trademarks/brands in domains?

how risky is it to buy- and promote- a domain that has a trademark/brand inside of it? what are the chances they'd object to something like that if you're not really doing any harm- ie, you're promoting their product?

is it worth not using the trademark just to be safe, despite the fact that you'll lose the bonus you'd get from having it in your url (assuming you're targetting that brand/trademark)?

 

do they actually do that often, though, or is it more of a "just in case"?

if you're hijacking their potential-customers and sending them to a competitor I could definitely see why they'd be upset, but assuming you're actually pointing users to sites that sell their products it doesn't seem like it should be an issue

 

I'd advise against it as people tend to be very protective of their trademarks and like to keep total control over them. Whilst you may be sending them more sales and profits, many consider it too risky to allow you to promote them using their name/trademark because, they are not able to influence how you do it. Same reason why some affiliate programs put in the fine print that you must link using only their banners and approved text links. That way they know exactly how you are portraying their business/products.

You may end up putting a fair amount of work in to it and then see them come along and demand you take it down, with the possible threat of legal action. I don't think it is worth it for the potential short-term gain.

 

Shawn, can you post an example? Was is www. I like budweiser .com?

 

It was about six weeks from the time I registered c o k e c o l l e c t i b l e s until I got my first certified letter from their legal people. They have astonishingly broad rights.

Then it became quite a circus, with them telling me to send them a certified copy of proof of cancellation from my registrar and me suggesting they open a free account at the registrar and let me push the domain to them so some other sucker doesn't register it again as soon as it expires. It took almost six months, with me getting a "love Letter" from their legal department every month, to actually get that accomplished.

Something that could have been taken care of in days with a few emails, took months and probably ran up their legal bills by several thousand dollars.

 

how on earth do things like http://www.paypalsucks.com/ stay around?

I think I'm going to at least try using one domain with a trademark in it... if I lose it, it shouldn't be that catastophic, I'll post about it in here if anything happens.

 

I have 150+ domain names, and I buy/sell domains almost every day/week..

My experience is that you should stay far away from trademarks in domain names, it wont lead to any good at all.
They can (and will) get it from you if you try to monetize from it in any way (in their field of business).
(non-profit) Fansites etc. may be ok, but I've seen several of those been taken away as well.

But you may be able to use a TM domain name if you stay away from the TM holders business, and don't mention the TM owner at all..
Most TMs does only apply to a certain field of business, example: Apple doesn't have a TM for the fruit Apple, but for computers (and parts) only..
You could (theoretically) have used apple.com as an online fruit store without any problems. (but I'm sure their lawyers would have tried to get it from you anyway)
Some TM holders are more protective about their TMs than others.. (Coca-Cola etc...)

You can find more info about domain names and TMs in this forum:
http://www.namepros.com/forumdispla...tpost&sortorder=desc&daysprune=1000&x=15&y=18

 

hm, I didn't know that.

so how do big companies ALWAYS manage to get "their" .com? I mean, I'm sure someone out there thought it'd be a clever idea to register "mcdonalds.com" or something... as long as it's not related to foods/restaurants/etc, they have no right to it? then how do they always end up getting their domain, just buying people out?

 

I would think that $$$ would play a huge role in it. If I am McDonalds and it is going to cost me a million bucks to buy that from someone. All I would have to do is wait a fraction of a second (until the next million is earned) and then I buy it.

 

Most of the times it wont cost them more than $1500..
That's the cost of filing a UDRP TM/Copyright complaint, and you wont see any money at all...
http://udrp.lii.info/udrp/aboutudrp.html

Here's a couple of interesting links about domain name TM disputes:
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/index.html
http://udrp.lii.info/udrp/index.php

 

Did you know...?

"Under current trademark law, a trademark owner's job of protecting his rights merely begins when the trademark is registered. It's up to the owner to actively police the market, or world, for that matter, for violations. Once discovered, it's up to the trademark owner or licensee to take action against those infringements. The Internet has added a new dimension to the job of policing for trademark infringements, but the law is still the same.

As procedures go, searching the Internet for trademark infringements is relatively easy due to the number of search engines available. A few minutes on Yahoo can give a rough idea of the extent of unauthorized trademark use."

If you want to use another's trademark you can always ask for permission [license]. If you use another's trademark without permission [license] then you force them to defend themselves. That's kind of like backing a cat into a corner. Nothing good is going to come of it.

 

I have several domains with the term "realtor" in it. Wasted several months trying to get them to rank ... not sure what the trigger was exactly, but just I started to see some results I got email and snail mail from the National Association of Realtors requesting I ceases and desist. I didn't fight it ... just shut them all down.

Now, I see a couple of other sites with "realtor" in the domain and they rank well for some competitive terms ... not sure if they are ignoring the requests or if they have somehow slipped past the radar.

At this point I'm in the camp of just staying away from trademarks in domain.

 

I know that with ".US" there was a "Sunrise" period. As a trademark owner I was allowed to register my domains for a period of time before the public had the opportunity.

Otherwise, yeah, I would say money talks.

 

did you guys hear about the Mike Rowe Soft incident?

Seems some companies are going too far