Okay I plan on buying this four letter domain that's avaliable. Now the company's name is 6 letters long. This would be a four letter abbreviation of their name. It sounds exactly like theirs but I wouldn't actually build it (hope to resell). So let's see if I can get an example. Imagine a trademark Hiaku and I bought hyku.com. Can Haiku turn around and sue me cause it sounds the same (thinking Mikerosoft.com)? Skinny
Not a lawyer, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Using your example: If you put up a site on Mikerosoft.com that in any way infringed on Microsoft's trademark they MIGHT have a "cause of action". Happy New year.
Hmm ya like I'm not going to do anything with the site. Just want to reg the name and I don't want lawyers on by bum. I know getting into the trademarked domains are pointless but this is kinda borderline. Skinny
For those interested it was fyzr.com (sounds like Pfizer.com the pharmaceutical company). I visited other sites like kokakola.com and their still running so I think it's ok. Skinny
It depends though. If you try to profit off of their trademark, it gets a little murky. The truth being though that I can't see them giving you much trouble for it. Be careful about the resale idea though, if you try to sell it to them that might fall under the anti-cybersquatting act.
Hmm...fyzr does sound like pfizer. I don't see why the pharmaceutical company wouldn't send that C&D, especially now that you've revealed the domain name in an online forum.
well it wasnt bought with that intent. If I do get one I'll let it drop. I'm not going to sell it to them. and no I won't be profiting from it either. Skinny
Intent doesn't really matter, phonetic spellings can clearly be trademark infringement. What you certainly wouldn't want to do is put anything related to their business (or similar) on the site. I wouldn't advise posting the name as it establishes that you knew of the possible confusion in advance and I suspect they would argue you were trying to ride their goodwill with the domain. Many times the real question is - will the trademark holder "think" it is infringement and take legal action. There are TM holders that are very aggressive and most domain holders aren't willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars in court arguing their domain isn't infringement. Even if they win, they will still be out their legal fees in most cases.
If your site is just a personal website, then I don't think you have something to worry about. But if you want to start a business, maybe you need to reconsider it. Anyway, a domain name is not so important for your website, why take such a chance?
As I have mentioned in a different post the typical standard in the U.S. is consumer confusion. If you built a website around that domain that could, even inadvertently, make people believe it was some how related to pfizer then you can get into trouble. As mentioned above this is a murky area. Incidentally if you made the site in order to be satirical you would probably be ok, using misspellings like that for satirical purposes is protected free speech in the U.S. But that does not mean that you cannot be sued! It means you would most likely win the lawsuit if you could afford to fight it long enough. Of course I am not a lawyer and the thoughts expressed in this post are just opinion and should not be construed as legal advice. (lol that's my legal disclaimer)