Domain name and Trademark discussion...
 

Let's say Person 1,
owns a domain name such as COOKINGRECIPE.COM.

Later on, Person 2,
buys the domain COOKINGRECIPES.com

Later, Person 1 registers the Trademark "Cooking Recipe".

If Person 1 sues Person 2 for domain COOKINGRECIPES.com, would they win in court?

Anyone?

Bump

IANAL but it's my understanding that if the two sites in question are similar then the guy with the trademark would win. However, he would be entirely reponsible for defending the trademark. There is nothing illegal about trademark infringement.. but if the guy decides to sue you that's his right. The courts just won't automatically protect it like they do copyright.

In other words.. if he knows that you have the site which infringes on his trademark .. and he doesn't do anything about it .. and then sometime down the road he decides to sue .. if you can prove he knew you were infringing a year earlier then he's screwed because he decided not to defend it then.

That's my understanding of the law anyway .. I could be wrong.

I doubt it is possible.
In that case KRl would trademark men.com ( he probably will anyway ) and then take away man.com from the original owners.

IMO fortunately it can't be done.

This intrigues me, it seems as though, a registered trademark only applies to the domain EXACTLY as it appears in the mark.

So, one would assume that if Person 1 registered "COOKING RECIPE (tm)" and Person 2 registered "COOKING RECIPES (tm)", it would be a draw, no?

Already done. :Graucho

It depends on a number of circumstances. The major one being whether or not there will be a confusion between the trademarked names. If you both run similar businesses then the trademark holder will win in court 9 times out of 10, according to WIPO.

Even a name that is phonetically similar to a trademarked name can be found as a breach of trademark regardless of the spelling.

I use to work for a financial services site called Doctorstox and we recieved numerous letters from the Nasdaq Stoxx in relation to copyright breaches. As we were in the same industry they peceived us as a threat and we decided that it was probably best not to fuck with them.

The guy ownibg cookingrecipes has nothing to worry about as this is a generic word so it doesn't matter how many trademarks the other guy has.Also having the domain before a trademark is registed is also protection.