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

You may get away with bootlegging a bigger better-known trademark for a while, but when they notice you they will take action against you.Google has (quite properly) sued a number of bootleggers, including Groggle, and others.We own trademarks and used to be casual about bootleggers, but after some very serious ripping off of our clients, we became tougher in this regard.Take it from a person who has seen the rough and tumble of the internet, within a few short years and a few more big payouts on the way, trademark bootleggers will find the internet a much more hostile environment.Also the idea of anonymity on the web is not true most of the time either. IP Addresses are eaily tracked and identified.All the best

 

Well, it depends on your purpose.
If your domain is googlesearchtips.com, it is ok.
But if it is googlent.com which will be a search engine which is alternative google, then it is illegal

There are many sites like godaddycoupons, hostgatorcoupons, which are running without any issue.
Regards.

 

... until somebody look at them and dislike their trademark in the domain name...

 

Hi There
Ebay stopped me using a domain with Ebay in it.
My pockets are not deep enough to fight them.
I live near Poole in Dorset UK.
I have considered poolebay.com
But I doubt it is worth it.
You cannot compete with the big boys.
Anyway, what is the point of building a website only to have Ebay or whoever
wipe you out after a year or two?
All that work and time wasted.
regards David

 

It was just make it easy for them to come after the domain, but no illegal.

 

illegal I think, there is TM there..

 

Don't go for it while it totally bring you in trademark issues. If you get into legal issues, you not only lost your domain , you even need to compensate those company that already apply the trademark.
I believe most of registrar will give you warning or tell you that not to register trademark domain .

 

you can't use their names because the names are patient , if they find that you are using their name they will overtake your stie without any waring ..

 

This is very funny, people advising someone to avoid registering a domain name with either Google or eBay as a part of the name.

First off, legal-related question are more suitable for the legal forum but...

It's obvious this thread was not posted there because 5 years ago it made not much difference post a question anywhere.

Yes... this thread is over 5 years old and who asked an advice regarding those names for sure is not longer looking to know.

 

We own and use trademarks and I can tell you straight out that if we find anyone using our trademarks in any way to "tax" our clients, we deal with them by all legal means.At the receiving end, all I can say is steer clear of anything that remotely smells of a trademark infringement. If the trademark is registered, then the bootlegger has no protection.All the best

 

moorewapyunco wrote:"In the context of Google, googlethorpe would be ok if it was about Oglethorpe and did not compete in any of the areas that Google is for which Google is a trademark" - may or may not be correct.You will find that google have trademark/s spanning pretty much everything to do with the internet, thereby forcing out any online competitors.But if for example they did not and the argument I've quoted appears OK, there becomes the issue of "trademark dilution" which would be a basis for google to take action of they wanted to.All the best

 

IMHO, just stay away from them. Nothing may happen indefinitely, but any one day an entire mountain MAY come crumbling down!