copyrighted name in domain

gregorystephen

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if I register domain containing a copyrighted brand name and a few other words, how long until I get a cease and desist and domain suspension?
Any way to minimize the risk of domain suspension? Any (offshore?) registrars ignore suspension requests?
FYI in search results I see someone using the brand name in his domain and he is going strong, maybe the copyright holder doesn't care?
 
Domains have nothing to do with copyright/trademarks. You can own any domain you want, first come first serve.
 
Domains have nothing to do with copyright/trademarks. You can own any domain you want, first come first serve.
I don’t think that’s strictly true is it?

So if I were to register Instagram2.com and it was successful and got thousands or millions of visitors a month - there’s nothing Meta/Facebook can do? They must accept that there’s a company with the domain (brand) Instagram2?
 
I don’t think that’s strictly true is it?

So if I were to register Instagram2.com and it was successful and got thousands or millions of visitors a month - there’s nothing Meta/Facebook can do? They must accept that there’s a company with the domain (brand) Instagram2?
It is. Company or not, whoever owns the domain can utilize it for themselves however they want.
 
So if I were to register Instagram2.com and it was successful and got thousands or millions of visitors a month - there’s nothing Meta/Facebook can do? They must accept that there’s a company with the domain (brand) Instagram2?
Considering that you won't impersonate said website. For instance, Microsoft has been trying to purchase minecraft.com for years unsuccessfully, because that's some type of construction business.
 
Domains have nothing to do with copyright/trademarks. You can own any domain you want, first come first serve.
They can destroy your life, read about Nissan.com
 
Considering that you won't impersonate said website. For instance, Microsoft has been trying to purchase minecraft.com for years unsuccessfully, because that's some type of construction business.
Very interesting. Gives me a lot of ideas.

For example could you have YouTubePlayer.com and a bunch of YouTube videos (because YouTube allow their videos to be on other sites)? I’m guessing not. Probably a bad example.
 
I think you are talking about trade marked words.

For example, Microsoft is a trade mark. If you use Microsoft in a domain, you will be sued and you will lose. It doesn't matter if it's microsoft-flower-shop.com, you will lose.

But let's use Apple as an example. Apple is also a trade mark, but it is a generic word. That means you can use Apple in a domain, as long as it is not used for computing, so apple-flower-shop.com is fine.

There's also a loop hole where trade marks are done on a country by country basis, so there's a tiny chance (extremely unlikely) Microsoft hasn't been trade marked in Liechtenstein or some other small place.
 
If you register domain with trademark in it - you will be fine to hold that domain.

But if you show up in search results and rank - trademark owner will contact you by asking to transfer the domain to him.

If you ignore it - the court will decide and transfer the domain to legal trademark owner anyway.
No one "offshore" domain registrar can protect from it.
 
if I register domain containing a copyrighted brand name and a few other words, how long until I get a cease and desist and domain suspension?
depends on how long it will take you to make money with it... or how long it will take the copyright / trademark owners to notice you parasiting on their brand, and it also depends on whether or not they care about this (most big brands do, though). It can be anywhere from days to years or never, it depends, honestly
Any way to minimize the risk of domain suspension? Any (offshore?) registrars ignore suspension requests?
offshore hosting can only help you so much. If you're using copyrighted / trademarked stuff of a big brand (sony, amazon, bmw, etc) you have no chance of making anything with that domain... well, if you're in the same niche as they are that is. If you get the domain BMWdb.com, for example, and your site / business is about women who do black magic around the world (so Black Magic Women Database, that's what your domain would mean) BMW (the german car giant) might let you be as you're not parasiting on their brand because your site / business has nothing in common with cars in general, and - more importantly - with BMW cars in particular.

But why take chances? It's better - for your peace of mind - to just never register domains containing big brands
FYI in search results I see someone using the brand name in his domain and he is going strong, maybe the copyright holder doesn't care?
it could be, but if his domain and the original brand operate in different industries / have different business profiles they would be fine, as I explained above
Domains have nothing to do with copyright/trademarks. You can own any domain you want, first come first serve
Wait, WHAT ?!? This is misinformation, please stop spreading it!
It is. Company or not, whoever owns the domain can utilize it for themselves however they want.
go ahead and register apple2.com or amazon2.com and see how long you can use it for before Apple and Amazon's lawyers come after you
They can destroy your life, read about Nissan.com
exactly! I've read that story, too and it's why I don't like Nissan anymore (they used to be my favorite Asian car manufacturer). The guy above has no clue what he's talking about
 
You are asking for trouble.

