snowwhite.tv

[meeks]

I have snowwhite.tv

can anyone give me any thoughts on the tm issues if I
a) develop it
or
b) can I just hold nd see if Disney might want it at some stage?

any thoughts are welcome.

thanks

 

[Skinny]

Did a search on the US trademark office and it seems "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is trademarked.

But Snow White is a bit iffy. Saying something is "snow white" is an expression.

Not a lawyer but I think you won't have too much trouble considering that snowwhite.com is owned by someone other than disney.

Skinny

 

[meeks]

thanks skinny

might be hard to do anything with it excepet hold in the hope of a sale..

might pass it on I think

thanks again

 

[RogueWriter]

I wonder how many lawyers Disney has? Let me know when you find out!!!

 

[Ronald Regging]

I think its generic enough that if you don't demonstrate bad faith, you shouldn't have a problem. SnowWhite.com is obviously infringing on Disney's TM by having links to buy the movie through an Amazon affiliate program...

 

[DNQuest.com]

When you dere "Snow White", what's teh fisrt thing that comes to mind?? I would guarentee 99% of all people would think along the lines of "Snow White and teh 7 Dwarves" which is clearly owned by Disney..... So it has acquired a secondary meaning which is the classic definaition of being a TM. So to answer the first question, yes, it is a a TM. Now, it is how you use it that determines illegal usage (or in our field, "bad faith" registration and/or usage. But it seems to me that you registered it to make a profit IE- bad faith and when Disney comes after you, they will call you a cybersquater, and they might be right.

Slip, you shold better than to offer an example like that, just because someone isn't caught does not make it legal. Everyone speeds on I95, so if I speed, can I say "everyone does it"?, no. Additionally, was the phrase "Snow White" around before Disney created the term? It may not be as generic as one may think. But yes, usage, usage, usage.... that is the bottom line.

 

[hugegrowth]

Snow White is such an old fairy tale that I think it is public domain material.

Same with Peter Pan, it wasn't invented by Disney and is so old that it is now in the public domain.

But I'm not a trademark lawyer by any means, so someone please correct if I'm wrong.

 

[Ronald Regging]

Slip, you shold better than to offer an example like that, just because someone isn't caught does not make it legal. Everyone speeds on I95, so if I speed, can I say "everyone does it"?, no. Additionally, was the phrase "Snow White" around before Disney created the term? It may not be as generic as one may think. But yes, usage, usage, usage.... that is the bottom line.

Hmm... I know I replied to this, maybe the interweb ate my message?

I wasn't implying that he should do the same thing, because others were getting away with it. I was merely alluding to the fact that if Disney isn't going after an owner who has the prime domain and is clearly infringing on the mark, they probably aren't going to make a fuss about someone who develops it in a non-infringing manner. But yes, it's all about usage.

 

[Celdric]

As Hugegrowth already mentioned Snow White is a character of an old fairy tale and wasn't created by Disney. They just made a movie about her.

You may want to take a look at the wikilink below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White


So I can't see any copyright or trademark violation, except the site would be somehow related to the mentioned Disney movie.

 

[snoop]

The name isn't worth keeping in light of the potential for t/m problems. I think the extension makes this more likely to be the lost than any other tld as there is a link to television/movies etc implied by the name.

 

[hugegrowth]

Disney would probably like people to think it is trademarked, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Same thing with Peter Pan, there have been two live actor films made about Peter Pan, and at least one of them wasn't by Disney. Anyone could make a Snow White or Peter Pan movie.

 

[Celdric]

I agree, Hugegrowth. Since I was a child I watched perhaps a half dozen Snow White movies. Well, don't know the exact number. Anyway, none of these movies was the Disney version.

 

[DNQuest.com]

Actually, Disney holds an active registered mark "Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Drawfs". They do have some rights to the name. They can prove they use it in commerce and that it has acquired secondary meaning. Now, it is up to the usage to determine bad faith or not... but I think I already know the answer.