Domain and trademark question

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by LanceT, May 12, 2010.

  1. #1
    So I have a question about domains and trademarks. Let's say you have a website named PSP and you have the domain registered PSP.com for 4 years. then Sony comes along and makes a product called PSP and trademarks it. Now they are able to take your domain or make you take it down?

    What must you do to protect your domain, for example, must you have a business registered under the name? Or do you need to get a trademark?

    Thanks!
     
    LanceT, May 12, 2010 IP
  2. mjewel

    mjewel Prominent Member

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    Owning a domain gives you no trademark rights. If you have an operating website, and you were the first to use the mark, you can have a common law trademark rights for that type of usage. If you owned a domain prior to someone else using the mark (remember, there is no registration required) then your domain registration was not in bad faith (since the mark didn't exist when it was registered). What you cannot do is start using the domain to ride the goodwill of the other party's trademark. So if you owed PSP.com and registered before Sony had used the mark, they wouldn't (in theory at least) have rights to it UNLESS you started using it for gaming or anything else that would infringe upon their usage (which can include contextual ads for their products). There are also many different trademarks on PSP, so there are other companies who have trademarks in other classes.
     
    mjewel, May 12, 2010 IP