New Member

I have recently registered a domain name http://www.yahoofiji.com. I have setup this domain as a discussion board for people of my native homeland of Fiji Islands. My intention is to provide a forum board for Fiji people where they would discuss online.

Today I received and email from Yahoo, Inc. telling me to call them up in regards of my domain “yahoofiji.com”. This afternoon I called Yahoo, Inc. and talked to a person in charge of Domain Dispute. I was told that my domain “Yahoofiji.com” is violating their Trademark. The way out is to transfer my domain to Yahoo Inc. and they would pay me for what I had paid to register my domain. The gentlemen was kind and had given me a week to consider what I want to do but he had also reminded me that they want to resolve A.S.A.P. and he also mentioned that he is a formar Lawyer.

According to ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolutions Policy, am I violating Yahoo’s Trademark. My site is not for intended commercial gain for to make profit from its nor anyway competing or discouraging Yahoo, Inc services.

Obviously they have the Top-Notch lawyers that can win right out over me, but do I have any rights since this domain was available for years and they had not registered it first.

What should I do?

Your comments would be greatly appreciated!


----------------------------
Raj Gounder

I'm not a lawyer; but I think Yahoo's probably correct.
They, no doubt, would have the name Yahoo copyrighted and registered. And have stronger claims to variations of it.
Not to mention, more money and more lawyers.
I'd take them up on their offer and think of another name.
But, wait for someone else to reply to this.
There are many with much more knowledge in this area than I.

I'm not a lawyer either.

If your site was a link directory, then you are infringing Yahoo's trademark. If it's a discussion board, then you'll likely be fine. Except for the fact that Yahoo has more resources than you do, which means that like always, the corporation will win in cases like this one.

If I were you I would take them up on their offer, not because you are infringing on anything, just because they will win eventually.

Tell everyone about this and maybe Yahoo won't do things like this anymore.

Honestly, when I read "yahoofiji.com" it sounded just like a regional offshoot of Yahoo - as Yahoo has sub-sites such as "Yahoo Australia and New Zealand", "Yahoo Canada" and so on.

Even with just a discussion board, to me it does sound like you are infringing on their trademark, whether intentionally or not. Furthermore, your chances of winning a court case over it would be grim. Perhaps you should take them up on their offer before your site grows to a size where moving to a new domain becomes difficult?

And I'll be the third person to say this, but it's important - I'm not a lawyer.

gounder,
If they really want yourdomain and you could do nothing, you may ask to them a certain time (-+1-2 months) to propagate your new domain to your visitors.

Thats a load of ******** if i haden't read any. :mad: Big companies pushing people around, punks.... :angry:

I go along with Lawrence.
It may not have been gounder's intention, but the name does sound as if it's related to Yahoo.

Ack... that sounds terrible. This seems totally unfair.

"Yahoo" is a word in the english vocabulary, and one often used. This just doesn't seem right....

Question: Why did you choose to register that name in the first place?

If you registered that domain name as a result of the popularity of the "Yahoo.com" trademark, you are infriging, and you'd do best to hand over the domain while they're still willing to reimburse your expenses.
If you registered that domain because 'yahoo' has some significance to Fijians, then you should certainly hold on to it.

Generally speaking, if you would have registered a domain even if $BIGBADCOMPANY didn't exist, you are entitled to hold on to it; if you only registered it in order to capitalize on $BIGBADCOMPANY's popularity, you don't have any right to the domain.

Originally posted by qslack
If your site was a link directory, then you are infringing Yahoo's trademark. If it's a discussion board, then you'll likely be fine. Except for the fact that Yahoo has more resources than you do, which means that like always, the corporation will win in cases like this one.
I don't think you'll be fine with a discussion board, because Yahoo! has discussion boards of its own (it's not just a link directory by any means). If "Yahoo Fiji" was the name of a restaurant and you were putting your menu online then you might have some ground to stand on, but as it is right now I don't believe you do.

I will say I was impressed that Yahoo! offered to reimburse you for the registration fees you spent. It may be the "big guy going after the little guy," but at least they handled it with some semblance of fairness.

Tip: If you're looking for a replacement name for "YahooFiji.com," *don't* get "AmazonFiji.com". :)

Why does a site with a bulletin board about fiji needs to also contain the word yahoo? Wouldn't something like fijiboard be sufficient?

