How Is This Explained??

[binaryman]

Could someone please explain this to me. It concerns domains in all extensions that use a name that has various trademarks on it by various different entities.

Take YOUTUBE for instance. We all know YOUTUBE has a TM on it. But just take a minute of your time and go to this link for EURODNS

http://www.eurodns.com/search/index.php

and type in YOUTUBE in the search bar. Tick all the country tld's for the maximum search coverage.
See what I mean? YOUTUBE is registered in every country tld. Some are even up for sale. They are not the official YOUTUBE sites. These are registered by various different people or entities. So how can this be? Why are these domain owners not being sued by YOUTUBE. OK I heard that one of them was in fact sued or something but why not the rest then?

Another one is AUTOLAND. I was thinking of regging the .mobi version but am worried about a TM issue so I refrained. It is still available and is taken in every other country tld. The .com version has a TM and some of the others have too. They are owned by various different businesses and people and most have no TM. Why then are they not all sueing one another? Close to where I live is a big carshowroom also called AUTOLAND but it has nothing to do with the trademarked AUTOLAND company from the .COM version. My question is this. If I register AUTOLAND then can I be forced to hand over the domain to say AUTOLAND.com? And say I then hand it over to them can they in turn be sued by AUTOLAND.info who also have a TM. And would the ultimate winner of AUTOLAND then be able to force the other 30 or so holders of various country tld's with the name AUTOLAND to all hand them over? Thus resulting in only one company owning all the tld's of AUTOLAND?
I hope someone can answer this for me as it continious to baffle me. After all what is the use of AUTOLAND having Trademarked their name if all those 30 or more other domain extensions of the name are allowed to excist? These are just 2 excamples but there are of course thousands off others as one can see when you type in some popular word or phrase with a TM on it and then see that it is taken in every domain extension by different people and some are up for sale.
Thanks for reading all this and thank you in advance for your answers.
Regards
Fred.

 

[labrocca]

Yup...you have pointed out something many are aware of. Large scale companies see this as a problem. The solution...no one knows. Take the word Apple. It's TM but by multiple companies...so who should get the apple.cctld?

It's the registrant not he registrar that commits TM infringement based on bad-faith usage. The registrars don't USE the domains...consider them paper sellers...it's the buyers that print the books. You don't blame the paper company for the printing press infringements.

Anyways...

If I register AUTOLAND then can I be forced to hand over the domain to say AUTOLAND.com?

This requires a long answer. Familiarize yourself with TM law more. As you have been told before READ READ READ.

And say I then hand it over to them can they in turn be sued by AUTOLAND.info who also have a TM.

Again..they would need to infringe on the mark for that to happen. Ownership of a domain does not automatically mean infringement. It's USAGE USAGE USAGE....again...as you have been told before in other threads.

And would the ultimate winner of AUTOLAND then be able to force the other 30 or so holders of various country tld's with the name AUTOLAND to all hand them over? Thus resulting in only one company owning all the tld's of AUTOLAND?

Doubtful and again USAGE would matter. This is why so many extensions can exist with many different sites on each one. It's bad-faith that normally creates problems. If you are trying to make money on another persons work..that's infringement.

 

[Damion]

Hi Fred,

In the case of YouTube you have to keep in mind that those obscure extensions pose no threat to YouTube and perhaps they will be demanded from their respective owners sooner or later.

YouTube is what? like only 16 months in service, so since the domain/name is so popular now the other extensions will be interesting for people leaching of Youtubes success and they will be approached by YouTubes lawyers sooner or later.

An example of lawyers in pursuit can be seen in this YouTube.net thread.
It's only a matter of time.

In the case of Autoline, at first glance the content of each website is different. The .com is a parking page, the .net is a redirect to a computer company and so on. AutoLine is not really a business as it seems.

Example:

You would have a online business called NiceCars.com and you are listing cars for sale and make a profit for the car listings, advertisement fees. That is your business model where your company revolves on.

And your site is extremely popular.

My site NiceCars.net is a site devoted to displaying famous and beautifull cars over the years, like a online documentary so to speak.
And i would sell books and posters about cars, that would be mine business model.


No matter how much you would like to own my domain you would have no chance to claim it from me and win a legal case against me.

Different business models and generic words

When there are made up words involved it's a different matter.

Hope that makes sense some how

 

[binaryman]

Thanks guys. It does clear it up a bit. LaBrocca I have been reading,reading and reading but have been unable to find a specific answer to my question. So I guess AUTOLAND is best steered clear off then to avoid problems. Damion NiceCars and NiceCar are both still available in .Mobi by the way.

 

[labrocca]

Intellectual property law requires understanding and intepretation of it. Every case is different. If you understand the basics you can then apply them to different scenarios. I have seen countless varieties of your same question here over and here. All basically asking "what constitutes TM infringment".

 

[binaryman]

Excactly LaBrocca. I am extremely concerned about avoiding registration of a domain with even the slightest chance of trademark infringement. I have let many nice domains pass me by because of this. It is excactly as you say "every TM case is different" therefore I find it very hard to gauge where the borders and edges are of some domains. What is your opinion then of AUTOLAND? Would you leave it be yourself?
Regards
Fred

 

[Dave_Z]

Now where did I read this question somewhere? Looks familiar. :D

 

[labrocca]

Excactly LaBrocca. I am extremely concerned about avoiding registration of a domain with even the slightest chance of trademark infringement. I have let many nice domains pass me by because of this. It is excactly as you say "every TM case is different" therefore I find it very hard to gauge where the borders and edges are of some domains. What is your opinion then of AUTOLAND? Would you leave it be yourself?
Regards
Fred

You have to weight risk/reward. For the $7 to register a name...will you be able to get a return. Domaining for me and many others is about revenue. If you can make the almighty dollar (the euro in your case) then go for it. However if you think the chances of losing the domain are high and legal hassles scare you...steer clear. I have no problem taking on legal matters. I have yet to really get burned by a lawyer. I have a lawyer but at this point I do most of the negotiations myself. In the end intellectual property lawyers that work for companies are there to negotiate. They do NOT want to litigate matters. It's time consuming and costly. It's rare you get a company that will do anything more than a UDRP. A UDRP costs them a couple thousand and so any domain is buying under that mark. Companies are in the business to make money...not to litigate domains in TM disputes.

I waste money all the time. I would have taken autoland.mobi. It's NEVER infringement just to register the name. It's your intentions that can be an issue. There are HOT domains out there where the companies are vigorous about them. Such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, and Myspace...are you getting the picture yet? These are companies that are online players and need to protect their home turf. Autoland most likely don't care about mobi if they are even aware of it. Their business is to sell cars.


Anyways...if you are going to have a conscience when registering domains will be passing up a lot of opportunities.

 

[Archangel]

I answered something similar in this thread: http://www.namepros.com/domain-appraisals/241269-newbie-here-with-facebook-myspace-domains.html

But just to quote myself:

Why are there so TM-domains on sale now? Well, even MySpace won't go after everything it sees -- only what it thinks could tarnish their TM. It doesn't take long for company to send a C & D email but if the domain owner chooses to battle in court, well, it'll be ugly for all involved -- and the TM could be tarnished from it. There are too many TM-infringing domains out there. Most companies only aim at the major threats.

 

[binaryman]

Thanx LaBrocca..yes I get the picture now
and Archangel thanks also.

Have decided to forget about AutoLand. Regged AutoExpert.mobi instead which I think is more marketable and will have more offers for it then AutoLand. :imho: