I registered the domain name officiallost.com with the intent of making a forum that was dedicated to ABC's hit television series "Lost". I was told this morning by a Lost blogger that I could get into trouble for using the word "lost" and "official" in my domain, because it implies that the site is an official "Lost" site, and it isn't. Is there any truth to this at all? Would it help if in my IBL's and on my site that I called the site an unofficial Lost forum? Or perhaps if I made a subdomain "un" and advertised it as un.officiallost.com?
As a matter of fact, it's true. However, this depends on the one who makes the show if they believe they have established trademark rights to the term and decides to enforce it. Weigh your risk carefully, especially if the site will have any hint of commercial use whatsoever. On the side, I like your creative idea of setting up a subdomain with the name itself. Nice ring to it.
Thankyou Dave. Do you happen to know how I can find out if a legal trademark has been established. Also, would it be the word "Lost" that I would need to concern myself with, or the word "Official", or a combination of the two, because official implies affiliation. Also, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Your first step is to click over to: USPTO.GOV That's the US Patent and Trademark Office site. Do a search and see what comes up. Note: This is not a complete search, but it's a good free starter search.