Hey, I'm planning on doing a blog soly based on Macs, the question I have is if I have the word "mac" in the domain name, do you believe that I will have some legal issues? The blog will be used to help users with their macbooks, help them find programs and such. There will be no illegal activity nor any scams on the blog. I will make sure that I state that I am not part of the Apple company nor replace any support they offer. Do you still believe I'll have some problems? Need help:S
There are many domain names using "mac" in their names.... but I don't know how legal it is. Wish I could help more.
I know, I've recently searched up MAC on google and I've seen tons, but I don't want any legal issues. From what a friend told me is that as long as I state that I am not part of the company nor do any illegal activity I will be fine. I'm still unsure if I should do it you know? I don't want to put my time into it and like a year from now I receive a letter to show up in court vs Apple...lol:S
No you had better ASK Apple, the owners of the MAC trademark. The bottom line is that MAC is a registered Trademark which you DO NOT have rights to. Creating a domain, even for goodwill and to say how great the Macbook is, constitutes trademark infringement. That's not to say that Apple "May" never come after you and demand that you turn the domain over to them. But if they do, your chances of winning any dispute are 0%. So if you do intend to put a lot of time and effort into the website, be weary that you may have to turn it over to Apple in the future. You may want to view Apple's Trademark guidelines located at: http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html Specifically: 9. Domain Names: You may not use an identical or virtually identical Apple trademark as a second level domain name. Not acceptable: “imac.com†“imacapple.com†“imac-apple.com†“podmart.comâ€
You may be interested in this thread I just started: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1650509 Apple just seized 16 trademark-infringing domain names from one guy.
Nonny, that's why I got so worried about the project that I'm doing. A Lawyer said the same thing, you never know what will happen. I can have it up for 5 years without any legal issues or I can have it up for a week and receive a legal letter from Apple. He also stated by the domain name alone, I will lose the battle. He simply suggested me that if I was to do it that to turn it straight to Apple instead of trying to fight it. More money will be lost that way... I'm still going to do it tho, and hopefully within a few months I'll gain profits and able to flop it.
Contact Mac. Better to be safe than sorry but it may take a while to get through to someone who has this level of control.