Could I get sued for a domain like CokevsPepsi.com?

Im just usin cokevspepsi.com as an example I don't own it but was wondering If I could use company names in a website domain?
Such as Walmart-deals.com or homedepotsupplies.com ect..

Will they come after me? lol

Thanks

 

I suppose you could do just about whatever you want until someone complains. Personally if you are looking for legal advice, I would talk to an attorney. The advice you get on a forum is not necessarily going to be without flaws. There are however several new laws on the books as it concerns the use of trademarked names in domain names, and a great many compaines, (google comes to mind) have taken people to task. I remember years ago I registerd a domain called MacRADIUS.com with the intent of having a news and information site regarding this product as its life was uncertain after the sale of then "Cyno" technologies. Cyno ended up contacting me and offered to buy it at a price considerably more than I paid to register it. I gladly accepted their offer and moved on. They of course allowed me to have my site, except under a different domain name.

 

I think they would bust you. Googles made sites get shut down for using Google in the name.

Now if you have more than one trademark in the domain, which company get's it??!!! Are they going to cut the domain up in pieces!!! LOL!!! Some one should register a domain with around five trademarks and see who get's it. yahoo-vs-google-vs-microsoft-vs-jeeves.com-vs-alltheweb.com or nintendo-vs-microsoft-vs-sony.com.

 

I am not an attorney, but have paid a good sum of money over the last 20 years for various trademark issues - and own several trademarks. I think a cokevspepsi site would possibly be ok because if it was a balanced site, it would not be likely to confuse the consumer as an official site of one or the other.

Using a domain like "thecokestore" or "walmart-deals" or "homedepotsupplies" is another story. It would certainly be a trademark infringement to use any of those. You can't take a trademark or service mark and use it, or even add to it, especially if it has anything to do with those companies services i.e. you can't have "theapplestore" if it dealt with computers, but you could if it was about selling fruit. Any attempt to use a name that rides the goodwill of a company's trademark/service mark puts you at risk - even a different spelling can be infringement. The law actually requires they go after people who infringe or they run the risk of losing their trademark. That is why you see Microsoft go after some 16 year old kid who registered MikeRoweSoft (even though his real name was Mike Rowe).

Some of the video game companies choose to look the other way when it comes to forums or sites promoting their services, but they could legally stop them if they wanted too. I doubt a large company is going to sue you off the bat, rather they would send you a letter telling you to turn over the domain, but if you put a lot of time and effort into a site and it takes them six months before they come after you, then you have wasted a lot of time.

There are some trademark forums for attorneys and you might want to see if you could get an opinion from one of them with an actual domain name if you don't want to spend a couple of hundred to find an intellectual attorney. Without the exact name no one is going to be able to give you an exact answer.

 

Right now I got three domains with Nintendo in it and Nintendo never contacted me about them, even though they have atleast once contacted one of my message board posters for posting links to ROMs (About five years ago). I've had one of the domains since 1997. Only when I registered nintendohq.com did I get 'busted'! I didn't respond to there letter, but let the domain expire. LOL!!! The last thing they want people thinking is that I own the headquarters of Nintendo!!!

 

Good advice, mjewel

 

Thanks for everyones advice...I would think Google would go after people like "GoogleCash.com"...that being said I own the domain name "GoogleGift.com" lol I'm not really doing anything with it.

 

There are fair-uses for a trademarked name. cokevspepsi might fall into that category

Also it depends if you are going to make this a commercial endeavor. You are not suppose to gain revenue from anothers trademark. If you made cokevspepsi a review site with comments and such you should be fine. Of course you CAN be sued and send the C&D for any reason but that doesn't mean they win. They of course would attempt to get a WIPO decision and take the name. Legal fees to defend would be 2-5k.

Now homedepotsupplies..that's bad. If you got the name for reg fee or cheap and you start a site...hey go for it. If they contact you just kill the site and give them the name. As long as you are not killing their business it is unlikely they would sue you for damages. Most companies just want you to stop.

This is my opinion and NOT expert legal advice.

Seek legal counsel if you have actual concerns.

 

This is my genre as a business law graduate from University of Michigan... You could definitely have the domain and utilize it... I'm trying to think of a good legal example, but one is failing to come to mind at this exact moment... However, it's always like a parody kind of deal, you can make fun of Pepsi all day long, without getting sued, as long as you don't physically say that they grind up Thailand babies and shove them in their products or something like that... So if you were doing cokevspepsi.com or whatever, then I would assume it would be in your best interest to actually use the site for the purpose of fair comparison which equally represents both companies... I wouldn't dare use it as a site just to gain publicity off of the name, because then you could get in trouble for using their likeness for publicity purposes, which is illegal under copyright and trademark law... understand?

 

All I know is you can't you characters or logos from a corporation. I tried to sell a shirt that had Samus on it, and Nintendo shot me down big time.

 

Your use is different. That's pure commercial use and 100% against trademark laws.

 

If you want to find out what corporations will do to protect their names, just check out www.nissan .com (sorry, can't post a live link). They had the name "Nissan" waaaay before Datsun changed their name and now look what they're doing.

 

You can get sued for anything, really. But in all practicality, I think a domain like cokevspepsi shouldn't have any real risk of getting in trouble.

 

Like mentioned above this is a tricky subject as there is no real right or wrong answer. It is really up to the company involved to whether or not they allow you to use their name. There are several sites that I have seen which incorporate the names of several high profile companies such as Symantec and Google. These sites which use their names a get paid to sites and have been proven to be scams.. yet so far these companies have not done anything. It also like mentioned above depends on what you would use the domain name for - eg: Walmart-Gifts.com - If you sell items which walmart might sell then they will have a problem but if you sell stuff they do not then you might be ok. Your best bet would be talk to an attorney and/tradmark officer and trademark the domain name and at least that way you have some sort of comeback, even though in the past year I remember someone trademarking some term and another company still sued and won the case as they had a similar term prior to them, the person being sued had used the trademarked name inside their name eg: mcdonalds = mcdonaldsfarm wasn't that name but you get my drift.

Also around the corner from where I work a new restaurant opened... They call themselves Archie's Indian Takeaway... But there logo is very similar to the mcdonalds logo as in two yellow arches even though different to look at but does look at lot like the mcdonalds arches so now they are being sued.

Drew.

 

haha that would be interesting to see a picture of the Indian Restaurant's Golden Arches lol =) I love Indian Food

 

Most of these companies don't really care. They have bigger fish to fry.
If you were a direct competitor, that would be a different story. I know many who own such names for years, never had a problem. At worse, they may ask you to stop and surrender the domain name. Big deal. The only ones that need to worry about TM'd names are the ones that want to use it for damage.

 

Do these companies ever offer to buy sites ro do they just demand that you turn them over/shut it down?

 

SamOwen, its a tricky area of law. But, my guess is that when the companies are spending $250/hour on some junior litigator just to do background research, they probably don't make offers to buy the site. Maybe in the case of nissan.com they might offer because the person used the name before Nissan Motors did, but, for the most part they probably try to scare you into surrendering the domain.

 

If its done in a non threatening way to the company I dont think they have the legal rights to do anything about it. Unless you are using their graphics such as logos and tarnishing the companies reputations. Otherwise give it a shot the most they could do is close down your website possibly. Or you could counter-sue them. But is it worth all the effort to create a site like this? That is the question you have to ask yourself.

 

Interesting subject......a site was advertised for sale a couple of months ago, the url was cokevspepsi or something very similar.