I am planning to start a new web site and wanted some advice before buying the domain name.The site will need a name that is close to the actual topic .I wanted to use the sites name in it but don't want to get sued. Here is a example:Say I want a site about facebook can I legally use something like facebook tips ? Most of the sites I have seen are abbreviated names since they bought most common names. Any advice would be helpful
No, I'm sure you are aware of trademark infringement. It's best to stay clear. It is really sad thou IMHO that companies like Facebook pick extremely hard on little guys. You would probably receive a C&D in less than two weeks. As Facebook probably has a program that picks up all newly registered domain names with the words "Facebook" in it. If you do register it, you can always have it redirect to your other domain name, and there is nothing that Facebook can do about it because the active url that displays of your site would be different and would not contain the word Facebook in it. You would also not have to worry about losing your traffic, or your back links that you have gotten for the site. They still may insist like "Oh well you still have to send us the domain name anyways we don't care." in that even get the domain name appraised you can even use a self appraisal service and make them pay the whole thing even if it does contain there trademark. If they don't want to pay it tell the to PISS of that you aren't using it for trademark infringement as your end business URL is different and any court would also see that you gave them the chance to claim the trademarked domain name, and would probably either make them pay the appraisal that you had, or it would go to another appraisal service. Best of Luck But remember it's best to stay away from trademarked words in your domain name.
Is it really important for you to own a first level domain? If not, just go to blogger to get a blog with the keywords you want. But of course I'm not sure if it is illegal or not.
I have seen some sites with the trademark name in their domain. I wonder if they get permission or are forced to change their name . For instance if you look up mysace backgrounds you will find myspacetotal.com freemyspacebackgrounds.net myspacelayoutsupport.com how can they do that ?Is it legal?
It's trademark infringement unless they have express permission. Just because someone else is doing it, it doesn't make it legal. Thousands of sites have been sued for trademark infringement and if you use a domain that contains a trademark or even similar, you are taking the risk of being sued and the possibility of having a judgment against you for tens of thousands of dollars or more. If you want to be safe, don't use a trademark in a domain when it is about their service or usage. Don't get cute with something that sounds like it. Don't attempt to ride their goodwill. If you don't have any money or assets, nor expect to ever have any, and don't care about your credit, then go ahead and hope they won't decide to sue you. They don't need to warn you in advance of filing a lawsuit, and taking the site down doesn't after they find out about it doesn't get you off the hook for potential damages.
Trademark issues aside, there is a much more important angle to look at this from. Using your Facebook example, consider that indiviudal social networks come and go. You wouldn't want to have your site locked into covering just one of them. It would make it difficult to expand into coverage of other networks.
I would tend to agree that it is better to error on the safe side. Otherwise you might invest too much time and investment into a non viable entity.