MySpace For Trademark Infringement

jmiller · #1 (**permalink**) 11-02-2006, 03:13 PM

The lesson of this article is that when you're trying to get a startup off the ground, it's best to be original and make sure you're not infringing on a major company's trademark.

MySpaceforBusiness.com, for example, may get you a call from a lawyer.

The rule of thumb is if it causes confusion for the consumer as to which company is providing the service, it's a trademark violation.

Article here.

craigmn3 · #2 (**permalink**) 11-02-2006, 05:53 PM

Okay but in the nature of urls, there are no spaces

what if someone was marketing a webdesigner site called "my sp ace for web design"

(sp being short for Site Pro)

myspaceforbusiness.com would be a reasonable url

I've seen goofy things like "Go Ogle Computers"

or googlecomputers.com
There are any number of silly permutations. Can a person really trademark a string of characters in an url?
I am thinking there must be further infringement than that.

Craig - WebGeek
Edited by mod Webnauts. You may have links to your web site only in your signature.

blitzen · #3 (**permalink**) 11-02-2006, 07:20 PM

As the article said

Quote:

The standard is "likelihood of confusion." To be more specific, the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods.

This will be left to the interpretation of the law in court. The infringing company probably won't be taken to court if it can't be shown that there was a loss of revenue or image to the holder of the trademark.

brucet · #4 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 08:04 AM

Quote:

The standard is "likelihood of confusion." To be more specific, the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods.

On that basis, the case of UTube vs YouTube could get pretty interesting:
http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/10...+Sues+YouTube/

I think I would rather be a lawyer than a judge in this type of case. Where do you draw the line?

**wige** · #5 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 09:11 AM

Just a hypothetical -
Imagine a video company called Go Ogle Video, a video production company specializing in foreign films established in 1985, long before there was a Google. Now suppose they just started their web site. GoOgleVideo.com (googlevideo.com) would be perfectly reasonable based on their company name.

Would Google sue, and would they win? I imagine they probably would. Because Google has built the brand online, I suspect that anyone that links those characters together in a url would be sued. The company's only option would probably be go-ogle-video.com or a name change.

craigmn3 · #6 (**permalink**) 11-03-2006, 06:15 PM

While google may have a strangle hold on internet search, they do not own the internet....Al Gore does