Obviously the word yahoo was included to capitalize on the success of yahoo. This is a parasitic method of driving traffic to a site and in this case Yahoo is right and in the end they will be successful in getting this name.

Originally posted by Intelligent Hosting
I will say I was impressed that Yahoo! offered to reimburse you for the registration fees you spent. It may be the "big guy going after the little guy," but at least they handled it with some semblance of fairness.

Sorry but I cant see any fairness in that. gounder legally purchased the domain and paid for it. It is already bad enough, when they grab his domain (for some obscure trademark issues) by outpaying him, but it would be much more worse when they just steal the domain from him and leaving him alone with the bill.

After all, when they would have been wise enough to be the first one registering the domain, they also would have had to pay for it.

Alexander

Take it to arbitration...under your registrars domain dispute policy this is probably your first and least expensive option.

Here is a list of ICANN approved arbitrators:

http://www.icann.org/udrp/approved-providers.htm

I think Yahoo has every right to that domain, and think regardless of what you do yahoo will win,

I also dont think yahoo is pushing anyone around. They have legal rights to the name yahoo. Yahoo is part of your domain name.

If it was Yahu or yaho, it might be a different case, but it is a exact match of yahoo which is a legitatment public corporation who has rights to there name. Corporations have rights too.

Keep in mind that one day you might own a company and wouldnt want someone to steal your name. I personally dont like the big corporations, but try to look at it from there point of view as well.

I realize everyone is like anti corporate, but one day many will work for a corporation or have ownership in a corporation and protection is good sometimes.

Joe

Why does a site with a bulletin board about fiji needs to also contain the word yahoo? Wouldn't something like fijiboard be sufficient?

Obviously the word yahoo was included to capitalize on the success of yahoo. This is a parasitic method of driving traffic to a site and in this case Yahoo is right and in the end they will be successful in getting this name.


I have to agree with brav0.

I really appreciate your comments, but when registering this domain I had thought about the Trademark of Yahoo and looked up domain names e.g yahoocanada.com, yahooaustralia.com, yahoochina.com and yahoojapan.com. These domain I had seen not registered to Yahoo, Inc. and I went ahead and registered yahoofiji.com.

I do understand from Yahoo's point of view and comments from you folks. I know that legally I will not be able to win them. At the end I may have to give up this domain to them.

Your posts and suggestion are well taken.



--------------------------
Raj Gounder

The problem with trademark law (I am filing for trademarks) is that you have to defend your trademark. It is not the companies being pushy or greedy. They *have* to do this, agreements for fair use can be obtained with the trademark owner and use can continue. But give some of these companies a break, Trademark Law sucks, they are just playing the game so they *can* keep their trademarks.

This is all crap. It goes against everything that is common sense.

What good is having .com .net .org .tv .info .biz etc.....?

You have all these companies sharing the same name (ie: mysite.com, mysite.net, etc.).
So what, should all these other companys sue another company for using it's socalled trademark? And whoever can be proved to have been first get's the name? That is crap......!!!!

Just because Yahoo is big, that gives them the right? Heaven forbid that any of us little guys try to do the same thing?

And if you think that's bad?
I remember hearing not too long ago in the news that Yahoo sued a Thailand company for having the name of Yoohoo.com.....
I mean, give me a break!!! Grow up you big baby.... :(

Well maybe you dont understand the legistics involved and personally i dont care to start explain

One day when you own a corporation, and you face this issue then you may understand yahoos point.

If you do already that you make no sense

Joe

Originally posted by smartbackups
They *have* to do this, agreements for fair use can be obtained with the trademark owner and use can continue.

Well, these agreements usually work in the way that you pay for the usage. So its not about protecting something, but rather about getting money to "allow" others to use a combination of characters. And that is greed (at least IMHO).

Alexander

Joe's right. Yahoo has invested a lot of time and money into their business. It wouldn't be right to be able to capatalize off their hard work.
Do you think you could call yourself MicrosoftOfAmerica.com just because Microsoft didn't register that particular version of their name? It wouldn't be legal (I doubt); and it wouldn't be right.


*rushes out to buy microsoftofamerica.com*

The big question is if yahoo or a big corporation wouldnt be who they are would you have gotten the name.

Most would say they wouldnt or not even known to get the name.


Think about how many words there are in the dictionary that no one uses, think about why, they have no value, or representation.

