Domain Empire

GoFatty.com: an Infringment?

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Thinking about ownership possibilities on GoDaddy's name or others.
What would be considered an infringment?
How about GoLaddy, GoFatty, GoFather, GoMommie or such?
Is it the "Go" or the "Daddy" or Both, or some combination that belongs to them?
There is a site call GoFatty.com, why isn't that a infringment or is it?
http://www.gofatty.com

I'm not a lawyer, but I was just thinking about it.

meljr
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Note: This post contains my opinion and logic. It in no way is a legal representation.

Registering a domain that contains the words 'GoDaddy' when GoDaddy is a registered trademark instantly means that you are using someone elses name without permission. Sad, but true. But then come to think of it, what potential use would you ever have to register a domain that contains someone elses trademark?

The key part here, in my opinion, are the words "without permission". You can potentially get away with using a domain name that has a reference to company, providing you ask first and state that the content on the site is in no way linked to the original named company. Say for example you have Cpanel hosting, and want to start a site called CpanelFAQS.com - I'm sure they'd be more than happy to let you own that without any problems, providing you clearly state that it has nothing to do with Cpanel at all.
Is Cpanel even a registered trademark?

Then I think we have another issue of how common the names involved in the domain are. Example: Go Daddy is a pretty unique combination of words, is it not? You're hardly likely to EVER use those combination of words, in that order, unless you're referencing the company itself. How often do you say "Go Daddy!" to your father? Exactly, not very often.
In those instances it's highly obvious you're ripping off their trademark in one way or another. Unless you have an amazing lawyer and can seriously prove otherwise.

Let's look at your example GoFatty.com. For the technical minded amongst us we may be reminded of GoDaddy and think of it as a spoof site. I think in this instance the actual content of the site is key here. If your site has a similar design layout, similar content, or perhaps just spoofs their entire site then I think it's obvious that someone may have a say in things. However, if the domain is about fat people losing weight, for example, then it's sheer coincidence that it sounds similar to GoDaddy and I very much doubt that any court of law would compare the two seriously.

At the end of the day it's down to common sense. Don't bother trying to register a domain that contains another big companies trademark unless you are confident that the trademark itself isn't specific or unique enough to warrant them singling your site out, and that your content is completely different to the named trademark. The recent example GoDaddyNS.com is blatantly in breach. DaddyNS.com however could have been a different matter. Think before you register.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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Gofatty is nothing like Godaddy. I doubt they can legally do anything about it
 
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Here's a site I looked up that is for sale right now.
It uses the last word "DaddyO".
Would you buy it?

http://godaddyo.com/

In a way "Daddy" and "DaddyO" are 2 different ideas.
Know what I mean daddy-oh?

meljr
 
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Clearly attempting to cash in on the GoDaddy name. Why else would you charge $300,000 for the domain?

Don't forget that domains that contain trademark words will appear higher on search engine results.
 
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meljr said:
There is a site call GoFatty.com, why isn't that a infringment or is it?
http://www.gofatty.com

Because it's a site that has nothing to do with domains. A friend of mine ran a WWD reseller on NetworkDaddy.com and wound up having to settle with GoDaddy because they came after him with the charge that the name was "confusingly similar" to theirs or something like that. Seems rather odd that they can just bully someone with Daddy in their name that does anything with domain names, but apparently that's how it works. If GoFatty.com was being used for a domain registration site, you bet GoDaddy would be knocking on their door.
 
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Nah, you'd win if you register those. You're safe. The word Go and Daddy are not copyrighted to them, just the phrase GoDaddy is trademarked because its their business name. I don't see them even coming close to winning a "confusingly similar" case either.
 
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Only an idiot would sign up to GoDaddy as a reseller and use the domains UpDaddy.com, etc

He got what he deserved.
 
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Dave Zan said:
Then I guess you didn't come across this one:

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2004/d2004-0981.html

Took me a while to find it in my bookmarks.

Dave, this is very interesting that the "UpDaddy" lost to the "GoDaddy" concept. Thanks for looking that one up (as per your decision post).
You know that opens up other questions about names such as NoDaddy, OHDaddy and on and on with variations of "Daddy". I would have thought that UpDaddy was nothing like GoDaddy - but go figure.

meljr
 
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if you use the word daddy and your business is the same as Godaddy I would think they have a good case.
 
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We'll see what happens with my slowdaddy.com parody site once it's up. :blink:
 
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One word: parody. Parody is considered a fair use exception to copyright laws and I believe it also applies to trademarks. Additionally, the fact the site has nothing to do with domains or domaining services, really doesn't have much (if any) of a diluting effect on GoDaddy, and the site isn't profiting off the goodwill of GoDaddy decreases the likelihood a court would rule infringment is occuring.

I'm not a lawyer... yet. But, I'd expect this guy to be A-Okay.
 
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Bryant,

How did things shake down with that one? Sounds like it was an interesting perdicament.
 
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looks like if go daddy tried to take a swing at him, it would be for the reason being that godaddy sucks, and that godaddy would be assuming legal rights to the word "Go" and .Com
 
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Google... Azoogle
GoDaddy... GoFatty

I think there is not infrigement
 
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MyPGP said:
looks like if go daddy tried to take a swing at him, it would be for the reason being that godaddy sucks, and that godaddy would be assuming legal rights to the word "Go" and .Com

BTW, if you click on this link to access http://www.godaddysucks.com, guess where you'll end up?

(My buddy Bob Parsons over there figured all the angles. Heh-heh.)
 
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