oceansloans.com

[Foxon]

hi i have the domain oceansloans.com and there is a company called oceansfinance.co.uk is there any chance of a legal dispute and is it worth offering the site to them thanks

 

[B33R]

Maybe not oceansfinance_co_uk but you need to search for "oceansloans" or "oceanloans" trademarks and see if there are any.
If there is a trademark outstanding, then you could get into legal trouble.

http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
EDIT: http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/ There's the UK trademark site but it closes at night -- how dumb is that? :lol:

You can be sued by someone from any country if you're sitting on a domain name that's in breach of their trademark.

As for offering it to any other finance or loans companies. Go for it! They'll probably say no or not answer especially if the names are different but I guess it's always worth a try!

 

[Foxon]

Cheers thanks very much any other help would be useful

 

[primacomputer]

All things considered it looks like a pretty clear cut case of cybersquatting to me.

Sure, offer it to them but be prepared to hand it over for what you paid for it to keep yourself out of trouble.

 

[Foxon]

sorry the company is oceanfinance.co.uk and my site is oceansloans.com
thanks

 

[ammo]

As B33R said cant be any trademark issues unless there is another company with that name, however that is a great domain, maybe you should start a loan company I really think thats one fantastic domain :D

 

[Foxon]

i dont know anything about loans or stuff like that so this site is not doing anyhting right now i may offer it to companies and see what they say

 

[Dave_Z]

Why'd you get the domain name in the first place?

 

[primacomputer]

sorry the company is oceanfinance.co.uk and my site is oceansloans.com
thanks

Not quite.

The company is Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited
One of many domains they own is oceanfinance.co.uk
They also own oceanloans.co.uk
This name, which you neglected to mention, is very similar to the one you are squatting on.

Now if you actually were in the business of doing loans under the name “oceans” and you didn't live in the next county over from where these guys were based, and hadn't registered the name after seeing one of their ads, then it would be reasonable easy to say you weren't squatting, but as things stand it's pretty clear what's going on.

You can't just take a name, change a letter or the extension and then offer it back to the owner. Well you can, but you'll get done for cybersquatting every time.

 

[Foxon]

i did not just take that site becuase they owned it i didnt no they owned it i took it because i like the name because of this i am going to get rid of the site asap i will consider any offers if anyone wants to offer for it.

 

[DNQuest.com]

i did not just take that site becuase they owned it i didnt no they owned it i took it because i like the name because of this i am going to get rid of the site asap i will consider any offers if anyone wants to offer for it.

Ignorance is no excuse. Sorry to be blunt, but it is true. When you register a domain, it is clearly stated that it is your responsibility that the domain is not in violation of TMs. That means you have to do your due diligence to make sure the domain is not a TM. In this day and age of technology, it is very easy to find out if there is a TM or not. Heck, Google or Yahoo a name and see what comes up.

No, I don't want to but your TMed domain :lol:

 

[Foxon]

they only have ocean finance trade marked not oceansloans so it is not trademarked ocean finance. i have just check
thank you

 

[primacomputer]

I think you've fallen fallen victim to some trademark urban legends. Let me try to explain some of these misconceptions in simple terms.

A trademark doesn't need to be registered. Even if you searched every trademark database in the world it would not prove that no one had a trademark.

You can't change or add a letter or two and get around a trademark. Infringement is gauged by the likelihood that someone would confuse the words you are using with the trademarked words. You are NOT safe simply by using words that are not an “exact match”

In this case we have a company called Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited. They have a registered trademark “Ocean Finance”. They use the domain names: oceanfinance.co.uk, oceanmortgages.co.uk, and oceanloans.co.uk.

Now if someone, somewhere out there in the big world where they have oceans and loans, decided to set up a company and use a similar domain name that would probably be fine. But when their next door neighbour decides to register a similar name it starts to look fishy. And when that neighbour talks about selling the name to them it becomes a pretty clear case of cybersquatting.

It's not a big deal, just don't try to sell the name to them, and don't try to pass yourself off as them. If you find the name has no other value when it comes time to renew let it drop. Worst case your out ten bucks, but a lot wiser.

 

[Foxon]

well i offered it to them about a 5 days ago but they havent responed i sent it to the customer services so hopefully it got deleted i hope anyway wot do you think will happen if it didnt

 

[Dave_Z]

well i offered it to them about a 5 days ago but they havent responed i sent it to the customer services so hopefully it got deleted i hope anyway wot do you think will happen if it didnt

You better hope that customer service rep who saw your email doesn't know
this stuff. Otherwise, expect a love letter soon. :D

 

[Foxon]

i hope so 2 lol