Joe

OK, commenting on a few different things from this thread:

"obscure trademark issue" -- that one's kind of funny. Obscure? One company's incorporated and trademarked name used by another venture for a similar use... is the fact that you can't do that "obscure?"


"I had thought about the Trademark of Yahoo and looked up domain names e.g yahoocanada.com, yahooaustralia.com, yahoochina.com and yahoojapan.com" -- I'd imagine they all now have gotten the same notice you have. And just a few weeks ago someone else here with "yahoo" in his domain name had a similar story. Apparently they've picked up their "enforcement" activities recently.

Obviously, the fact that others were using similar names isn't a defense, just as it wouldn't be to show up in traffic court and tell the judge, "of course I was speeding, but so was everybody else!" At any rate, better than looking up all of those domain names you should have gone to uspto.gov, the US Patent and Trademark Office, to investigate the trademark.

"What good is having .com .net .org .tv .info .biz etc.....?" -- If the domain names in question were something like "messageboard.com" vs. "messageboard.info," that'd make sense. And something that generic would be hard to defend. But as others have pointed out, the value in a name containing the word yahoo was created by Yahoo! Inc. As for the later comment about proving who used it first, that is a valid point -- and when trademark disputes come to litigation, proving just that is often the crux of the case.

"I don't think you'll be fine with a discussion board, because Yahoo! has discussion boards of its own" -- also relevant is this:
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=ond93l.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=yahoo&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query
Yahoo! Inc. has trademarked the word "yahoo" and many terms containing it for a variety of uses. You'd be infringing on their trademark, for example, if you used the name while selling musical instruments (trademark Serial Number 75979851, G & S Musical Instruments in General). They've covered the name for much more than just the directory, and even for more than just a website.

"Take it to arbitration...under your registrars domain dispute policy this is probably your first and least expensive option." -- Still not a cheap option for a non-commercial site. And far from guaranteed to win; I'd bet against it. And even if you were to win a domain name dispute, they could go a step farther and sue for trademark infringement anyway -- ICANN could confer the right to use the domain name, but that doesn't mean you have the legal right to do business under that name under patent and trademark law.

By the way, Yahoo! Inc. doesn't have the right to use the word for everything. Ham I Am Inc. has trademarked the name Yahoo for barbecue sauce, with a first use in 1994, and Ocean Kayak, Inc. has it registered for "human propelled watercraft; namely, kayaks and canoes" (first use: 1993) :

http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=ond93l.4.49
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=ond93l.4.50

So your saying that since I own LeeUniverse.com, and someone comes along and starts using LeeUniverse.biz; that it is okay for me to sue that person becuase he is infringing on my TRADEMARK?

In my opinion, if you own LeeUniverse.com, then that is your trademark. You still may call yourself LeeUniverse, but that is your webpresence.

I mean, too me, using LeeUniverse.com compared to LeeUniverse.biz has more legal problems than simply using Yahoofiji compared to Yahoo.
The later is totally two different things. While the former is basically the same still. If you want to talk about what a TradeMark "truly" means.

In otherwords, in the modern Web Economy and business environment, you can't nessecarily apply the same rules all the time as you would in a traditional business.
Everyone knows that......

So you have a Company named GreenPeace. Do they have the right to say that a Company name GreenPeas, doesn't have a right to be free agents under their particular name, just because it may be similar?

I mean heck, all you have to do is look around you in the "normal" business world and see all the 100's of different and sometimes similar company's that use variations of a word or name to call themselves. ( And even the same name!)
That is the free market society we live in... Healthy competition.
Just cause a company is big, doesn't give it more right to own something.

Originally posted by leeuniverse
In my opinion, if you own LeeUniverse.com, then that is your trademark.

In this case, your opinion is incorrect. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office will not allow you to register a trademark containing ".com" (or, at least, they didn't used to - if that's changed, then someone please correct me, but I don't think it has). You try to register a trademark containing .com and they will reject it.

In this case, your trademark would be "LEEUNIVERSE" (trademarks are always registered in all caps - they are not case sensitive - "LeeUniverse", "LEeuniverse", "leeUniverse" and so on are all considered the same in the eyes of the law).

Now, trademark law does *not* mean that if you have leeuniverse.com and someone else registers leeuniverse.info that you can get them shut down. It depends entirely on what you and they are doing with that name.