They will claim it at some point for sure.
 
Provided you're not pretending to be them, I think you're safe to use them.

Also, if you're not in the same location with them, there is nothing to worry about.

Of course, don't use their content, you shouldn't use multiple sentences of their content on your website.
 
Domains have nothing to do with copyright/trademarks. You can own any domain you want, first come first serve.
Don't listen to him lol

Domains with a trademark + attracted attention = trouble
 
I cannot believe how many people on here have no clue. Here's just the latest domain name dispute cases decided by WIPO:

https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/casesx/list.jsp?prefix=D&year=2022&seq_min=1&seq_max=199

You have got to be kidding me if you believe you can register domain names containing well known brands and get away with it :rolleyes:
 
It depends on if you own the domain before the trademark was registered. In case of minecraft minecraft.com was registered in 2003, and the game was officially released on 2011. Creators of minecraft game cannot claim identities that have prior usage.

Now if you try to register something that's already registered, that's not going to hold any legal merit.
 
Considering that you won't impersonate said website. For instance, Microsoft has been trying to purchase minecraft.com for years unsuccessfully, because that's some type of construction business.
If you can please use the multi-quote function as it makes the threads flow much easier. How to multi-quote can be found here Newbie Guide
 
How long depends on lot of things. Like how soon they find you.
 
Aaaahhh right. I thought this was the case. I think you’re wrong on this one yio.
I don't believe so. My initial statements were vague and aimed toward a practical reply that could be factually perceived as false, didn't see this train of replies coming. The unwritten rule I tried to pass the message on is that there's minimal enforcement. I own such "OG" domains myself that could get classified as carrying the branding of established brands, and some of them have actually reached out to buy them. Some I sold, some I didn't.

It has to be common sense that impersonating an established brand will get you in trouble; make that offering a service with a name that correlates with the said brand, aka. officialfacebook.com. I don't understand all of the extreme examples here, and even so, most of the time there won't be a problem as long as you don't fuck up miserably, and by that, I mean making a subproduct out of a massive brand. You just don't do such shit with the name of the brand on the damn domain.

Instagram2.com isn't owned by Meta. In fact, it's an active domain that's parked and earning a fuck ton of ad revenue from displayed ads. Meta hasn't and won't sue them anytime soon. They don't care.
Facebooker.com isn't owned by Meta. It's an operating business; Meta hasn't and won't sue them anytime soon. They don't care.
There are so many examples to give here.

Worth mentioning if the word is of general interest, eg. cheese.com, there's no way that can get trademarked anyway. Most cases won't be of claiming facebook5.com, but cheeseland.com as a "high value" domain, so all these extreme examples I see mentioned here just don't apply. If Apple didn't own apple.com from the start and couldn't buy it from the dude that claimed it first they were fucked; nothing they could do, they'd use something else. Pretty much every established brand already has their websites/handles set, it's 2022. People aren't seeking to buy every .com domain of an established brand that's available to trade, this happened 20 years ago. Nowadays the resell value of such domains is so high that it's completely pointless to utilize them for any use.

Yes, you can trademark SOME domains; but for brands getting in legal trouble to obtain one is almost never the case; it's always easier, cheaper, and more efficient to discuss with the owner about claiming the domain for a sum of money; if a deal is not reached most companies either walk away with a defeat or make a huge counteroffer. Confiscating a domain mostly happens in cases of impersonation. Brands pay disgustingly big bucks to acquire the domain they're looking for; legally seeking to get the domain on their hands may cost them hundreds of thousands if not millions in legal fees and an uncertain result, even for the least "OG" ones.

Acquiring a good domain is gonna do you more good than harm. Just don't be stupid. In the EXCEEDINGLY RARE CASE of you getting hunted legally for it, just agree to their buyout offer for the domain, they are probably gonna be more than reasonable on the offer. Unless you're like Uzi Nissan, who had millions to spare on legal fees.

Edit: It might seem contradictory to what I said, my post here is aimed mostly toward the replies. Back to the original thread's question, it'll take a long long time to be "found" if at all. And even then, it's probably gonna be no more than 10 bucks/y for such domains, they're usually not classified as expensive/OG/tradeable. You just swap domains if anything happens.
 
go ahead and register apple2.com or amazon2.com and see how long you can use it for before Apple and Amazon's lawyers come after you
There is a differens in what category your "trademarked" domain is, like when Amazon was forced to buy the domain Amazon.se, because the owner used it in her design business. She sold it though to them for something like $640K because of that.
 
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