Similar domain name question

It would depend on your laws in Canada, However, in America as long as you are not taking an exact business name, or something that has been copy-written, then there is no issue. Even if the names are similar, but not identical, there is no issue.

Although this should not be an issue for you, If you are concerned I would speak to a local lawyer who is familiar with business law.

Usually if it's a small company you can assume it's safe. If they're well known I'd check with a lawyer - heck - check with a lawyer anyways.

As long as it's not trademarked or anything it should be fine, lot's of businesses have the same name.

I'm not an attorney, so I can't provide legal advice, just my personal opinions:

I'd do two things first:

1. Check the tradenames database for Canada. - Basic Search - Canadian Trade-marks Database - Canadian Intellectual Property Office
2. Check the tradenames database for the U.S. - Search Trademark Database

Remember to see what kind of business they've declared themselves as. If the company is Sally's Best and the tradename is registered for a line of food products, that's not necessarily a conflict if your company has a similar name (like Sally's Very Best) for a beauty salon or a tire store.

Then, I'd see how successful any similar companies are, using a similar name. If they're huge and doing business in the same field as yours, I'd think very carefully before doing anything that might be confused with that other company.

At that point, the issue is not if you're breaking any tradename or trademark laws, but how aggressive and territorial they are, and how deep their pockets are. It's not always whether or not you could win a lawsuit, it's how much it might cost you -- money you might never see again -- to defend your rights.

In most cases, if the company hasn't filed a tradename registration, they either don't care or aren't educated enough in business law. They aren't likely to bother you unless you're clearly trying to confuse website visitors, and steal business from the other company.

And, consider registering the tradename yourself. Depending on where you're located, you may be able to file locally (instead of at the federal level) for not much money. Here in the U.S., I can file for under $100 per business name if I'm in any of several states where those filing fees are low.

I say you are fine with this. I see websites with the same name, in the same niche, everyday. Only difference is the Com, Co.uk, Net etc.

If the other website was owned by a big multinational I would imagine they would kick off but another small business in a different country won't be fussed.

One thing you might want to think about is if you get a really good name for yourself the other website might start getting some of YOUR traffic - but this only matters if you are in the same business and both of you can provide what the customer is looking for (has they are in a different country theres no problem there).

Thanks for the responses, I will check the links and see what I can find out. The name we'd like to use is similar but shorter than the one in the US. The product would be similar but the US co. sells much more varied products and also offers a franchise, which we do not plan to do.

I appreciate the replies!

Unless you are designing your site to actually be similar to the other business, then I don't see any problem at all for you. I am speaking here in regard to value. Always be careful of trademark issues.

Similarity of domain names becomes an issue for the company with the longer domain name. Many times people will try to shorten the url and end up at a competitor's site. The shorter and easier to spell and remember the better.

Having a distinctly different domain extension (.ca versus .net or .org) will probably eliminate most confusion in this case. If you had the longer name, it might be an issue for you as the other business would have the shorter url and .com.

I don't think anyone on this forum can advise you of International trademark law except for possibly a lawyer who posts here ... kindsvater.