That being said, if you have a trademark on LeeUniverse, and someone else registers leeuniverse.info, you had better send them a letter informing them that they're infringing. You don't have to sue them, you don't have to do anything if they ignore your letter, but you do have to send it. Because if you don't, the next person who comes along who *does* infringe your trademark, when you try to pursue that they're going to say "hey, yeah, he has a trademark, but he hasn't been enforcing it (leeuniverse.info was registered and he never notified them of the possible infringement) so obviously he doesn't care about the trademark so we should be able to use it." And you know what? They just might win.

If you own a trademark, you *must* enforce it, as a matter of law. If you don't, you can lose that trademark. Yahoo is just doing what they have to do to protect themselves under the law.

But as to the original poster - yes, yahoofiji.com is almost certainly infringing that trademark, and you'll want to take your money and get out now.

Jason

Originally posted by leeuniverse
I mean heck, all you have to do is look around you in the "normal" business world and see all the 100's of different and sometimes similar company's that use variations of a word or name to call themselves. ( And even the same name!)In different businesses. You might find Ford Motor Corporation and Ford Cleaners, but you won't find two companies named Ford in the automobile business. The point is that Yahoo! has either formally trademarked or established prior use of the yahoo name in just about every variation of web use, and then some other uses.

So you have a Company named GreenPeace. Do they have the right to say that a Company name GreenPeas, doesn't have a right to be free agents under their particular name, just because it may be similar?Not really the same thing, because you're talking about soundalike names and using fairly generic words so it's not much relevant to the yahoo/yahoofiji dispute, but... it depends. Say your company called GreenPeace sold green peas, and was making a play on that word in its name and logo. Then the company called GreenPeas probably would have problems. To me it sounds like a gray area.

Years ago, for example, Domino's Pizza was sued for trademark infringement by Domino Sugar. Completely different logo, in one name the word is plural in one it's singular, both use a second word in the name that says more specifically what they sell -- but the sugar people thought they should have the right to anything having to do with food.

A consideration in trademark disputes is whether there is a likelihood of confusion between the brands. Domino's Pizza won their dispute (for a while, by the way, new Domino's stores were opened as Pizza Express during this dispute -- they were legally enjoined from using the word Domino in new operations) primarily because they were able to demonstrate that consumers did not confuse the two companies. I'd suspect that most people would think that yahoofiji.com, though, was affiliated with yahoo.com. Maybe not, but that's what the courts would deal with.

Just cause a company is big, doesn't give it more right to own something. Actually, if not for trademark protection, only the big companies would have these rights. The advantage Yahoo! has is that they were using it first, how big they are has nothing to do with it, except that if they weren't big and famous, there'd be no yahoofiji today. And that's why they'd win a dispute.

Originally posted by Jason Ellis
In this case, your opinion is incorrect. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office will not allow you to register a trademark containing ".com" (or, at least, they didn't used to - if that's changed, then someone please correct me, but I don't think it hasActually, it has changed. As a general summary, I'd say that you can register a domain name as a trademark if it is the name under which you do business -- a test being, for example, that it's what you have on your business card and stationary as your business name. So leeuniverse.com could probably be trademarked if you billed youself as LeeUniverse.Com, but not if you said "Bob's General Store -- visit us online at leeuniverse.com."

Boring details, as well as other reasons why it might not be possible to register any particular domain name, are here:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/notices/guide299.htm



probably, that is assuming no other obstacles like prior use by someone else, insufficient specificity, appropriate use, etc.

I understand everything, however it doesn't change the reasonability of things.

I don't agree that other people wouldn't use a name like Yahoo if it wasn't famous.

Children say it all the time when playing. Yahoo!!!!
Cowboys say it when riding a bronco. Yahoo!!!!!

It is a common language word that can be used in multiple variations, just like Yahoo!!!! Fiji....

Yahoo, is trying to unreasonalbly control that usage. (It is ethically wrong)
I don't care what the law says. Are you say the laws are perfect?

I mean, everyone is missing the obvious point!
The names are Yahoo Fiji and YooHoo, not Yahoo!!!!!!!!

If you get down to the basics, this is not unreasonable, unfair, or infringing on a Tradmark.... C'mon people, common sense.

:rolleyes: Common sense, to me, would say that if Yahoo! (and yahoo.com) were not instantly recognizable; the question of yahoofigi.com would never have come up.
I'm not on the side of big business, but I am on the side of what's right.

