Hi all, I own ohio[myniche]finder.com. There are several sites owned by a "digital media" company that are VERY similar: ohiohomefinder.com ohioautofinder.com and a few more with the same ohio[niche]finder structure. If I start a site under my domain (unrelated to any of their sites), will I be even close to infringing on their "name" or sites? I've never even considered copyright infringement as I try to be as original as possible...even if I own a couple of directories Please...any help from people who know the law would be helpful. Also, links pointing to articles, cases, or the like would be appreciated as well. I have about $2000 to put into this site and would rather not spend half of it on an attorney. Thanks
It doesn't seem to be that close to being cybersquatting or typosquatting, but that's just my opinion.
I am leaning that way. After reading several articles this afternoon...most of which weren't terribly clear...I felt somewhat comfortable with using the domain. I did however, want to offer the question up to the masses. I'm sure that there are many here who have forgotten more about cyberlaw than I'll ever know.
Ohio is a State in the US and 'Finder' is a dictionary word, I doubt that it can be copyrighted or anything. As long as you do not copy their contents, you should be fine.
If you mean "Finder" can't be trademarked, it certainly can be. Any word can be trademarked, but not all are granted trademark protection. And as a gentle reminder for everyone around here, a trademark need not be registered as well for it to exist as such.
My opinion is, as long as your web address name or word are referring to you and your works and you are not ,intentionally,using this name because you want a familiar name(to gain benefit of it)with the pre-registered website. the lesser intention to infringe it, the lesser chance you will be sued.