Hello, I see at Fiverr.com site that they mention: Would like to understand the exact meaning of © , ® , and ™ ... as I know © is copyright and means no one can use that name for any new business... but here I see that new sites opened after Fiverr and they all use the words "GIG" , "GIGS" ,and "I WILL __ for $5"... I also see one that used "GIG" in the domain name (ie: site name too). My concern here is because I recently registered a new domain name for a micro job site (like fiverr site), and in the domain name there is the word "GIGS"... So I need to know if that might cause me any legal problem? Thanks,
© Means they have a registered copyright with the U.S. Copyright office. ® Means they have a registered trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. Having registered trademarks on GIG and GIGS give them a very strong position in any action for infringement. I was skeptical about getting a registered trademark on the word Gig and I looked it up - sure enough, Fiverr has been issued that trademark. Therefore, the answer to your question is that using gig in your domain name for a competing site could cause you problems.
That what I thought.. but what is confusing me is that, I saw the site gigbucks.com, so here it's used in the domain name? or are they related to Fiverr?
They seem to be totally unrelated to Fiverr. Don't be surprised if Fiverr creates big issues for that site if/when they find out about them. The ones behind that site don't seem aware of trademarks either. You can be sure that some emotions will run high if/when problems occur. Bottom line: it's really up to Fiverr.