Warning From Facebook

I think it's safe to say that if anyone uses any type of the name, "Facebook" in the title they are at risk to be taken down by Facebook.
Your messing with Trademark infringement and will not win.

or....

Look into off shore web hosting and use giftcard to purchase it and go for it!

Those are your only options.

freeufcdotinfo said:

Just come across other domains with facebook in the title such as

http://freefacebookadder.com/
http://www.facebookblaster.com/

and so on

why the big deal with my domain..

Click to expand...

Perhaps you are the one they can go after because you are within the reach of legal jurisdiction.

Or perhaps you rank well and/or make money off their name and they can calculate monetary damages and for whatever reason they can't with the other sites. Perhaps the other sites have anonymous whois data. Or perhaps you are just the first on a very long list... for whatever reason they have... you are running a business using their trademark... If they can demonstrate that your use of facebook is targeting their customers services and policies then you probably wont win in court... the cease and desist is the cost effective solution for all parties. Otherwise they have to follow through with at least C&D + court costs and legal fees & possibly damages... and they will probably spend big to set an example... It's one thing to use their name in a site like "truthaboutfacebook.com" where it's being used to talk about it... quite another thing to use their name in your online business... I don't like it either... It really all comes done to whats worth going to trial to fight for. I bet if you shut this one down and opened a new one up with facebook in the name but anonymized it would take years for them to get to you again unless you get to the top of whatever search they use everytime!

You can always engineer around the trademark... For example they don't own trademark for:
Bookface Book Services . com

As long as you present to your visitors with the spaces you still get the search term... then instead of stating their trademarks use general terms like Social Networking Solutions, Invites, demand generation, viral marketing etc... Make what you do less about them specifically...

Right! Bill Clinton started this legislation years ago It's plain trademark theft.

Even if you were in the right (from the way you've described it you're likely not) chances are it's not worth the $$ to get a lawyer and go up against someone their size

Just drop it and get on with a new project

Best to just register the same domains using 'fb' instead of facebook, and you will be trouble free.

Same thing happened a little while ago with wordpress. They told everyone to stop, but wp was ok. Thus you see it everywhere now.

fb is just as identifiable with facebook, so I don't think its going to make a world of difference.

fbook
faceb

Meh.. not quite the same impact.

Or you can try something like this.

ookadder.com then add a subdomain to make it faceb.ookadder.com TADA! No more trademark lawsuit, since the law only applies to TLDs.

Suckahs! :08:

As mentioned above, "Facebook" is a trademark and your best bet is to comply with their legal team before it is too late and further legal action is taken.

The only thing I could think of that you could do to salvage your current domain is to get it transferred to a bullet-proof domain registrar. No, I do not have any such registrars in mind, but go for ones that are located in Russia or China that DO NOT have an English version of their website. You will need to translate their website to English and proceed from there. However, if you are located within the United States, FB will still probably be able to hit you with legal issues, even though they can no longer touch the domain if you were to successfully get it transferred to a registrar located in a country that doesn't give a damn about Facebook's trademark.

However, I would simply count your losses, make a new domain, and move on.

Apparently lots of people are recreational attorneys on here. I even saw the phrase "copyrighted trademark". First, a trademark is not copyrighted, it is tradmarked. Second, a trademark and copyright are two separate things, the issue at hand here is trademark infringement not copyright infringement. Also, if they are fighting over the domain (which according to the op's story they are not) then it could be a domain dispute of dilution.

I would strongly urge to call a lawyer. Most lawyers will give you legal advice while they try to get you to be their clients. But make no mistake that the discussion in this forum should NEVER constitute legal advice. In addition, everything I type here is not legal advice. Nor should anything take place of a professional attorney.

One thing to consider is that if you are sued, Facebook TOS says you agree to hold jurisdiction in Northern California. Unless you live there, you will have to appear in court from where ever you live. Yes, they can find you by the domain you paid for.