Question on TM Infringment

[Chromis]

Ok here is the scoop. This is not a current problem but I want to avoid it in the future..

I am looking at selling vanity email names.. For example..(Not real example)

boyscouts would be trademarked, Girlscouts would be trademarked each a social group with education overtones.

I would try to register BoyscoutsNGirlscouts.com and sell individual email access to the individual emails of BSA and GSA...

Also one of styles of vanity names I am looking at has such as boyscouts-troop1223.net with BSA trademarked and troop 1223 being a sub-group under BSA also trademarked..

My thoughts on this issue are while the different sections are parts of a trademark, the full name is not a trademark. I would have a statement on the website side of the email saying that This is not a part of BSA (again example). I am also looking that I am not trying to provide the same service as the boy and girl scouts of america. I am wondering how my marketing to their group specificly would affect any legalities?

Any lawyer and non-lawyer help, suggestions, advice would be apprecaited.

Also if I was to register a town name, and offer webstes to companies in that town.. an example would be chicago.com and Offering Brown's Truck Stop the subdomain of Browns.Chicago.Com . I am not worried about the Infringment of Browns because it would be on their specific request. However is there any liability for using chicago.com (I know that one is taken and will stay taken but the point is still there.

Thanks for any help

Chromis

 

[jeter4982]

well i dont think city names are trademarked, but im pretty sure that the first example is illegal

 

[Chromis]

Possible Illegal

I was thinking it might be, and because of that i was asking the question. :bah:

To avoid that, I MIGHT get with the organization and ask if they are interested and get a "contract" before I register the names. If I lose the names, no BIG loss since I did not reg them yet. and if I get a contract or agreement or MOU, then I might have a little more "defense" and since they know about it. should be no problem..

Was also thinking about offering the Non Profit group a % of the profits.. say a fulll 1/2... above my expenses.. just some thoughts..

Thanks for answering..

 

[primacomputer]

This idea that a name has to match a trademark exactly to be a problem is a cybersquatter urban legend. If you use a trademark, or variation of a trademark anywhere in a name then you potentially have a problem. The problem comes when it comes time to decide if you are misleading people (intentionally or otherwise) into believing the service you are providing is sponsored, endorsed, authorized, etc by the trademark owner. In the case of the boy scouts email thing I just don't see how you could convince anyone you weren't passing off.

Of course there is nothing wrong with pitching the idea to a boy scout troop and providing email service to them for a fee, or even registering the domain name for them, provided it is registered in their name. Combine this with some hosting of web based troop management software and you have a serious product to sell.

In the case of a city name, as a general rule I think it's generally safe to assume that the name was in common use long before anyone considered filing a trademark. If this is the case, then if a trademark was even granted it is probably not enforceable. The same may not be true of certain towns and communities, where the name was invented by the developer and they have certain rights to it.

 

[Chromis]

That is kinda what I was figuring.. So I will probably follow the pitching first then getting name later..

Thanks, both of you for the information.

 

[sharename]

.pw was designed for vanity email

By the way, if you want to do vanity email on a large scale, the .pw domain was designed for vanity email addresses. They have reserved the entire second level for shared use. This means they have every city and town, surname, and non-profit group you can think of. And they already offer email forwarding with some pretty powerful spam-blocking technology with more services to follow. It seems like they have figured out to avoid the trademark infringement issue.

 

[Carlton]

Regarding your example on the use of city names, you are in the clear. Nice concept. Good luck with it.