Is it safe to use the acronym "WP" in a domain?

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I'm not a lawyer but it looks okay so far.

Good question,

Having been down this road with microsoft as I was using micro in a domain name a decade ago, I got letter demanding cease and desist of donain name. Well, being a hard ass, I said screw you, you want to buy my domain, you are welcome to make an offer. After all the lawyer letters, they saw they couldn't bully me, so they hung it up and left me alone as I sent them similar cases, and as I was not selling software, they would not have a case anyhow.

I am battling Dish Network as I have a domain name Best-Direct-Dish-Satellite and they tried to claim Dish is trademarked, so I challenged then to prove it after I found no such trademark for Dish alone. They had trademark for Dish Network. As dish is a generic word alone, I made same offer, if they wanted to buy my domain, In this case I am using domain to compete with new streaming TV technology as an alternative to cable or satellite, so we shall see. I wanted bid of $5000. Haven't heard back from them for over a month, so we shall see.

Simply put, run a trademark search and see if WP is trademarked, and if so, you don't want to be marketing a similar product or service, as in another word press type of service. I have used this strategy for years with only two challenges to date, none got to court room, but I keep trying. lol

Success to all,

Your best bet would be to consult with a lawyer, although I think you may be in the clear. Lots of sites out there use 'wp' in their domains, and I haven't seen any of those go down. Keep in mind, I'm not a lawyer here so if you really wanna be sure ask one, or do a trademark lookup yourself.

I did some digging, and here is what I found:

"The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks
and you are free to use it in any way you see fit."

Here is the source:

Trademark Policy | WordPress Foundation

Scroll down to the second last line on that page.

Happy WP'ing!

I'll just add the obvious: it hasn't been trademarked it yet.

If I need legal advice, I seek it from my lawyer. So take my advice with a pitch of salt. If you're putting up a website about Wordpress, naming its domain with the WP acronym, then - despite there currently being no existing trademark - I feel you're possibly not protecting the future of your business, and all the hard work it will entail to make it a success. I'd honestly go with a safer option.

Tom

^That might be true for other companies, but that would go against the entire concept of what wordpress is.

Besides, it would take a tremendous legal suit to try and keep a trademark on WP. For example:
About 1/3 of all wordpress plugins sold in the market.

For years there were domain names with the full word WordPress in it.
Now they've cut down on those and requested name changes, but WP is okay.

If you are adding value to the community I think WordPress will welcome you to use the prefix WP. All of the sites that use WP in the prefix help grow the WordPress community so why would they want them gone? Cant wait to see what you build!

Planning for the future is great. As long as the plans are grounded in reality.

Planning on wordpress suddenly destroying their entire user base is the equivalent to those people who stockpiled ammo and food in secret locations in the Rockies leading up to Y2K. Sure, there was a .000000000001% chance that the entire world was going to completely tear itself apart, and those "planners" would have been prepared to drink their own pee and live off dehydrated carrots, but it doesn't mean these people were smart.

I've seen sites that had WP for years. If it wasn't allowed
then it would be made known for sure. I don't see a problem using it.

Yes, that's perfectly fine..

The prefix 'WP' is used so often for domains and products..

I've seen dozens of products and domains with the prefix 'WP'

Your good

Last comment on the issue...

As it stands WP holds zero trademark violation. We're all clear on this point. I would, however, never name my business on the back of another business. Trademarks change, as do laws.

Tom