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Is it legal to include a product or company name in a domain name?

by Conrad Stuart
10 replies
Just like the title says, is this legal or allowed? Lets say for instance that I wanted to use jessicamclintockplussizedresses.com, is this allowed?

I know most will say it is not, but I thought I would ask anyway because it is in a gray area. PLEASE do not respond if you are just going to say "hell no" with no experience/proof/knowledge to back it up. Just saying!
#company #domain #include #legal #product
  • Profile picture of the author DavidTheMavin
    It depends on whether or not the name is trademarked. This was all decided by a case about 10 years ago where an adult site tried to use adultsrus.com as a domain and got sued by toysrus from what I remember.
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    • Profile picture of the author grumpyjacksa
      hi

      yes,it is a trademark issue....

      but we have seen a few warriors losing domains because they were similar to trademarked names...

      what happens if you put a lot of work into it, and you have to give it up ?

      personally, i wouldn't take the chance

      just my 0.02c
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      • Profile picture of the author Stefan Vee
        I never touch these type of domain names.
        It's not worth it to build up a spin-off brand when the risk of losing it all is always eminent.
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  • Profile picture of the author Conrad Stuart
    Thanks, I know it is definitely a gray area, but I wonder if the company would notice/care, and also if you were to make it %100 clear on the site that you do not own the company whose name you have used if that would make a difference....
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    • Profile picture of the author WAL08
      i have a domain with the name eBay in it.. and i got a letter from ebays trust and safety asking that i change the domain name or further actions would take place.. now i use the word auction.

      if you are planning on building a solid business, it's best not to use a companies name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Conrad Stuart
    Very good points, guys, thanks alot. Funny that you mention this, because I actually own X-box360games.com and .net, tried to post them on Sedo to sell, and was rejected for 'risk management' issues. Thought I had a gem, too! Guess some things are too good to be true
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    There's no criminal law that prohibits you from doing it, but there's civil law that exposes you to liability. This is covered under trademark law. You can do it; there's no law that says you can't.

    HOWEVER.

    When you own a trademark, you are required to protect it from what's called "dilution" - other people using the same trademark. If you don't go out and tell people using your trademark to stop it, every single time, you can lose your rights to that trademark.

    So the law is very clear on the point that if you want to keep your trademark exclusively yours, you have to aggressively go after anyone using it without authorisation... and make them stop.

    So if you're using the name in a domain, and you have lots of inbound links to that domain, when the lawyers show up and say "not to do that!" - you lose all those links.

    In addition, the owner of the trademark has an opportunity to sue for damages, on the grounds that you have impacted his business. If you stop when they tell you to stop, chances are they won't do this... but they have every right to do it, and if you actually have materially impacted the owner's business - especially if you did it on purpose - they probably will.

    I wouldn't do it, myself, because I prefer to brand my own products and leave the me-too domain names to others. But in general, you probably won't get in trouble for it, and the SEO impact might be worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidTheMavin
    Remember that even if the name isn't trademarked, if the company sees you using it they can easily just trademark it retroactively if they were doing business under the name in the past.

    That being said I've owned tons of domains with celebrities' names in them and never got sued. I got sued by Metallic for using Napster tho, so go figure
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    • Profile picture of the author CmdrStidd
      This is a real sticky issue and I think it comes down to the issue of are you monetizing the site directly or not? Here is why I say this. Allstate Insurance Co. has for over 20 years been trying to shut down a website with the domain name of allstatesucks.com but they have lost every attempt in court. The owner of the domain name states that his site is used to give testimonials to the kinds of service that Allstate Insurance provides and is not making any money off the site at all. It is strictly a Review and Testimonial site which is protected under the 1st Amendment.

      Therefore, if you are making money directly from the operation of that site in some way then you are in violation of trademark laws but the US Supreme Court has upheld that as long as the site is only giving customer testimonials and not selling anything nor promoting any other insurance company then they are within their rights to use the allstate name in their domain name.

      I will say this though, the owner of the site has been put through the ringer by Allstate over this issue, but he had the courage to stick to his guns and he was proven right.

      Whatever you decide, just be careful.
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