Registering A domain name even if the name is Trade Marked?
Lets say Bob has the name Bob’s Burger Shack trade marked & I go out and buy the domain name www.bobsburgershack.com can I be sued? Im not going to try and make a website or anything, its a sell it & make cash deal. If I list that name For Sale on the domain aftermarket will I be breaking the law? I mean it aint my fault Bob is slacking off on his job!! By the way, the name is not Bob, its much bigger than that! Thanks in advance.
What you are referring to is Cybersquatting
definition: from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cybersquatting, according to the United States federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.
More info. here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting
In a court and I am not a lawyer but have dealt with this issue myself. And based on my research if Bob from Bob’s Burger Shack took you to court you would lose the name.
Bob has the trademark whether registered or not. Because Bob sells his product under the name Bob’s Burger Shack and can prove that he has done so the trademark domain name will be given to him
Perhaps you can try and think of a better way to make money from the situation
I am just throwing something out here.
But offer to design their website for them pointing out that they forgot to register the domain name. And that you have register it and will transfer the name over either way for the $amount you paid to register it. [ if they have you design their site that is or not ]
Now you may not be a designer but you could outsource this to a freelancer from a site like http://www.rentacoder.com
Then you can charge them a fee and you are really supplying them with something in addition to the domain name, a nice new website design
You can start off by saying that you noticed they didn’t register their name and that you thought you would snap it up before some ‘cybersquatter’ grabbed it.
You could also mention that another reason is you are a big fan of their company and would not like to see them get taken advantage of
And then tell them about your web design offer and have them give the details to transfer the domain to them for the same amount you purchased it for
Register domain names at http://www.godaddy.com
Who knows they might just flip you a reward if you word your email to them making it appear that you did them a big favor that could have otherwise cost them a ton of money if it fell into the wrong hands.
You can use Paypal to receive the funds from the company
http://www.Paypal.com
-Scottie Logan
Night Owl Marketing
http://www.trafficconversionmadeeasy.com
Posted in
January 12th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
This exact scenario was played out in the courts involving a man named Nissan. He started a web-site for his business and used Nissan.com as his domain name. He did this many years before the Japanese automaker "Datsun" changed its name to "Nissan". Nevertheless, the courts said that Mr Nissan could not use his own name as his domain name because Nissan Motors had built a public reputation that trumped his rights. It may be that the case is still pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. So, for now anyway, the answer to your question is that you would be violating existing law and guilty of internet lurking or squatting, so some other ridiculous legal term.
References :
January 12th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
What you are referring to is Cybersquatting
definition: from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cybersquatting, according to the United States federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.
More info. here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting
In a court and I am not a lawyer but have dealt with this issue myself. And based on my research if Bob from Bob’s Burger Shack took you to court you would lose the name.
Bob has the trademark whether registered or not. Because Bob sells his product under the name Bob’s Burger Shack and can prove that he has done so the trademark domain name will be given to him
Perhaps you can try and think of a better way to make money from the situation
I am just throwing something out here.
But offer to design their website for them pointing out that they forgot to register the domain name. And that you have register it and will transfer the name over either way for the $amount you paid to register it. [ if they have you design their site that is or not ]
Now you may not be a designer but you could outsource this to a freelancer from a site like http://www.rentacoder.com
Then you can charge them a fee and you are really supplying them with something in addition to the domain name, a nice new website design
You can start off by saying that you noticed they didn’t register their name and that you thought you would snap it up before some ‘cybersquatter’ grabbed it.
You could also mention that another reason is you are a big fan of their company and would not like to see them get taken advantage of
And then tell them about your web design offer and have them give the details to transfer the domain to them for the same amount you purchased it for
Register domain names at http://www.godaddy.com
Who knows they might just flip you a reward if you word your email to them making it appear that you did them a big favor that could have otherwise cost them a ton of money if it fell into the wrong hands.
You can use Paypal to receive the funds from the company
http://www.Paypal.com
-Scottie Logan
Night Owl Marketing
http://www.trafficconversionmadeeasy.com
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting
http://www.rentacoder.com
http://www.godaddy.com
http://www.Paypal.com