Predicting the future & Trademarks

[TheFifty9Sound]

I have a question regarding trademarks and concepts that do not exist, have not yet been released or come to fruition.

I know the rule of thumb is, if it seems risky, it probably is and to stay away - But I'm curious to see what you think anyway.

Say for example, someone registered a domain.. something like FoxAntiques.com. What would happen if Fox decided to start a channel dedicated to Antiques AFTER the domain had been registered, called Fox Antiques? Would the registrar have a trademark issue on their hands?

Would it make a difference if it had been rumoured that Fox were thinking about starting an Antiques channel, but nothing official had ever been announced by Fox?

I ask because this domainers could walk a fine line when it comes to predicting futures technologies and concepts and registering names based on those predictions. I'm only a newbie, but I imagine a skilled domain flipper would be browsing the news, looking for future trends, and trying to get in early before anyone else does.

What do you think?

 

[Kate]

Basically, even if you registered the domain FoxAntiques.com BEFORE Fox releases the new channel, there is nothing that prevents them from moving forward with their plans without owning that domain. Maybe they will want the domain, maybe not...

If you knew about their plans and registered the domain for that reason (and not by chance), then there would be a TM issue.

Short answer is, you probably can keep the domain but it's neutered in a way. Like the owner of zune.com when Microsoft launched Zune. You should only use it in a way that won't infringe on their newly-established TM.

IANAL of course.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

On the other hand, the former owner of iphone.com had a $1,000,000 payday.

HOWEVER, the owner was very savvy; he did not squat on Apple's brand after the fact (I think the site had been used as a family site, LOL). He just patiently waited.

It is unclear (at least to me) if he approached Apple or if Apple approached him.

It also helped that the domain had been registered for 10 years, so if this guy was registering future trend domains, he really saw far into the future, even before Apple, so bad faith would have been difficult to argue and prove.

When a company announces a potential product, it's probably best to stay away from the matching domain, even if a TM has not yet been filed.

IMHO

*