Domain name consisting generic word trademarks

This falls into the realm of legal advice and my first suggestion is to consult a lawyer instead of asking people with no law training whatsoever to speculate. That's one of the most popular ways to get yourself into trouble.

Now, having said that--and, remembering this is not actual legal advice--I think you have to look at the word combination you are considering. For example, while the words "face" and "book" are probably fine when used in unrelated contexts, you couldn't put those words together and live to tell about it.

So, if you combine "pixel" with a second word forming a non-trademarked word-combination, you're "probably" fine unless the second word is something like, "starbucks."

Again, don't take my word for it; seek actual legal advice from an actual lawyer.

My layman's grasp of the situation is this...

You are probably fine to use two trademarked terms as a single word, as long as your topic has nothing to do with either of those trademarked terms. The idea behind trademarks is to avoid confusion in the marketplace.

For example, the words Amazon and Ford. Unless you're talking about crossing a river in South America, you could end up in hot water.

Another consideration...

Even if you were on firm legal ground, can you afford to prove it?

If an infringement suit is filed, a judge can force you to cease and desist using the domain name until the suit is resolved, and it could cost you thousands of dollars and years of time to find that resolution.

Fun fact: the word "trademark" is trademarked.

Key issues to know about trademarks:

1. The most important issue is whether consumer confusion results between your name and another trademark. This is why trademarks are issued per classification / product type.

Example: Delta Faucets and Delta Airlines can both share the word delta because there is no consumer confusion between these different product types.

Example: If you start Blue Delta Faucets then there would be likely consumer confusion as to who is creating the faucets.

2. There are a few trademarks so famous that they practically have a monopoly on use of their word to prevent tarnishing their brand.

Example: Google Sh*t Scoopers for picking up dog crap are completely unrelated to Google's search business, but could be claimed by Google to tarnish its brand.


In your situation, if your company was Delta Pixel, delta and pixel are separately trademarked you will want to review the "live" registered trademarks for each to see if any involve a product similar to yours. If there is a similar product, then you need to evaluate if there is possible consumer confusion between your name and the other name.


Finally, your focus so far is on registered trademarks, which is fine - but you need to broaden it. Most trademarks are not registered but can still be protected.

What you do is run some searches on your proposed name on search engines like DuckDuckGo, Google and Bing to see if someone else is already using your name.

If so, then you need to evaluate the potential consumer confusion from your use of the same or similar name.

You also need to evaluate the scope of the businesses involved.

Example: Fred's Donuts can be the name of a store in Los Angeles and also the name of a store in New York. Although both stores have the exact same name for the exact same business, if their business is purely local there is probably not going to be a confusion issue.

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BTW, kindsvater actually IS a lawyer.

I'm not a lawyer (and nowhere capable of being one), but my general advice is to just shy away from the idea, pick different domain name that wont get you into hot water, and then just market the product/site. That's what it boils down to anyway. The marketing makes the money - not the domain name.

here at once and not say

Real story: I once got a local lawyer off my back (who was harassing me that my domain was infringing on his client's TM) by simply ignoring him.

I knew that is client's trademark was BS and they should have never been granted the TM in the first place and, if pursued legally, they would lose it. I'm sure he knew this too.

He was just trying to scare me so I'd roll over and hand my domain over to his client. Once he realized I wasn't going to play his game, he stopped bugging me.

That was 9 years ago. I still own the domain today.

I don't recommend trying this.

Been researching the heck out of this as well with no luck. I'm wondering if I need to seek a legal opinion. My question is in the same vein. Can you use a variation of a trademark in a domain name. For example company trademark name is Bright Red Pickles, can I use something like pickleheads.com or pickleoholics.com? Lot harder to find info about variations on trademark names.