I work at a company that is huge with probably at least a million employees world wide. I have yet to find a place just for employees such as myself to talk about our work and other things together in one place. such as a web forum. So what I want to do is set up a community site for the employees, but i'm worried about trademark and other matters. I wanna use it www.comanyname*forums.com or something like that, but i'm not sure if its even legal. it'll be hard to set up a domain with some name that doesnt relate to the company. But if i put "unofficial forums" or something like that would it get me out of any trouble that could arise? There are sites out there that are anti companies like walmart and others that have the "walmart" in the domain and they seem to get away with it. I was just wondering thanks
Anytime you use a trademark in a domain name you run the risk of being sued for trademark infringement. Using a domain name like companynameunofficalforums.com would give you an argument that it is unlikely to create consumer confusion. Using a name like companynameforums.com and then putting a disclaimer on the site would be more likely to create infringement issues since the person has to visit the site before they could see the disclaimer. When you are dealing with a large, deep pocket company, it usually comes down to do they "think" it is infringing upon their name and are you willing to spend large sums of money to defend your right to use the domain? You would be looking at tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to go through the court process and fight a trademark holder who objects to your usage of their trademark. If you win, you are out legal fees. If you lose, you could be forced to pay treble their legal costs (since they have a registered mark). To limit legal exposure, it would be best to obtain permission from the TM holder or not to include their trademark in the domain.
Working in the company does not grant the right to use their domain name for your website. You will definitely need to check with your legal department in regards to doing so. Besides, if you are starting an unofficial community for your company, it would be best to get the blessing from your company as running such may be a breach of employment contract especially if someone is using your platform to badmouth the company or to spread negative publicity. You need to really do it by the book otherwise you may risk being sued and lose your job over this.
Alot of companies don't want a web forum discussion group from employees, its a sad fact but it makes them easier to organize and this opens the ocmpany to potential future class action lawsuits including multiple employees if issues arise
As every said ask permission first. You need to thimk about what the company would think. Think about this, if you had a massive company, would you like staff to be able to talk about the company on a public forum and potentially give away business information (inadvetantly) or for even one of your employees to profiteer from you? If you have a good idea, then maybe you could suggest a intranet for them or something!!
Talk to your boss. If your company wants to have a public discussions forum, then it already has one. My advise is not to do this. It doesn't help you but rather jeopardize your future.
I would recommend using my site for something like this. Sounds like it would facilitate such a thing and keep you from having legal issues: http://www.cubecheck.com Hope it helps.
Trust me, you are playing with fire. I've been there and done it! I came very close to loosing my job. There are websites that are already offering that kind of service to the companies themselves.