I am planning on buying a domain name, but I know some words are copyrights of companines. How do I get around this or is the internet a whole different beast. some eg. Say a site dedicated to Burger King ....totalburgerking.com or totalbk.com ? I have seen domain names with apple in it and even ipods. So what am I am able to buy ?
I believe this is not in effect on the internet -- as you've noticed every other domain either has myspace in it, wii, google, etc. Freely buy what is available.
Not true. You will be infringing on trademarks and could possibly be taken to court or receive a C&D. I suggest you do some reseach before purchasing a domain that has a registered trademark in it. Good luck.
Firstly, they would have a trademark on "BK", not a copyright. You can do a search for US trademarks at: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=92f980.1.1
Unfortunately trademarks don't have to be registered, which makes it possibly difficult to discern whether someone has established trademark rights to the term/s in question or not. I'll give you a hint: out of curiosity I went to uspto.gov to see if there's one for one of my favorite comic book characters. Lo and behold, there are only 2 dead records for it originally registered to someone else. But if someone were to register a domain name bearing that comic character with an extra word and use it commercially, that registrant is in potential deep kaka. The company that "produces" (whatever the term is) comic book issues for that character can easily demonstrate trademark rights, and they do have the moolah to enforce it. And I agree what you told MrRadic. The kind of information based on "belief" without factual research is potentially misleading, however unintended it might be. Guys, if we're talking about words, terms, and phrases in relation to domain names, it's trademark issues you gotta worry about, not copyright.