I help administer a site that's been running since 2003 and it's a huge forum community perhaps 20,000 members with about 1,000 uniques per day. Of course, a site of this age and content brings about a rowdy bunch and we end up with banned members. Anyhow, some of the banned members have organized and just registered our same domain name with the .INFO 99 cent extension and made it into a forum to mock us. They're postings are basically how our site sucks, mock handles of the usernames of board characters they want to make fun of. Our site is pretty unique and the two compound words consist of a geographic location initials and a word to indicate our community. Anything we can do about this?
thanks, we're contacting the host which is godaddy.com and i think this may apply: The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act - a federal law that took affect on November 29, 1999. This new domain name dispute law is intended to give trademark and service mark owners legal remedies against defendants who obtain domain names "in bad faith" that are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark. If a mark is a famous mark, the same remedies are available if the domain name is identical to, confusingly similar to or dilutive of the mark.
Yeah, you might be able to get the domain name as infringing on your trademark (your domain name). However, they would be able to start up under some other name and continue to mock your forum. That is the beauty of free speech. There is no legal protection from being mocked unless it rises to the level of libel or slander.
ya, they're in the clear from a legal standpoint as long as they don't infringe on your trade... they've created the .info to say how bad your site is... thats fine... unless they're acting as if they were your site... ..that's kind of good though for you if they're just there to add some hype to your forum... it makes people wonder... even though its bad publicity in terms of negativity... as long as its just chatter it still should help your site considerably if your content is great and your site isn't lame like the .info appears to suggest..
that's fine, they already have a site to mock ours under a different name but it wasn't getting enough traffic nor views. so they thought up using our domain name with .INFO obviously to try stealing some of our traffic from the search engines.
I wouldn't worry about unless it gets personal such as putting addresses or telephone numbers on their site. Disgruntled banned members taking revenge in this fashion has happened many times before.
If I understood both my trademarks 101 and the OP's post: And if the OP's domain name having that geographic name caters to those in that location, unfortunately it doesn't sound like they have a trademark: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/globalip/gi_faq.htm It's got some exceptions there, but I think you get the idea. Of course, only a qualified attorney can tell. Then again, how much traffic is indeed being "stolen", and is it worth fretting over...yet?
Applaud their efforts! First, how long can a site based only on being vindictive to another site last? No real content, it will die on it's own. Second, publicity's of this nature is GOLD! Anyone stumbling upon the site is likely to go to your site just to see what they are talking about. If your content is good, they will judge for themselves and stay. Not only that they are likely to even relate to you as being the offended party.
Here's the other thing that no one's mentioned. It's completely legal to satirize a copyright or trademarked work under the fair use provisions. You can find an entire paper on it by the American Bar Association (with corresponding case law) at abanet(dot)org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf. Sorry. If you have other questions, let me know. Deena Burgess, Esq. _________________________________________________________________________________________- Any opinions are offered without knowledge of the specific law of your jurisdiction and with only the limited information provided in your post. No advice given here should be reasonably relied upon by you or any third party without consulting an attorney who is aware of all of the facts and law surrounding your situation. Any advice given here is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship in any way.
Pretty sure that is precisely what I said. I just used his word "mock" instead of satirize. Anyway, nice to see some legal advice on these forums. Too often it is just people passing off lay opinions as legal conclusions. You will find there is far too much bad information to correct it all. Good luck and welcome to DP.
mock or satire is fine but when they use our own domain name using another TLD to try stealing our traffic then i would think there could be legalalities involved. so the mocking has already been done on another domain but they were getting so litle traffic that they decided to use our own. i think taking it to the host is best. icann is lots of red tapefrom what i unerstand.
Thanks. I took your post to mean that the people "mock"ing the site (sorry satire or parody is the appropriate "term of art" (it's that damn law school thing, they mess up your mind forever. LOL!)) would have to get another name. My post was meant to be taken that they don't even have to get another name. They can do it under the one that they've got... I'll do my best to correct the bad information (at least the ones that I know the right answer for) as quickly as I can. If you ever have any legal questions that I can help with, feel free to post or PM me... Deena Burgess, Esq.
ICANN's not so bad. I've done a couple of WIPO domain name disputes (one on each side), but if you can get their host to cut them off, it's certainly the cheapest method to get them out of your hair. Deena