Do multiple used acronyms attract lesser TM issues?

[kehnee]

Example, ABCtoday. One company might go by ABC - Apples Berries Cantelopes and another by All But Cozzy. If one has a domain by with that acronym can you be under TM violation even though it does specify what ABC....stands for?

 

[DNQuest.com]

Teh more TM holders, teh more fun you can have defending against each one. What that means is any company which you illeaglly infringe upon can come after you. If your parked ads covers 3 different TM holders, all 3 can come after you.

 

[kehnee]

thanks for your comment. Just a curious question?, will illegal infringement be based on whether or not you have associated in any form with any of the TM 'owners' or it's a legal infringement regardless?

BTW this is meant to be an enlightening thread. Trying to learn a thing or few not argue!

 

[DNQuest.com]

in relation to domains, infringement means your domain is similar to a TM. There is legal and illegal infringement (fansites vs bad faith). What matters is what can be proven

 

[AdoptableDomains]

It's a double edge sword. It's easier to defend against one claimant, because there are other potential users. however, there are potentially more claimants.

I have no problem with owning and defending probably 98% of all three letter acronyms. Any of them can be someone's initials for a vanity domain as well as an organization acronym. ABC, or AAA are pretty common and would be defendable unless you started sending traffic to a competitor of a major user such as broadcasting. Ones like IBM and AOL that are fairly unique might actually be harder to defend.

 

[Lasher]

All comes down to usage. Having multiple trademarked acronyms in different verticals can actually make a domain more of a liability - even harder to run any kind of adsense on it without infringing, and almost impossible to park.

In theory, you could own ABC.com and run a site helping kids learn the alphabet and you'd should be fine, but ABC have more money and lawyers than you, theory doesn't always hold.

Look at the mess Apple got into with the Beatle's music label (also called Apple). Who would have ever predicted 20 years ago that the company would become the largest digital music seller on the yet-to-be-public internet?

 

[buckshotdots]

What I trying to do with all my LLL's is develop so I am not selling anything close to what they stand for. My - m n m dot mobi is something I made in 5 min/for free (which you can tell) and has nothing to do with any of the TM's.

gary-

 

[DNQuest.com]

Apple is not in the music business, they are in the data transfer business... just ask the judge. I still scratch my head on that one.

 

[Lasher]

Maybe I chose a bad example there, but the real point was multiple competing trademarks for the same acronym is not a good thing for fending off challenges from ANY of them.

More simply, would you rather have 1 wolf chasing you or 12?

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Maybe I chose a bad example there, but the real point was multiple competing trademarks for the same acronym is not a good thing for fending off challenges from ANY of them.

More simply, would you rather have 1 wolf chasing you or 12?

But, on the other hand "likelihood of confusion" is one of the things always brought up. If the market already has 12 people legally using the acronym, the likelhood of confusing it with just one of them is more remote. In effect the person claiming infringement has to prove you are more likely to confuse than the other 11 out their legally using the acronym.

I am more likely to register or buy a TLA if there are more active users of the acronym than one well known one. If I had a choice of the risk of ABC, NBC, or CBS, I would choose ABC because it is a more common and "generic" acronym used by probably thousands of companies and organizations. It's also the letters on the "2" key on a telephone, associated with kids learning their ABC's, and often chosen because it puts the user near the begining in an alphabetical list similar to why so many companies call them selves AAA something.