Question regarding domain name similarities

[ddzc]

Hi everyone,

I grabbed a domain name but im starting to have second thoughts. I'm going to type out the exact situation with a fictional story.

I buy a domain name called bestwebhosts.com. This site is a review site with different host providers with links to there homepages. One of the sites being reviewed is called webhosts.com. My url is exactly the same except with best before it and weg hosts is just a generic name for a service and not a company or product, therefore I don't believe it's illegal to use the domain name.

If I use bestwebhosts.com and review multiple providers, possibly directing them to sales, will I have any problems from webhosts.com b/c of the similarity in the name?

Thanks

 

[Dave_Z]

If the other party has established trademark rights to the words in question,
coupled with your usage similar or even competing against theirs, you might
get problems from them.

 

[ddzc]

Thanks,

How can I verify if its trademarked? The name is literally similar as my example. Another example would be gameserver.com and my domain being bestgameserver.com. How can someone trademark such a generic term like server or game server?

 

[weblord]

http://www.namepros.com/2929577-post12.html

 

[Dave_Z]

How can I verify if its trademarked? The name is literally similar as my example. Another example would be gameserver.com and my domain being bestgameserver.com. How can someone trademark such a generic term like server or game server?

You'd have to make an exhaustive search, though one can either do a Google
search or look at a trademark database like uspto.gov. One can use a generic
word as a trademark distinctively rather than descriptively, which has allowed
cases like Tide for a detergent and Head And Shoulders for shampoo.

 

[ddzc]

Thanks again for the response. I'll do some research here on my end.