So let's say xyzboard.com is expiring in 2 months, and the site itself (which is called XYZ Board.com) is unmaintained. Now, I buy the expired domain in 2 months, also call the new site XYZ Board.com, and it becomes successful, etc. Does the old owner have any legal recourse against me for calling the site XYZ Board.com, since his was called that, or for turning his unsuccessful and dead site into a flourishing one?
The site gives an error when you try to go to it, so I checked Google's cache of it, and it was last updated in '05. So I'm sure it's dead. I don't wanna contact the owner coz he might just renew the damn thing!
marketjunction is right. You need to rule that out. Here's what I would do. First, go to the us patent and trademark website and do a search for the name of the x-board, the company name (from whois), even the owner name. If nothing comes up, use the state listed in the whois, and go to the state website (my state is the Secretary of State website) and lookup there. See how much of a business it was. Do a search and try and find information about the board dissipating. This should help determine why it vanished. Then, if nothing tells you stop, register the domain if it becomes available. Domains are registered like that every day. One thing is for sure though... do not use any of the original works. If you build a board and use the domain name in or as the product name, I see it as fair use... but everything must be yours as original work in terms of design and content. I would say don't do it if you were just hijacking the board name and using it on your own site. But, if you get the domain, you should get the board name that goes with it. I honestly can't say what if any legal problems arise, but with the above (doing your homework), you can be on more solid grounds to defend yourself IF anything happens. That is my opinion. Good luck.