Why not? It makes sense to me that someone would want a site named:

Yahoo Fiji
Ya Fiji
Alright Fiji
Thats Right Fiji
You Go Girl Fiji
You the Man Fiji
Way to Go Fiji
Woohoo Fiji
Yippy Fiji
etc....

All of these sayings are variations of the same theme.
It is simply that Yahoo Fiji, sounds better.
And what's wrong with that?
If that is the spirit of the name and site that a webowner wants, then there is nothing wrong with it. It is still a different name......

Originally posted by gounder
. . . . when registering this domain I had thought about the Trademark of Yahoo and looked up domain names e.g yahoocanada.com, yahooaustralia.com, yahoochina.com and yahoojapan.com. These domain I had seen not registered to Yahoo, Inc. and I went ahead and registered yahoofiji.com.leeuniverse, It would appear that the original poster of this thread took into consideration the popularity of Yahoo!. That means he was attempting to unjustly enrich himself by capatalizing on the work that Yahoo! had already done in establishing themselves on the net.
I can see that we are going to have to enter into agreement to agree to disagree. . . . . . . .Agreed?

Originally posted by leeuniverse
All of these sayings are variations of the same theme.
It is simply that Yahoo Fiji, sounds better.
And what's wrong with that?
What's wrong with it is that the only reason yahoofiji "sounds better" than, say, woohoofiji is because Yahoo! Inc. has promoted the yahoo name to the point that it is a "household word," at least on the internet.

There are hundreds or thousands of names now registered with "yahoo" in them, and relatively few with "woohoo" -- only because while "woohoo" is a nonsense word, "yahoo" no longer is. On the web, "yahoo" now means "directory" or "portal." And that is only because Yahoo! Inc. built the brand. Every other site that comes along and uses the word is only doing so in an attempt to piggyback on their success.

If that weren't true, why not just take Yahoo's money, and change the name of the site to woohoofiji?

Actually, I believe your wrong.

I myself have thought of a name that was similar to someone else's and look to see if that variation was taken.

IT IS NOT that I was trying to capitalize on someone else's name or popularity. I simply liked my variation, for my needs.

It only makes sense to see if it has been taken or if it might be a problem....

I knew someone whould say the obvious thing before thinking deeper into the subject..... :)

Well, now, leeuniverse has lost me :confused:
No matter though. But, at the beginning of this thread, I PM'd gounder and suggested (in my opinon) a better name overall for a bulletin board about Figi.
I see that the domain is still available.
Apparently he don't like my idea :bawling:
yahoofigi makes about as much sense to me as microsoftfigi :rolleyes:

Oops. . . . . It seems gounder has not picked up his PM.

Hey! gounder! You have a PM!

:D

Originally posted by leeuniverse
Why not? It makes sense to me that someone would want a site named:

Yahoo Fiji
Ya Fiji
Alright Fiji
Thats Right Fiji
You Go Girl Fiji
You the Man Fiji
Way to Go Fiji
Woohoo Fiji
Yippy Fiji
etc....

All of these sayings are variations of the same theme.

Actually, no. If you look up the definition of "yahoo" in a dictionary, you will find:

ya·hoo (yäh, y-)
n. pl. ya·hoos
A crude or brutish person. See Synonyms at boor.

That begs the question - why would Yahoo name themselves Yahoo in the first place? But, your definition list above is not correct - yahoo is a derogatory term (originally used in the novel "Gulliver's Travels", the term "yahoo" was the name of a culture that Gulliver encountered).

A dictionary of computing that I have read indicates that the folks at Yahoo! named their search engine Yahoo as an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Organized Oracle" - but I think that was just an excuse for not having bothered to look up the name in a dictionary.

Cowboys say it when riding a bronco. Yahoo!!!!!

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, cowboys shout out "YeeHaw!!!!" when riding a bronco, not yahoo.

At any rate - you can debate it all you want, it doesn't change the fact that Yahoo!, Inc. owns trademarks on the term "yahoo" as it relates to various internet-related and off-line uses, and that yahoofiji.com, when used for a discussion forum, is almost definitely violating those trademarks (and even if it isn't, it'll cost a *lot* of money to win that battle, and it's just not worth it).

Jason

Well anyway.... Semantics..... Many variations to everything; thought, wording, interpretations. It goes on and on.
I'm just sad by the pettyness of the world....

Originally posted by gounder
...The way out is to transfer my domain to Yahoo Inc. and they would pay me for what I had paid to register my domain.

I would take them up on their offer. Many people register domains with no intention to make money off of a company but by having their name in your domain, that will cause great problems and will most likely give them a win on any possible lawsuit they may present. Most companies will just take you to court without offering to pay a dime.

I say take them up on the offer, use the cash to register something like:
yeehawfiji.com

And create your site that way.





*runs off to register yeehawfiji.com

Thank everyone for your comments in this matter. I will have to move my site to another domain name. I can see by many posts that maybe I am violating their Trademark.

I do have one question.

If I had some product named Yahoofiji eg drink for food and had no trademark, would I have still been in violation against their Trademark?
Do I have to give up this domain name to them even though the site is not up?



Once again I would like to thank all the comments and suggestions. The site will go offline.

----------------------------
Raj Gounder

Originally posted by gounder
I do have one question.

If I had some product named Yahoofiji eg drink for food and had no trademark, would I have still been in violation against their Trademark?
Do I have to give up this domain name to them even though the site is not up?That's two questions. :)

Question 1: You'd probably be ok. I didn't look at all of the 50-some live trademarks under yahoo, so it's possible they've got something like that covered but offhand I'd doubt it. Unless your food is barbecue sauce, as I mentioned somebody else has trademarked yahoo for that use.

Question 2: Under ICANN's Universal Domain Dispute Policy, yes. That policy deals with the rights to use a domain, not how it's actually being used. Their action under that policy would be say that they have the right to use the domain name. Whether they actually go ahead and do anything with it after that wouldn't matter.

Yahoo was always a pain in the ass..

Folks,
Thank you very much for your kind comments and good suggestions. I have taken up in "SoftWareRevue" on his suggested domain "fijitalk.com" and went ahead and registered it.

I will shut down "Yahoofiji.com" and move my contents to "http://www.fijitalk.com"

I would like to thank “SoftWareRevue” for his suggestion on the domain name.
I really appreciate your opinions in this matter.


---------------------
regards
Raj Gounder

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It seems as though you can register another trademark and redirect the hits from that website.

Boy, SOMEbody don't like eBay:rolleyes: (EBayExodus and affiliates)
Don't know what to make of it though.
Unless, maybe eBay don't mind.

Hi All,

I registered iNokia.net, and what a run through i got there. I put it up for auction at ebay.com and it got up to $8000 and kept going up, i spoke to a IT guy at Nokia here in Australia and I was told that Nokia always pays good money for nokia branded domain names, so I wrote up a nice email for them sent it to hostmaster@nokia.com and within 8 hours I has a guy from a solicitioring company over there at my throat with the threat to sue.... He then put it to me that if I sell it to someone at ebay.com he will sue them then I would be in touble so i ended up making about 2 bucks on the left over exchange rate from the $15 dollar registration....

:-(

Samuel

Oh, I just had one final thought.

The reason I don't believe that Yahoo Fiji is infringing on Yahoo's Trademark, can be summed up in this example:

I was eating my cereal for breakfast, when I noticed something that I knew would prove my point.

The cereal I was eating was called Honey Puffs. Now, this cereal looks exactly like another famous brand called Honey Comb.

They are sold right near one another, in the same store.
They both are a cereal. They both look the same, and even taste similar!
The only difference between the two, is a slight variation in ingredients, taste, box cover, and using only half the name of Honey Comb. And yes, Honey Puffs are made by a different company than Honey Comb.

Yet this doesn't somehow go against the trademark of Honey Comb. In fact, anyone can just go out into the market place and see thousands, even millions of products that are basically the same but with various degrees and areas of similarity.

So in the end, if you contrast the Yahoo Fiji thing with Yahoo, you will notice something:

Honey Puffs / Honey Comb Yahoo Fiji / Yahoo
Food / Food Net Services / Net Services
Cereal / Cereal Fiji Meeting / World Meeting
Looks Same / Looks Same Looks Different / Looks Different
Tastes Similr / Tastes Similar Different Focus / Different Focus
Box Different / Box Different Different Design / Different Design

Anyway, not perfect setup, would have had to think too much.
But, you get the Idea.
The Cereal is actually closer to infringing upon the trademark than the Website.
And this is how every other product out there is. So just because it's on the web, Yahoo needs some kind of special consideration from the law so that we can help it become a Monopoly???

I mean the above example of the food, is simply FREE ENTERPRISE in a FREE ECONOMY !!!! We are allowed under the law and common sense, to be similar to anything that we want but not to be completly the same within a few degrees or so.
The same applies to Web Sites!!!!

Since when are we not allowed to be similar to anything else.
Are we becoming a Police State, where the only people that have rights anymore, are the Corporate GIANTS...???

Trademarks were first developed in order to protect the little guy.
Not to help the big guy stomp on any sort of percieved threat to there power.

Man, what does it take. It's a different name, different content, different design, different focus; everything. How much different do you have to be for it to be okay to progress yourself and those around you? :angry:

Oh, and yes, Cowboys do say both Yehaw and Yahoo. Of course yehaw is a little more common. Simply, because it flows out better in a persons jaw mechanics....

And the last thing. I think it is great and even more profoundly better that you use FijiTalk.com as your website.
It's just a better name...... :)

Sincerely, LeeUniverse

To build on your cereal analogy. . . . .
The example you state is "Honey Puffs / Honey Comb."
To stay on track with Yahoo / YahooFigi it would need to be "Honey Comb Puffs / Honey Comb."
Big difference. And definately a conflict then.

GOUNDER IF YOU ARE STILL HERE -
DONT GIVE UP ON THAT DOMAIN

i) unless you are having autoresponder - you are not bound to give response to yahoo's emails
ii)you may choose not to speak with them over the phone
iii)as said by leeuniverse what good is having .com .net .org .tv .info .biz etc.....? you have all these companies sharing the same name ie: mysite.com, mysite.net
iv) you will find PLENTY OF SUPPORT in favour of you - post in other boards too - as also planetfeedback.com
v) you ARE NOT BOUND TO enter in any correspondence with yahoo unless it is communication FROM your domainregistrar or
unless yahoo guys come and ring your doorbell

NOW ABOUT THE DOMAINNAME PART :

Incidentally your domain name is NOT Yahoo Fiji
but it is yahoofiji which in 90% non-english togues is pronounced as yahoof iji or ya hufi ji or yahufij ii ,
and nothing to do with yahoo

You can book a complaint with local legal authority ( lawyer/police/phones) if yahoo or anyone in the name of yahoo harasses you by phone calls - in any case you are not bound to receive any phone call, email or letter by ordinary post

You are bound to response if your domain registrar contacts you.

You will find plenty of legal support - and big companies not always means big guns - they may even have to compensate if they are found guilty of bullying you. Also you will find enough public support and yahoo will gain enough negative publicity if they force such stupid acts on a small website.

ps : To someone who wrote "One day when you own a corporation, and you face this issue then you may understand yahoos point. "
if one is that big one needs to register whatever names they feel would harm if others use - as simple as that.- they cannot suddenly wake up and cry.there are already several such systems like nameshield etc .

Originally posted by randolf
GOUNDER IF YOU ARE STILL HERE -
DONT GIVE UP ON THAT DOMAIN
i) unless you are having autoresponder - you are not bound to give response to yahoo's emails
ii)you may choose not to speak with them over the phone
iii)as said by leeuniverse what good is having .com .net .org .tv .info .biz etc.....? you have all these companies sharing the same name ie: mysite.com, mysite.net
iv) you will find PLENTY OF SUPPORT in favour of you - post in other boards too - as also planetfeedback.com
v) you ARE NOT BOUND TO enter in any correspondence with yahoo unless it is communication FROM your domainregistrar or
unless yahoo guys come and ring your doorbell


If Yahoo sends a legal summons he might be rather obliged to respond... it's not a matter of "refuse to talk and they can't do anything". Although it does ring a bell with a guy arrested in Sydney earlier this year - he persistently refused to give his name to police and no one could identify him... I'm not sure if they ever worked out who he was! :D

Leeuniverse: I was eating my cereal for breakfast, when I noticed something that I knew would prove my point.

I have personal difficulties with the word proof. Personally, I'd call this an example - not evidence and certainly not proof. But, as I said, personal difficulties, I'm sure you just used it offhand.

But I digress.

SoftwareRevue: To build on your cereal analogy. . . . .
The example you state is "Honey Puffs / Honey Comb."
To stay on track with Yahoo / YahooFigi it would need to be "Honey Comb Puffs / Honey Comb."
Big difference. And definately a conflict then


I agree, and I think that's the problem here. Also, the "Yahoo" in "Yahoo Fiji" is the operative word. "Fiji" couldn't be the operative word, because it's a place name. I know for a fact that trademark's incorporate numbers. So, for example, a trademark on "Flash" covers "Flash 5". Perhaps place names fall into a similar category, but I'm not sure.

