trademark Are all TM related domains illegal?

Would really love an answer to this, if anyone knows.

It's a complicated......some nice points raised in the below thread though....

https://www.namepros.com/threads/trademark-question.1238183/

Thanks @NickB

Will have a look.

Unfortunately that page wasn't very helpful.

General TM rights say that you may not make money using someone else's mark.
That is the purpose of TM. Protecting a makers mark.

To own a domain that contains a TM is not necessarily illegal. But you may be jumping into a lawsuit and/or risking the domain.
Some of it has to do with intent and good faith use.

If you have or can obtain some right to use the name and don't fudge the boundary as confusing the mark, you might be able to use it. i.e. joe's plumbing if your name is joe and you are a plumber, you have some rights but no guarantee yours will dominate. So subject to liable depending on specifics.

A TM is very specific to goods and/or services using that mark. And in some cases, specific to certain states only, but not many of those.
You may be able to use the same mark for other goods and services as long as there is no confusion and you are not trying to siphon those looking for someone else's mark.(making money from others mark).

This is not the complete criteria, but a starter reference.

Skinny...
You can registrar anything. But you can't use anything. And nobody in their right mind is going to find value in it, only liability.

Paypalsucks.com was a website that was up for at least a decade and if I recall, there was an attempt to have it shutdown but was considered fair use. The website was a message board for people to complain about how they were screwed over by the company or failed to understand Paypal's policies.

They were not offering an online payment service, though I think there were posts about using other services.

So it really comes down to how you intend to use the domain.

Thanks @VRdommy and @Scythe

Better to back off I reckon.

bolo said:

Thanks @VRdommy and @Scythe

Better to back off I reckon.

Click to expand...

If you are going to domain... you need to learn more about this type of stuff. It is your greatest liability.
To gain a more complete understanding, I suggest you start with the history of it.
I think you will find it interesting, but you need to see court cases that steered the law into what it is today.
Google can be your friend ...sometimes LOL