I'm trying to get in the domain selling market but I was wondering if it would be legal to to use a well known name/brand in the domain name. For example, there are tons of 'photoshop.....' domains but Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe. Is that legal or not? There are also tons of 'dvd' domain names of which I'm sure is a trademark of another company. So what about Blu-Ray? Is it legal to use 'bluray' instead of 'blu-ray'?
The question of legality is easily answered: no, it is not legal. The point of a trademark is to protect the consumer, not to protect the corporation; that is, the point is to make sure there is no "confusion" so that the consumer enters into a transaction/relationship with someone who they *think* is the "real" company, but really isn't. So, on legality, no it isn't legal, but will anything happen to you? It's unlikely. If you get a DMCA request, though, and the domain isn't very valuable, go ahead and give it up.
If you get a DMCA request, though, and the domain isn't very valuable, go ahead and give it up. I sortof disagree with this. I have a domain, actually two (one with a hyphen, one without) that is trademarked, and i've been contacted by their lawyers five months ago (huge company, worth billions). After consulting with my lawyer, they said it's best if I don't respond because they legally have no grounds to take the domain as it is not in bad faith. Please note that i'm no lawyer, and my advice isn't liable for anything.
Two things: 1) whether you can get away with it or not doesn't mean it's legal, which was the original poster's question, 2) the fact that your domain was worth enough that you felt it reasonable to spend money and speak to your lawyer means that it doesn't fit into my "and the domain isn't valuable" threshold, likely.
1. A DMCA deals with copyright - NOT trademark 2. If the term is trademarked, it can likely be taken but the usage has to relate to the product in a way which a likelihood of confusion would result as to the origin of the site (you versus the tm holder.)