Using "blu ray" in a domain

Any insight on the legality of using the term "blu-ray" in a domain name? Is that considered a general term, like "dvd"?

 

Blu-Ray is a media format trademarked by it's developer/inventors.

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/
The name Blu-ray is derived from the underlying technology, which utilizes a blue-violet laser to read and write data. The name is a combination of "Blue" (blue-violet laser) and "Ray" (optical ray). According to the Blu-ray Disc Association the spelling of "Blu-ray" is not a mistake, the character "e" was intentionally left out so the term could be registered as a trademark.

 

Pretty interesting. The reason I ask is mostly because of this site:

http://www.blu-ray.com/

Look at the footer:

 

Yea, that definitely can't be legal...

 

The domain was registered in 2002. Blu-Ray Disc was invented/named in 2004-2005.
I see that the domain has hidden WHOIS.

The B Blu-Ray Disc trademark was filed on October 15, 2008 and granted on May 5, 2009.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:i2552b.2.86

There is also another trademark filed in June 2002 & registered in 2004. : http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:i2552b.3.107

 

Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and BD-Live are trademarks of Blu-ray Disc Association

but... in a few years blu-ray discs will replace all DVDs so people will probably use the term worldwide... including websites

 

hah! That's pretty amazing. Especially since that site ranks #1 on page 1 of Google, Yahoo and Bing for "blu ray"

 

probably blu ray was made public in 2004-2005. the idea itself was born much sooner. the owner of the domain knew something.

 

There must be something behind that. Very lucky guy, I must say. Or no?

Back to the topic, sooner or later it will become a generic term, for sure.

 

that's what I was trying to point out

 

Yeah, when I worked at Nintendo we we're trained to never refer to a console by the brand name, because that is accelerates the legal case for a brand becoming generic.

 

I'd like to know this as well. If you take a look at "DVD", there are thousands of sites which have that in the domain name. Will this really be a problem? Am I clear when I use BLURAY instead of BLU-RAY?

 

No, it's still trademark infringement.