domain name infringement

[shleevo]

What is the name of your state? WA

I have a question regarding similar domain names and trademark infringement. I registered a domain name, for example www.singlepersonals.com(not actual site). And there is already a web site registered as: www.singles.com. This site has a trademark or service mark on it and the descripition is for use as personal ads. We do the same business as do all dating sites. By adding another word to the domain name, such as personals, am I still infringing on their service mark rights?

I have yet to register my service mark. I just noticed many similar names already that do the same business, such as: date.com, udate.com, needadate.com etc.... Are these legal??

 

[Veronica01]

So you know the answer.

 

[shleevo]

Thanks for the advice...Ithink. I tried to contact a tradmark lawyer, and they all want $200 for a trademark search, which I did already for free on the internet, $200 to search if the domain is available, also free, and $600 for legal advice (trying to get some for free here). Here's a another example. www.usedcars.com and www.usedcarclassifieds.com. Is this infringement even if www.usedcars.com is a service mark?

 

[Veronica01]

I just told you

 

[divgradcurl]

The reason why the attorney wants to charge you is because trademark infringement analysis is very fact-specific. Infringement of a trademark depends on a couple of factors. First, the more generic a name is -- "books.com" -- the less protection it will receive, and the opposite is also true -- a unique or fanciful name -- "amazon.com" -- will receive more protection, in general.

If you are not directly copying someone else's trademark, the usual test for infringement is "confusion" -- there are a number of factors in a confusion analysis, inluding similarity of marks, similarity of services or goods, intent, etc. This analysis can be relatively complex, which is why your attorney wants to be paid for doing it!

If you have 2 companies in the same market space, you need to be "further away" from the other comapny's registered mark in order to be safe.

 

[shleevo]

Thank you for the info. I can understand why a lawyer should be consulted for this, however, my gut feeling is that they will tell me something like this... The term is a general generic term and therefore can be argued as such, however, if the other party feels that you are infringing, they'll sue you anyway. To be safe, use something else, or as you stated, "far away". So, I take a chance. If they sue, I will have to defend or comply and have a back up plan.

 

[Kingkerry]

I don't think like words like date can't be copyrighted, because it's too common. However I think you could copyright date.com, but it would have to have .com as the trademark name.