want to create forum site based on software product

[dhecker]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts, California, Texas.

I am a California corporation, also operating in Mass. My servers are located in Texas

I am a software consultant and I work with Rational Software products. Rational Software is a huge, old company with loads of products. There is no single website to support the community except rational.com and I want to provide a non-corporate alternative for all the other consultants out there.

So, I'd like to start with a forum site (like this one) called something like:

rationaltalk.com
rationalforums.com
rationalhq.com

or something along those lines... Rational is an ordinary word, but also their trademarked name. Clearly, I am referencing the software but it's also quite realistic to interpret the phrase 'rational talk' as literal.

Can I do this without getting shut down by rational's legal team?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts, California, Texas.

I am a California corporation, also operating in Mass. My servers are located in Texas

I am a software consultant and I work with Rational Software products. Rational Software is a huge, old company with loads of products. There is no single website to support the community except rational.com and I want to provide a non-corporate alternative for all the other consultants out there.

So, I'd like to start with a forum site (like this one) called something like:

rationaltalk.com
rationalforums.com
rationalhq.com

or something along those lines... Rational is an ordinary word, but also their trademarked name. Clearly, I am referencing the software but it's also quite realistic to interpret the phrase 'rational talk' as literal.

Can I do this without getting shut down by rational's legal team?

**A: I don't know, but it appears that if you use the same name that you will be skating on thin ice.