Quote:
Originally Posted by jrb@w3f.com
Interesting thing happened to my friend.
He used to have a web site: nascarflags.com and got really nasty lawyer
letters telling him that he was trampoling on their trademarked name.
Since all he sold on the site was Nascar Flags, with trademark recognition
all over the site, his only resolution was to go out of business and not sell
their products any more. Nascars loss too.
Shows you what happens when your pockets are not as deep.
Yes, it was all explained over and over and they still insisted.
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You also need to bear in mind that trademark laws vary around the world - in the US you can trademark a lot more things that you can in the UK and some European countries, plus there's also EU wide trademark law.
Interpretation, enforcement and legitimate defences also differ: in the UK Nascar Flags wouldn't be able to stop your friend using the Nascar trademark on his site (although they could force him to relinquish the domain name), as if you are engaged in selling a branded product, you have an automatic right to use the trademark to promote the products - its an implied condition of the sale, and should they trademark owner subsequently try and stop its use, they are actually in breach of competition law.