vCards.asia - Possible TM issue??

[sukantab]

Hi,
I bought the domain vcards.asia and want to develop a electronic cards website.
Is there any TM issue?

Thanks,
Sukanta

 

[flamewalker]

First Step: look at uspto.gov, do a google search for tm's on vcards... however I suspect anyone would have a hard time tm'ing that generic term imho.

 

[sukantab]

Thanks... Searched for vcard and found few entries in uspto. However this is realted to the vcard outlook format. Also, all vcard & vcards tld's are taken by different people.

I will probably take the risk.

 

[flamewalker]

well if there are no tm's related to virtual 'cards' or -egreeting cards, you might be ok. Search google to see if other have been using it in commerce or not... in particular the other extensions.

 

[sukantab]

well if there are no tm's related to virtual 'cards' or -egreeting cards, you might be ok. Search google to see if other have been using it in commerce or not... in particular the other extensions.

Thanks. All tlds with vcards are regged to different people but all of them are parked. So I will take the risk of developing it.

 

[DNQuest.com]

First question, why would it be logical to look at the USPTO as a first move? You realize it is a .asia? I would look into the governing coutry's TM office first, and then go from there. I would also searcg Google to see how the term is being used and if there can be an argument for a common law TM. TM do not have to be registered to have TM protectiion.

 

[sukantab]

First question, why would it be logical to look at the USPTO as a first move? You realize it is a .asia? I would look into the governing coutry's TM office first, and then go from there. I would also searcg Google to see how the term is being used and if there can be an argument for a common law TM. TM do not have to be registered to have TM protectiion.

Thanks a lot, DNQuest. As per my understanding, the main reason of searching .asia domain in USPTO is .asia domains are still under icann, which is a US organization.
Also, there are instances that US companies file lawsuit against non-US domains.
That is the reason, I was a bit concerned.
As I found in google, vcard is a format to send visiting cards and used by different companies like MS, Apple etc in their softwares.

 

[DNQuest.com]

Theoretically, ICANN is an international organization, not a US governing body. But still, .asia is geared towards Asian countries and they are the end user for this extension. So I would put more emphasis on those countries first.

Here is some interesting reading on vcard. I can't tell if this is a branding or functional name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard