two quick legal questions

[fromantv]

first question....if a person registers a name and just parks the domain name...and i come up with the name of my business that matches the domain name..EXAMPLE...person A registers FUNNY.com and then i register my business as FUNNY and i make my domain FUNNY.net....any problems with this?

second question....person B registers a business and domain name funny.com and I register the name FUNNYPLUS FUNNY PRODUCTIONS etc....any problems with this?

[alvig]

No problems they arent the same names why would they be illiegal?

[PeterBrown]

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[fromantv]

so it is ok if some1 has registerd funny.com and i register funny.net?

[Unreal030]

yes that is correct

[zoobie]

1. .com and .net are the same so there would be no problem with that.

2. still ok. .com, .net and .org domain names exceeding a total of 26 characters are supported by most web browsers. However, certain web browsers, email programs and other Internet related applications may not support domain names over 26 characters.

[David Rocci]

I bet any lawyer in the phonebook will you give you 2 minutes of advice for nothing. It never hurts to start building a network of reliable sources. The best thing you can do is surround yourself by competent people.

This area really is a gray area. Sometimes the person with the longest running use of a name has authority and sometimes the content of your page can make a difference. For example, the another company owns funny.com and they specialize in funny jokes, inc and then you open funny.net and specialize in knock-knock jokes...they would most likely have a claim against to take that domain.

There is a lot of tricky stuff when it comes to trademark, copyright, registered marks, etc, etc.

-dr

[fromantv]

but what if my site funny.net had nothing to do with funny.com? and / or funny.com has been parked and has no content on it

basically i want to register a business name....the name i want for DOT COM is taken...but is parked and or has content not purtaining to my business...so i want to register it as DOT NET...but i am worried that they would not like this...somethign similar happened with the WWE....they had to switch their name from WWF to WWE because of a similar situation...any more input?

[Unreal030]

trust me man its fine your over analyzing this. People do it all of the time. In fact there is LESS concern if the other one is parked or has no content petaining to your business. Now if you were to make a site called blockboomer.com or something then I can see where there would be a problem.

[radreality]

there's a lot of factors that play into whether or not you are infringing on someone elses rights, but from what you have said it sounds like you have nothing to worry about.

Funny.com and Funny.net might not be the best examples, just because the word Funny is a very common word and even if someone was able to get approved for a trademark for it, it would have to be very specific. And you being slightly different would probably be just fine.

But like David Rocci said, its best to just get an attorney to answer a quick question for you, because they would at least be willing to back you up just in case anything happens.

But I kind of agree with Unreal, it does appear that you are over analyzing it. But you do have a valid concern.

______________________________
Robert Falk
Business Developer / Investor
Self Help & Success Forum

[fromantv]

thanks guys...basically i want to register a business....and both DOT coms i like are taken....one has nothing on it..and the other has nothing to do with i do...but i they both are taken..so i am thinking to register DOT net or DOT biz...