Can somebody take away domains from you that is not used for your business but is related to it. For example, the NBA has a new slogan "Where Amazing Happens". I don't know if they own it or not, but let's pretend they own the domain whereamazinghappens.com. Can a company start a company with this name and have the domain seized from them? Now I know the chances of taking anything from the NBA is next to slim, lol, but hypothetically speaking. Thanks in advance, -DigiP
Surely, if you registered the domain name first, they can't take it away from you? However, if the domain name you registered was in breach of an already registered trademark, or was the name of an already established business, you may run into difficulties.
If I am reading your question right, then no. Generally, if you register a trademark after somebody has already registered the domain you cannot take the domain through either UDRP or the courts. There are some exceptions to this. Those are generally something like - I register a website madskillz.com and use it to talk about famous ball players. Two years later a company starts up called madskillz and they sell clothing. At this point they can do nothing but try to buy the site from me. After a few months, I decide to change my site to sell my own clothing line from (hoping to get confused visitors). Now the company may have a chance to get the domain because now I am using the domain to benefit from their mark. However, if my site had always sold clothing, then they can't do anything because I was using the mark first for the same purpose. In fact, I may be able to go after them in this case.