Domain Name Copyright Question

I was wondering if it is possible to use a company name or product name as part of my domain name if I am not the company or product owner. In my mind, I should be able to, but I want to be sure I am not stepping on other peoples toes.

For example, I want to make a review site of a specific company or a specific product. Could I use (or any similar variation of)

www.companyreviews.com

where company is the company name? Same goes for product.

It's a trademark violation. Not copyright.

If it's something like Sony then Do Not Pass Go. Get a lawyer. They will probably kindly just send a cease and desist, but they can sue for major damages.

There's something to be said about free speech here ... e.g. faceintel but don't press your luck.

So essentially I cannot use a company or product name in my domain at all? Well that throws out all the best domain names! Shoot.

From what I've read, such sites are technically legal. You are using the trademark, but trademark law doesn't grant ownership of the mark. As long as you aren't confusing people into thinking you are affiliated with the company or into buying a product they think is made by the company when it really isn't you are supposed to be okay.

Unfortunately, even if you follow all the rules if you make the company mad there's nothing stopping them from filing a lawsuit. The suit in that case would be without merit, but you'd still have to defend yourself and there's enough grey area that they might get lucky and win, or at least drag it out enough to bankrupt you first.

Common misconception. You are breaking the law if you are using someone else's trademark without their permission. My experience comes from having been on the wrong side of this.

In our case we used the word xerox. You know the verb - to xerox. Xerox corporation took exception to our usage.

CJ's case is typical. Most companies generally won't sue right away but will send a cease and desist as they received.



Translation: take it down and go away or we'll send in The Men in Fine Italian Suits ...

Sorry to hi-Jack, but I was going to make a post about a topic _very_ similar to this.

The company I work for owns a lot of trademarks, one of them is QuickVue. Now unf for the company, a few years ago they didn't get QuickVue.com and some domain squatting company did. Now I've been doing some research, and it seems that if our Legal dept was to send this company a Cease and Desist letter, we should be able to get that domain back. We have over a dozen products with this Trademark and would REALLY like to get this domain back.

Am I thinking right here? Or just plain crazy?

If it's a legally registered trademark then you should be able to get it back. But you should verify this with your companies lawyers.

Cool! Its def a legal trademark!
I'll drop by our legal dpt and talk with them!

Thanks!

Hmm, that kind of doesn't seem fair. Does that mean if someone grabs a domain name, and a couple years later a company trademarks a word that happened to be in that domain name, the original buyer would have to give it up even though it wasn't trademarked at the time of registering the domain?

Not if the first person is smart enough to protect their trademark first.

Fair ... !?

It's not just a word it's the mark. It's a pretty complicated matter as to what's actually protected and there's regional and industry/compete considerations. Xerox is an easy example because it is not a word, its only a trademark that became a common word (like kleenex and vaseline). Now if it was a word like Michael's as in Michael's Flowers and Michael's Cafe the two can coexist. In fact two Michael's Cafes might well exist, just not in the same town.

For more information take some intellectual property classes or visit uspto.gov