is it legal to use words "ebay" or "google" in a domain name?

That's not what the respondent herself said:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/85AEE84897725D758825738A005C180E/$file/0556794.pdf?openelement

There's a lot more if you bother to read the decision. Needless to say, eBay's
proven its case due to a combination of facts.

 

Whats the actuall domain name?
And yes, with your intentions.

 

Unfortunately the defendant was unable to offer this explanation with a straight face, seriously hindering her case

 

There's sites out there with the name Bay and they seem to be okay.

 

So BA (British Airways) could make eBay relinquish ebay.com?

 

I would not risk the efforts and money on that kind of domain name to start with.

It can go wrong anytime in future. There are still many other domain names that you can use then why to go for this ones.

 

How does the company British Airways and Ebay connect in anyway?

 

How does Ebay and Chesapeake Bay connect in any way? Having a trademark for a string of letters does not mean that same string of letters can not be used in another brand.

 

They could always try. But if the circumstances surrounding them isn't similar
to those between eBay and Perfume Bay, then it might be a dispute not worth
pursuing.

 

Let's take this example.

This company EF.com, for over a year, is using:

Google.ef.com
and
Yahoo.ef.com

This Was reported to the legal department of both Google and Yahoo, also for about a year, and nothing happened, as we can see.

Those two cases above are among the most blatant attempts to simultaneously infringe a trademark AND mislead the user, since almost nobody notices the two letters and think it is a Google/Yahoo SERP or Link, specially teenagers, their main target.

And they get nicelly away with that...

(I never tried that and do not reccomend it, ok)

 

nice companys like google woulnt do anything about it, but they CAN

 

Wow, that's interesting. I never even thought of those possibilities.

 

exactly...dis is what should be followed as the golden rule...I think using google in context to anything else except that referring to google or its product should be fine..at the same time parking it at a google based provider is a big NO NO

 

My question is: Why do domain registrars permit us to buy such domain names if they are trademark infringement?

 

Cynically, they want your money. Realistically, domain-trademark issues aren't always black and white.

 

A friend of mine had a website with Ebay in the title. Long story short he received an email that demanded he shut it down immediately or face legal action.

 

one solution dont take the risk , you might face a court order if they sue you.

 

Nope. You may get into legal issues for that. I know people who were threatened by big companies like Facebook for using their trademark names in their domains.

 

I think You can use a keyword of famous sites. There are many people with name "John". That doesn't mean they will file any case against each other. There is a domain name face.com or bay.com or goo.com so that doesn't mean the owner can take legal against facebook.com or ebay.com or google.com

 

I wouldn't take the chance - Not worth the time or effort when im sure you can find a catchy name without it