Guys is there a chance by buying a domain , the net version ..i could be in trouble if the dot com is own by someone else? its a great find but the dotcom is a top domain , thanks
Yes you may have conflict my registering a domain that already is registered but it's a .com or org and you get the .net they do have a chance of making you not use the domain at all or b. take that domain from you. You have to be carful with this.
They have or don't have a site? Most likely if they have a site and if you go a head and register the domain and the .com finds out they may actually take actions against you because if the fact their trying to sell the .com and ur ideas may effect the sale.
From where you come up with this pal? redlandgames if is not trademark go ahead and register the .net buddy, they can do to you nothing from what I know.
Exactly, but don't just look at registered trademarks. Carefully research if someone has been using it as a TM without registration.
I will share my sad experience. I found a very nice dropped PR4 domain that belonged to a big company almost 10 years ago that changed its name for some reason (ding-ding, it was a clear alert signal to me, but I ignored it being blinded by a cheap available domain). I registered the domain as soon as I could and started building a website counting in my imagination green bucks flowing into my pocket very soon. I wish I had known what I should have checked before registering that attractive domain, because two weeks later I was informed by a domain name registrar telling me that they put my domain on hold due to an OFAC record. In other words, I can't use the domain anymore. Here was the message: It has come to our attention that the domain name, <my new domain name>, is listed on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. As a result, <domain registrar> has placed the domain name on hold. If you believe that the name is listed in error, you will need to petition OFAC to have the name removed from the SDN list. I had not bothered much about such a possibility of getting in troubles like this because I just thought that name registrars allow to register only valid domains that do not get into such obvious troubles (haha, I've paid for my naiveness). So from an inexperienced guy's (like me for now) point of view it looked really unfair - I registered a domain (and paid my money for this - $50, and also spent resources to build a website) and a little later the registrar comes to me and confiscates the domain (and does not return my money for domain registration). Nice gangster business for them, haha. So when the domain expires in a year (I was lucky to register it just for one year), it will be likely found and registered by another not smart newbie who will think that he or she is lucky to find a decent domain for a cheap price. What is funnier is that this domain is put on SEDO auction now. And my domain registrar suggested to contact SEDO and ask why they put it on auction. But I think I will not spend my time on it unless the domain will be returned to me. Anyway, I don't have much hope that it will be returned to me magically after being on hold for a while. And I am still unclear whether I have any chances to return my $50, because registrar's support responds very slowly in this particular case. By the way, filing a petition to OFAC (what was suggested by my domain registrar) usually requires several months to get the first reply from them and then even years to get the issue resolved. So I think it is not my way. So here are the lessons I have learned for my $50. Before registering a dropped domain see if it is subject to some infringement: 1. Check if the domain's name is in OFAC's SDN list (just check it here: http://sdnsearch.ofac.treas.gov/default.aspx). My domain was exactly in this list. 2. I think it is a good idea to check if the domain name may conflict with any trademark (check registered trademarks here - http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp). 3. Also I believe it is worth checking against a copyright catalog (http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First). I doubt checking the above links will save you from possible troubles in each and every case, but it can increase your chances to avoid problems. One of the possible problems is what to consider trademark/copyright violation? If 'Nike' is a registered trademark then can I register domain like 'inike', 'nikee' or 'nike2'? I have not investigated this question in details. For now I am just going to check against the above lists for kind of exact match judging with my common sense. Also, If you have a decent domain that is worth many $$$ then think of protecting it by copyrighting or registering a trademark or something like that (I am not a lawyer and don't know what exactly to do, at least for now). By the way, even registering your own trademark will not save you from bigger sharks if they decide to seize your trademark. I've read about trademark raiders - bigger companies just have more money to spend in court for their attorneys and you will very likely loose the case if they decide to eat you, hehe. But this is a bigger level of business with bigger money and bigger problems. I don't bother about it for now (at least until I get into troubles again one day, lol). Thank you for reading this. I just needed to speak it out.