Have you been threatened by company with trademarking?

[armed2012]

So I have had business plan in the works for a long time, investor on board , complete mapped out idea and all, my website is XXXXnow.com, I also bought yhe .net and .org so no one could use them, the 4 XXXX's happen to be a general english word thats in the dictionary with more than 1 meaning, there is a huge company with this 4 letter word out there and there name is XXXX network. Now my XXXXnow.com is geared towards something completely different than there business and is actually the other meaning of the word in the english dictionary, in fact the meaning they use the word for isnt what typically even comes to mind in america and all of history when you hear it. xxxx network has emailed me and has threatened I need to surrender this domain and that I cannot use it, they say they would prefer to not use lawyers and etc, has anyone else experienced this? Should I comply and lose all of my work and time for this great idea ? Or is this common scare tactics from big company's, I hand regged this name... ItIt's as simple as this, let's take apple, apple obviously is a huge company with a trade mark, does that mean no one in the united states who wants to grow apples on in there farm and sell them cant have the word apple in there domain? I feel like im being bullied and this name clutch, and the logo and design all call around it, the whole purpose of the product is this name. Im not asking for legal advice, im just new to this domain world and just wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Am I up for some crap I dont want to deal with vs losing my extreme potential for great success and wealth with this key .com being the very thing behind the company idea?

 

[armed2012]

Up

 

[korganian]

I got the same type of demand from the legal team of one of the largest hotel chains in the US. I did some research on the internet and emailed them a photo of civil war soldiers in front of a hotel with the exact same name as their hotel. This photo was taken 50 years before this legal team's hotel chain was even founded. So I called the legal team's phone number and advised them that they had no right to use the name. I never heard from them again

 

[AEProgram]

I think more can be helpful here if you post the names in question

 

[Silentptnr]

I would not be frightened by their communication.. They probably are just trying to test you.

 

[TERADOMAIN]

Hi,

You can Use Any Dictionary word(s) as long as they do not infringe other company's product or services. For Example given by you is Apple. Yes You can use Apple to sell any other things except what Apple.com sells and/or they have registered Trademark for certain things. We can have Blog of Apple Farm and Apple.com can't do anything to us because we are doing as per meaning of dictionary word. Yes we can't sell products of Apple's competitor as well.

Let me elaborate little more simple way

Orange.com = Cell Phone Company

OrangeJuice.com = We can sell Orange Juice or can have Blog about Orange Juice.

What we can do and can not do with Orange word.

• We can't sell anything related to Cell Phone on MyOrange.com or IOrange.com or any other Orange+Word or Word+Orange website.
• We can Sell Orange related items without worrying anything even there are hundreds of other Word+Orange or Orange+Word websites are similar to us because we are selling what our name represents. No one can do anything to us.
• We can not use Registered Trademark Phrase of some other company as our website name. For Example We can not use JUSTDOIT.com to sell shoes because it is registered trademark phrase of Nike.com
• Any Dictionary words we can use for our website name as long as we sell/represent related to meaning of that dictionary word.

There are so many complicated rules and regulations involved. Any Big Company with long term outlook try to use Dictionary word use them in different category so that dictionary word and category become unique for their identity. They also use made up word or 2 different words for their unique identity.

Google.com = Made Up Word so we can not use Google at all in our Website or Domain name because it is not dictionary word and it is identity of a particular company.

Apple.com = Selling Gadgets

Amazon.com , Microsoft.com, Alibaba.com etc.,

I am not an expert. This is just an opinion. I am still learning.

We can only help if you can let us know your Company Name and Your future project outline plus Other Company's name and their business category.

If you want you can PM me. I will try to share what I have learned so far about how to avoid not getting involved in Trademark name or how to use Dictionary words without infringing anybody's interest.

Thanks