Are names of drugs registered/trademarked?

Hi. I want to know if the brand names of drugs like Viagra, Prozac are registered/trademarked? What I basically want to know is, is it legal to purchase a domain like say www.prozac.something? Or could a person get into trouble if he/she does that?

 

I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, you could. You can't use someone's brand name.

 

Ok but what's the difference between an (R) and a (TM)? Prozac for example has an (R) next to it and so does Viagra. However, some drugs don't. They instead have a (TM) next to them. What about them? What's the difference between the two and can something with a (TM) be registered? Or do both things invite trouble?

I have no plans of getting into trouble so I am inquiring.

Thanks.

 

TM means trade mark, R means registered trade mark. It has been a long time since I researched this but R means you go through patent office to officially register the brand to prevent someone else from doing so. I would think a large company wouldn't need to register it because it will be well established that it is there brand.

You can't use either. Perhaps you can, but I don't think you can in a domain name. The cybersquatting laws come into play too. There are some fair use rules that come into play. I recall being required to mention that those brand names are trade marks or registered trademarks of so and so... I'm surprised others are not helping you with this. Google "fair use trademarks" and see what you find out.

 

Check this out: publaw.com/fairusetrade.html I now recall that if you have profit motive in using it that is a big black mark against you.

I've been watching facebookmembers.com to see how long it last I am surprised the site is still up.

 

You're a major pharmaceutical company. You spend BILLIONS of dollars developing and testing a new drug, getting it past FDA approval, marketing it and so on. You spend millions on getting a new word invented to describe the product. You then

a) don't bother trademarkng the term, after all, it's only money,right?
b) spend a few hundred dollars extra trademarking it.

doh.

 

You CAN use brand names and trademarked terms in your domain name, but if the company who owns said term does not like your website or approve of it, they can take action to take the domain name from you, and gain possession of your domain. Any SEO work you put into the site will be lost.

If that is a risk you are willing to take, then go ahead.

Honestly I have hundreds of domains with brand names in the URL, and only once was I contacted by a company about the issue, and I just handed them over the domain and that was the end of it.

 

From a practical standpoint, you are probably right. Most large companies are not going to spend thousands of dollars seeking damages from some small website owner. The large companies know that in those cases their economic loss is probably small, particularly compared to the costs of paying their high-priced IP law firms to bring suit, and that even if they are awarded damages, there is a very good chance that the infringer won't be able to pay the damages anyway. So generally, they are satisfied with protecting their mark and shutting down the infringer.

But understand, that may be the usual outcome but manufacturers can and DO sue infringers. It may happen if they think that their economic damages are significant. It may happen if they think they can collect from the defendant. It may happen if the use is flagrant and has irritated someone at the company enough that they are willing to spend money to smack down the infringer even if they have little hope of ever collecting damages. It may happen if there are so many other infringers that they want to send a message to all by aggressively attacking a few (like the recording industry tried to do by suing some individuals for downloading music).

The point is, the trademark owner CAN do much more than simply accept your apologies and take the website from you.