opinion Confused ! Trade Mark Domains

[SHINOJ G.S]

So I hope some of the Pro Domainers can throw some light on this

One of the Current LLL domain auction on Flippa is a well known Brand as per my knowledge.

Trademarkia shows it's REGISTERED TM.

Still No issues in listing for sale and it gets a lot bids.

(Sorry Don't want to mention the name here because it is live auction)

I had some domains containing "stockphoto" and "Android" which i listed on forums and immediately got questions
from others "what you want to do here with this TM ??"

After that I always checked for TM before buying any name.

Now again getting confused seeing this flippa auction

 

[The New Guy]

You have to be able to understand the context of the letters / word usage and how a UDRP panel would interpret them.

There have been UDRP rulings in the past involving 3 letter .coms where the domain owner successfully defended his ownership based on the fact that 3 letter .coms do have an inherent value due to their rarity - they are a commodity. If the owner is not trying to make money or confuse others that they are related to the TM owner of those three letters, then there is (or should be if you have a good UDRP hearing panel) no problem with owning a LLL.com with a trademark on it.

The problem with "android" or "apple" or the countless other bad domains you see new domainers buy and try to sell here is not just that they contain trademarked words, but the usage either directly or strongly implies a relationship with the trademark itself. "android phones" makes the public think it's related to the trademarked product - in fact it's why the bad domainer buys them because it's the thing that gives the name value. But of course they try to dispute any link to the TM even though without it the domains have no end user value and they would have had no reason to own it.

 

[Name Trader]

Absolutely no problem in owning any LLL domains with trademarks, just as long as your use doesn't infringe on the trademark. It may be contended that if you have a for sale page up or it is for sale on one of the popular for sale websites, the trademark owner might contend that you are trying to profit off their trademark. Then you need to argue the generic value of these domains. If you were actually in a UDRP, I suggest you need a good intellectual property lawyer to put your case in the best light.