trademark domain name typos
Discussion
what is the situation regarding the following:
joe bloggs (made up name) IS A TRADEMARK so I cant buy even if available joebloggs.com
Assuming I am in the same market as Joe bloggs and I buy joeblogs.com or jooebloggs.com and dont try and pass myself of as him, ie make it clear they are dealing with us can they try and take the domain of us?
IE can we buy typo domain names without infringing copyright?
joe bloggs (made up name) IS A TRADEMARK so I cant buy even if available joebloggs.com
Assuming I am in the same market as Joe bloggs and I buy joeblogs.com or jooebloggs.com and dont try and pass myself of as him, ie make it clear they are dealing with us can they try and take the domain of us?
IE can we buy typo domain names without infringing copyright?
If you have a good reason to own the name (such as your name is joe blogs) and you don't use it to pretend you are JoeBloggs or to s
g off joebloggs then they may have a hard time stopping you from using it although it won't stop corporate lawyers from trying and in the end the thought of the costs involved if you did lose means that you roll over.
In pretty much every other case expect to get hit with a cease order fairly sharpish and demand that you transfer it to their name or court and costs again.
There is an industry out there that protects corporate IP and trademarks and it charges a lot for it's services. - I think a teenager got into a battle with MS because his name was Chris Sharp and he registered csharp.com or something. Needless to say MS stopped him using it but it was promoted in the media in a nice way....
(may have been a different name\technology)
g off joebloggs then they may have a hard time stopping you from using it although it won't stop corporate lawyers from trying and in the end the thought of the costs involved if you did lose means that you roll over.In pretty much every other case expect to get hit with a cease order fairly sharpish and demand that you transfer it to their name or court and costs again.
There is an industry out there that protects corporate IP and trademarks and it charges a lot for it's services. - I think a teenager got into a battle with MS because his name was Chris Sharp and he registered csharp.com or something. Needless to say MS stopped him using it but it was promoted in the media in a nice way....
(may have been a different name\technology)
This comes down to old fashioned passing off.
Basically, if you are acting in your own interests, you are called Joe Bloggs, or you already run a company called Joe Bloggs and trade lawfully, then you have a very good reason for acting legitimately in buying the domain.
However, lets say you own Ian Jones.com and Joe Bloggs in the same field is your competitor. It is obvious in that situation that the only reason that you would buy Joe Blooogs.com or another typo would be to take advantage of the Joe Bloggs trading style.
Thus they could argue that you are passing off. There is case law somewhere which shows all this, but cannot reference the case.
Basically, if you are acting in your own interests, you are called Joe Bloggs, or you already run a company called Joe Bloggs and trade lawfully, then you have a very good reason for acting legitimately in buying the domain.
However, lets say you own Ian Jones.com and Joe Bloggs in the same field is your competitor. It is obvious in that situation that the only reason that you would buy Joe Blooogs.com or another typo would be to take advantage of the Joe Bloggs trading style.
Thus they could argue that you are passing off. There is case law somewhere which shows all this, but cannot reference the case.
I was looking for the Nissan site a while back, and came across the suit on: http://www.nissan.com/
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