is the domain name eaby.com legal?

Discussion in 'Domain Names' started by Ocean Storm, Sep 8, 2007.

  1. #1
    I have stumbled accross this website which is a mispelled domain name of Ebay

    www.eaby.com which is nothing more than a MFA /affiliate site

    is registering mispellings of ebay as a domain name legal to use for your own personal benefit???

    I am very curious to this for my own interest.

    Does anybody know?
     
    Ocean Storm, Sep 8, 2007 IP
  2. stOx

    stOx Notable Member

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    #2
    If ebay wanted to i think they could get that name by filing an ICANN dispute.
     
    stOx, Sep 8, 2007 IP
  3. Ocean Storm

    Ocean Storm Peon

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    #3
    I guess, one of the reasons i was also curious to this is they dont allow you to use mispellings for keywords if you run an ebay affiliate program on your site. so thats why i was curious to this domain name. Looking at some info it has been up for some what 8 years or so. and i guess if ebay had a problem with it they would have done somthing by now for sure wouldnt they?
     
    Ocean Storm, Sep 8, 2007 IP
  4. bobchrist

    bobchrist Active Member

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    #4
    If the person get permission from ebay, and they permit, I don't think there will be any problem using it. Just my thought. :)
     
    bobchrist, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  5. Loganet

    Loganet Peon

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    #5
    eBay sued an online retailer called "Perfume Bay", back in 2003, citing that the name might be confused with eBay (link http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Dec_8/ai_n15925720 ).

    Perfume Bay was able to prevail on appeal, because the "judge cited that Perfume Bay had no intent to infringe on eBay's trademark"

    I don't think that eaby would pass either of the two criteria mentioned above. You may get by if you intended to use it for something other than online sales/auctions.

    Just my two cents. Good luck!
     
    Loganet, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  6. katro

    katro Active Member

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    #6
    i think it's legal better consult with your lawyer
     
    katro, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  7. stOx

    stOx Notable Member

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    #7
    It's not legal. Look at the post above yours.
    The only reason perfume bay won the appeal is because they had no intention of infringing on ebays trademark, That certainly isn't the case with eaby.com.
    The sole intention of eaby.com is to infringe on ebays trademark.
     
    stOx, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  8. checksum

    checksum Notable Member

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    #8
    eaby.com would have a hard time defending their use of the domain name in court.
     
    checksum, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  9. richwest

    richwest Peon

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    #9
    It's unlikely to be legal because the only thing it's being used for is promoting eBay-related services, so is likely to cause confusion. A dispute on it would likely find for eBay just because of the way the domain is being used.

    Having said that I don't think eaby is similar enough in itself for a dispute to be won, it's just because of the way the site's being used. The 4 letters alone could stand for basically anything and if it had instead been used for another purpose unrelated to eBay, it would likely have been well within the rules.
     
    richwest, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  10. livehybrid

    livehybrid Active Member

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    #10
    eaby is not in anyway trademarked and therefore they should not be able to do a single thing about it.
     
    livehybrid, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  11. richwest

    richwest Peon

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    #11
    That is incorrect, the ICAAN rules have specific provisions to remove domains from typosquatters who are benefiting simply from having a name confusingly similar to a trademark. For example Google has brought and won disputes to take control of googkle.com, ghoogle.com, gfoogle.com and gooigle.com despite not having trademarks for any of these terms.
     
    richwest, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  12. Ocean Storm

    Ocean Storm Peon

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    #12
    This is very interesting info.
    And i guess it is really hard to know for sure.
    so if a website was set up lets say hyperthetically say using eaby as an example
    and the website title was called lets say earn affiliate bucks yourself standing for (eaby) and there was nothing on the website to do with ebay at all except for mabee you put a direct (non affiliate) link on the site to say if you have accidently confused this site with ebay please go here to the actual site as we are not affiliated in anyway with ebay.

    I wonder if they would still see this as a problem.
    (by the way i dont own the eaby webite) i am just curios.
     
    Ocean Storm, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  13. nickflame

    nickflame Peon

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    #13
    if they do not set something related to ebay on their website, then nobody can take the domain from the. eaby is too short to pe considered a misspell, they can easily turn into their own trademark or something like that.
    If they relate their website to ebay, they got serious issues.
     
    nickflame, Sep 9, 2007 IP
  14. ipwatchdog

    ipwatchdog Peon

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    #14
    I personally don't think eBay would be able to prevent eaby necessarily. When it comes to ICANN domain name disputes it all comes down to bad faith though, so if they were trying to capture traffic for an online auction then I suspect bad faith might be easy to establish. If it were a legitimate use (i.e., no bad faith) then I can't imagine eBay would be able to stop them.

    -Gene
     
    ipwatchdog, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  15. Business Blogger

    Business Blogger Peon

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    #15
    If they are using eaby for promoting ebay stuff they are in for some trouble if ebay finds out. Plain and simple, they are trying to cause confusion for someone looking for ebay.com.

    If they had never used this domain in this fashion it would be a whole different story, but they have shown "bad faith" intentions to defraud ebay customers by putting ebay ads up.
     
    Business Blogger, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  16. Jasonb

    Jasonb Well-Known Member

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    #16
    you should email ebay and sell it to them, say it gets tonnes of traffic since its a mispelling, say your also a 13 year high school kid.

    they woudnt sue a child ;) just say your looking for abit of pocket money, so you can buy a wide screen tv and an xbox 360 from ebay.com

    :D
     
    Jasonb, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  17. CourageTheCowardlyDog

    CourageTheCowardlyDog Well-Known Member

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    #17
    Yes, that should work :)
     
    CourageTheCowardlyDog, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  18. Xoze.com

    Xoze.com Active Member

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    #18
    Just use it , dont make it the same as ebay , thats ok.
    Is it getting any traffic btw ?
     
    Xoze.com, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  19. sufi

    sufi Well-Known Member

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    #19
    If the owner use this domain differently (like Executive Agent, Belarus (.by is for Belarus) then he would be fine in my opinion. Only problem will occur if he tries to profit using the ebay's name (like selling in domain market by declaring it as typo of ebay).
     
    sufi, Sep 12, 2007 IP
  20. rgremill

    rgremill Peon

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    #20
    When I first saw that domain I thought it was a typo of Baby.com (not ebay.com). If eaby.com was pretending to be eBay or an auction website, then maybe eBay would have some problem with it. There must be millions of things eaby could stand for...
     
    rgremill, Sep 13, 2007 IP