Subdomain Question

[firefly]

I was playing with the idea of adding subdomains to a site and I was wondering if there are TM rules governing what terms you can use on a subdomain?

the easiest way to ask this I guess is to give an example. Just say I owned shoes. com (I don't...lol)

Would it be ok to create a subdomains like this?

converse.shoes.com
puma.shoes.com

or would the subdomians have to be more generic in nature like?

menssneakers.shoes.com
boots.shoes.com

I figure that you probably have to use the latter i.e. a more generic term, but I thought I would check first.

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question.:hehe::blink::red:

 

[Kate]

For the purpose of TM violation the whole URL should be taken into consideration. As long as it has the potential to be confusingly similar to a well-known TM, then you may have a TM issue :tu:

 

[firefly]

Kinda what I thought. Just wanted to check.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[intheflow]

I would do it.

Unless you are hurting their trademark in some way, I doubt they are going to go after you. If you are just selling their widgets and put each type or brand on its own domain I don't see that as harmful. It's a subdomain, so they can't take away your domain name. They can sue you, but I doubt they will and its easy enough to put up some permanent redirects and move your content to a subfolder if you needed to.

There was a time when subdomains were much more valuable than subfolders for SEO purposes, but I'm not sure if there is much difference in the current algorythms. The good thing about subdomains is that if they get banned or google slapped, it doesn't directly affect your main domain so they are a little safer if you plan on doing some aggressive link building/promotion.

 

[enlytend]

Generally, having someone else's tm anywhere to the left of the tld is a no-no. (Unless you're an authorized reseller and have their permission)

 

[AdoptableDomains]

To my knowledge, a UDRP or WIPO dispute can only be done based on the "registered" domain. Since a subdomain isn't registered, bu is created at your host, it's a real gray area as far as these types of disputes go. It could be argued by a good lawyer though that the name was registered in bad faith with the intent of adding TM violating subdomains to meet that rule. I don't think you want to be the test case though.

Beyond UDRP, yes it would be at least unethical and probably illegal to violate TM's with a subdomain. instead of a fairly easy UDRP case though, you would be forced to defend yourself in a court of law, and against damages far greater than losing just the domain. People have been sued for unfair and unauthorized use of TM's in web page meta tags, ad Keywords, and hidden text.

Just don't do it.

 

[firefly]

Thanks again guys for the replies.

Sort of the way I was leaning but I just wanted to make sure.