TheWorkingStiff - Slashdot User

Comment Re:The real domain names are... (Score 2, Informative) 251

by TheWorkingStiff on Sunday November 04, 2007 @06:02PM (#21235231) Attached to: Is a Domain Name an Automatic Trademark?

First, thanks for all the comments and suggestions... this has been truly informative and given me some avenues for thought...

Second, I did spend a good deal of time reading past UDRP cases... They generally only consider trademark if it was registered before the domain was registered. So running to get a trademark after the dispute begins may be helpful, but would probably not sway the UDRP...

Third, one of my biggest problems is that I'm not 100% sure if he actually used the name as a product or not. Yes, I tried Google... Believe it or not, Google does not contain all of the world's knowledge.... They won't have that for at least another 6 months...

Again, thank you to everyone... The lawyer I spoke with would defend a UDRP case (it's all just paperwork, by the way...no real meeting or even phone interview) for about $1000, flat fee. It sounded pretty reasonable to me and I even figured I could probably defend myself if I didn't feel like dropping the grand....

Submission + - Is a Domain Name an Automatic Trademark? 2

Submitted by

TheWorkingStiff

on Saturday November 03, 2007 @03:12PM

TheWorkingStiff writes: "I registered a descriptive domain name like "thesimpledog.com" and started a blog on it. About a month later I get a threatening letter from a link farmer who owns "simpledog.com" The owner of simpledog.com is claiming that he owns the trademark to the words simpledog even though he has no real business or rights by that name other than a static page with some text and Adsense slapped on it. There is no product, service or brand whatsoever

Does simply registering a two or three word domain give you instant trademark rights to those words even though you've never done anything with them? Should I give up my domain to a link farmer who is trying to bully me, or does he have a valid right to any phrase he registers that isn't already trademarked?"

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