Trademark domain question
 

If a certain company owns a trademark for their line for products 'blah (tm)' and let's say they are in the food industry (trademarks are only valid in the domain of business of the company right)?

Can I register let's say blahmag.com which would deal with the adult industry without digging myself in a legal hole ?

you could still get sued.

Trademark doesn't matter if it's a different industry. By the way, i'm launching Microsoft Foods and Macromedia sports drinks next week!

Actually, it does matter if it's a different industry in most cases. There are exceptions made where a dilution of the original trademark would result, though.

If you had been in business for years making soft ice cream and selling it in really small cups under the name of MicroSoft Ice Cream you'd be okay.

I could be wrong, though. Always consult a lawyer and never listen to me.

Ever heard of fuckford.com and fuckgm.com thing?
A guy in the UK registered jaguar.co.uk, a site actually about the animals; jaguars. Ford (jaguar's parent company) didn't even ask for the domain back, and when it was offered back, they declined. Instead, they chose to sue him, and take the domain, as well as damages.

It's not worth risking any sort of violation.

chodadog,

that is different man.. fuckgm.com or fuckford are slander and totally create trademark dilliution.

I don't know how this company i'm talking about managed to trademark this work because it's a dictionary word from another language. So let's say i want to register gorditateens.com but McDonalds has their mexican product line 'Gordita (tm)'. Where gordita is a dictionary word in spanish.

if a company has a trademark on a name in a category
and you have a trademark on the same name in a different category. you cannot be sued for it.

just look at harvard there is 100 different marks with the same name.. just 100 different categories..

my advice is if you dont have a mark.. see if you can build a fan site.. those are harder to take away

Hyper i think you might be deal on in this matter.

I think it's a different matter if you OWN the domain name which is the company's trade mark ie.. nissan.com .ca .ro .ru . whatever (see http://www.nissan.com for the famous case), however if i owned nissantrucks.com i think it would be ok even though it contains a trademark in the name (see http://www.whoisreport.com/nissantrucks.com )

I think I just answered my own question LOL

m0rpheus and hyper.

The fuckford.com (not sure if that's the right domain, it was something similar though) site was eventually turned into an information about just how fucked up ford was. It was not the site in issue, although, ford did try to sue them as well.

The domain in question was jaguar.co.uk which wasn't inteded for use on a site about the animals of the same name. It had nothing to do with ford motor cars, or jaguar. It had to do with jaguars, as in the 4 legged animals! Ford STILL sued them, successfully mind you!

I'll try find the information. There were plenty of other non-automotive sites with names that ford had an interest in, where they sued.

2600.com still owns and runs fuckgeneralmotors.com

They were sued and won.

The Judge said you can buy any domain you want and point it to where ever you want. But they had only purchased the name and pointed it to ford.com or whatever their corporate site it.

http://www.2600.com/news/122201-files/ford-dec.html

Fletch, i'm not talking about those domains. I refer you to this page, also owned by 2600.com

http://fordreallysucks.com/more_info.html

and in particular:

Oh, and don't forget this bit that i forgot to add:

Good stuff.

I support the 2600 crew.

:winkwink:

Yeah, 2600 kick some ass alright :winkwink:
But it's extremely disconcerning what these large corporations are able to get away with.

Who owns gfysucks.com?

goodjob Lensman.. who did you have to sue?

It all depends on what sort of a mood the courts are in. I couldn't see anything wrong with the site "People Eating Tasty Animals" which was at peta.org.

Unfortunately the lawyers at "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA) didn't see it that way, and neither did the judge... seems vegetarians don't have a sense of humour :winkwink:

You are assuming that the legal ramifications are only in the trademark area. I'm not an attorney, but one thing I do know is that anyone can sue you anytime over anything in civil court. If you step on some toes, and they feel they have a case that you are damaging their business or reputation, damn right they can sue.

If you want to find out if they can win, do whatever you're thinking of doing and when they take you to court, you'll have your answer.

Well, Im not sure of the legality, but if I owned "Blah" (tm) and you got some extension name to that, I would sue the fuck out of you. Get your own shit.