I have purchased Helpedia.com in 2005 and since then I have a site and a directory on it. Today, I have noticed that there are Helpedia.fr and Helpedia.de, both created in 2006, so after I have registered my domain. As Helpedia is not really a dictionary word (but it does sound like wikipedia, encyclopedia etc) should I worry for any reasons? Should I email these people telling them there may be issues or could I have problems in the future if I don't react in any way? I can't say that I mind those subjects, they don't seem to have the same target as my site does but I'm not experienced with this. Could it hurt my site in search engine placement, pr and stuff like this? Thanks for any advice...
It's trademark. But one can hardly do anything to similar names without being able to demonstrate such. One possibility is those country-code versions are registered to target mainly their respective countries. No one would really know until those sites do show something in the future, especially if it displays any form of association with the OP's site in question.
Thank you for your answers. My aim with the site was (and is) to post guides and tutorials, much like radified.com is. It doesn't have a lot of guides because I don't have time but that's not so important. Helpedia.fr comes close to my site's target, I believe it wants to be an encyclopedia of some sorts or to answer people's questions for a certain fee. Helpedia.de is just an "under construction" site. I am mostly afraid that some time in the future one of these companies will complain to the registrar that I'm diluting their brand and that they should own the domain or something like that. I did not trademark it, mostly because the process is cumbersome, I believe it takes about 2-3 years to do it, a lot of documents, and about 1-2000 dollars. Yesterday, I was thinking of sending the administrators of these sites an email saying that I own the .com domain and that I'm using it since 2005 and I don't plan to give up on it but I wasn't sure if it's a good move, that's why I want to get more info...
Your concerns are understandable. Unfortunately trademark infringement is an inherent risk in domain name registration. Generally speaking you should be okay if you can demonstrate you indeed had acquired the name and "used" it before they registered their respective ones. Nothing is going to stop them from trying to dispute your ownership using any and all means available, but your registrar isn't obligated to assist their legal matters until upon receipt of a court order or a UDRP notice. Speaking of UDRP, there are such parties who are discovering this process as a more cost-effective solution to do exactly what you're describing here. Like all other things it can be abused, but there are also those who genuinely help and are experienced in these matters. Bottom line, be aware of the risk and be ready to deal with them. Let them be the one to demonstrate their claims, then be ready to disprove them.
tell me about it - a few years ago, someone registered and started using the .uk version of my company/website name and it seriously pissed me off. My first thought was to send a cease and desist, since the name is a registered trademark. However I cant do a damn thing unless I fork over some $15,000 for an international trademark, so I lose and he wins.