website and domain name similar to print magazine name

[growertalk]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? west virginia

I have recently launched a web forum geared towards nursery growers and those in th growing trades. I own the domain [url=http://www.growertalk.com]My Community - Index[/url], and have built the site, and The site has been up about 2 weeks. I have not registered for trademark the site or the domain name. I discovered today that there already exists a print magazine called growertalks, which is owned by a large horticultural publishing company. Being as the domain name os not exactly the same, the format is completely different, and I am not using any images or likenesses of their magazine, am I in any infringement upon thier copyright? The do own the domain [url=http://www.growertalks.com]Ball Publishing[/url], but it mermely redirrects you to the main company url.

[Skyymiles]

Originally Posted by growertalk

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? west virginia

I have recently launched a web forum geared towards nursery growers and those in th growing trades. I own the domain [url=http://www.growertalk.com]My Community - Index[/url], and have built the site, and The site has been up about 2 weeks. I have not registered for trademark the site or the domain name. I discovered today that there already exists a print magazine called growertalks, which is owned by a large horticultural publishing company. Being as the domain name os not exactly the same, the format is completely different, and I am not using any images or likenesses of their magazine, am I in any infringement upon thier copyright? The do own the domain [url=http://www.growertalks.com]Ball Publishing[/url], but it mermely redirrects you to the main company url.

as I understand it, if your web-forum does not mimic the content registerd to the similar website in question , you are not in violation of any infringement, that I can see. might be worthwile to do a whois, or domain name search on your own to see who actually owns the rights to the bandwith you're using and then comapre results with the website in question. technically tho, becasue your web url address does not match their's exactly. you should be fine even if the content on your site was hypothetically demeaning. eg. [url=http://www.continental.com]Continental Airlines - Airline Tickets, Vacations Packages, Travel Deals, and Company Information on continental.com[/url] would have no bearing on the site [url]www.continentalsuxballs.com[/url] (I jus kno somebody is going to google that)