suspension, a joint venture company involving Time Warner, MediaOne, Microsoft, Compaq, and Advance/Newhouse eventually obtained the domain name.