Yahoo seem to have handled the situation rather well from what I've read.

randolf: if one is that big one needs to register whatever names they feel would harm if others use - as simple as that.- they cannot suddenly wake up and cry.

Yahoo has a registered trademark on their name, which they are paying for. A registered trademark gives them exclusive rights to use that trademark to identify themselves, their goodwill, their services and their products. Another party using the name infringes on that mark by sucking at the goodwill of the business, and benefitting from the work that Yahoo has put into building itself. It is inconceivable that Yahoo could block off every route to others infringing on their trademark - including registering all names with Yahoo in them. In terms of identification, trademarks are to corporations as national flags and coats of arms are to nations, or colours are to a sporting team. Any business should really have it's own unique identifiers.

Thanks a very much Randolf for your kind comments.

Indeed my plan is not to give my domain. Since my native homeland is FIJI. I still plan to keep this. I had emailed Yahoo and told them that the site will be shut down, but had also mentioned that decisions have not made to give up my domain. I had only paid $20.00/2yr and that is not much loss on my side.

Although I believe that I had rights to host this site. There was no treat to Yahoo on my side. My intentions of this site were not for profit.

I have setup another site setup to http://www.fijitalk.com

This is what I received from Yahoo Today.
----------
Thanks for deactivating the site today. I look forward to hearing from you
about the domain name. Please note that transfering this domain to a third
party would violate our trademark rights, because the value in this domain
name is in fact our famous trademark. While I appreciate that you may not
have understood our trademark concerns when you registered the domain, I
have explained those concerns (and the law on which they are based) to you.
I am willing to further discuss any questions you may have, but we
respectfully demand that you do not transfer the domain to any third party.

Best regards,

xxxxxxxxxxx

-------------
Raj Gounder

"respectively demand" - it rather clashes with itself doesn't it? :eek:

Originally posted by randolf
GOUNDER IF YOU ARE STILL HERE -
DONT GIVE UP ON THAT DOMAIN
...So if grounder follows your advice and winds up getting hit with a lawsuit by Yahoo!, are you going to pay his legal fees?

If you're not his lawyer, you shouldn't be *telling* him what to do. You're free to post your *opinion* of what you think he should do, but some of the things you're suggesting (filing complains with the local police) can backfire and cause further problems.

If grounder wants to do as you suggest and play hardball with Yahoo! that's up to him, but I hope he has the common sense to talk to a *real* trademark lawer before doing so and not base his actions on someone's post on an Internet bulletin board.

Put it this way, do you have anything worth them taking you to court over? A company WILL NOT sue someone who has no money. The company would spend a LOT of money for nothing. If you have no money, here is your advantage.....They would much rather pay you $3,000 for a domain than to spend $20,000 going to court knowing you have no money and they would not make their money back.

Yes Yahoo is big and they have money...but they have money because they dont go around blowing it on petty stuff like this. For all the moeny they spent, they have it budgeted, and they have it budgeted as to how they will make it back.

People seem to think that billion$ companies go around blowing money. They dont. They blow money on things that will make their money back. They invest, not merely spend...

Take this for example:
disc.com
will they sue discount.com, discharge.com, disclose.com since 'disc' is a trademark from disc.com???
if yes, then I would take a.com, b.com, c.com ....
and the whole internet is mine!
Just think about it, I would say, First come First Serve is a perfect law!
So yahoo.com doesnt mean they own the whole yahooblablabla...

Originally posted by Santana
Take this for example:
disc.com will they sue discount.com, discharge.com, disclose.com since 'disc' is a trademark from disc.com???


"disc" is a word in its own right, "discount" is a word in its own right. "yahoofiji" is not a word in its own right, but rather contains a whole word that is a trademark.

If, however, disclose.com was actually supposed to be "Disc Lose", then they may have a case... of course it's all hypotherical, and "disc" is too generic to trademark anyway.

Originally posted by Lawrence


"disc" is a word in its own right, "discount" is a word in its own right. "yahoofiji" is not a word in its own right, but rather contains a whole word that is a trademark.

If, however, disclose.com was actually supposed to be "Disc Lose", then they may have a case... of course it's all hypotherical, and "disc" is too generic to trademark anyway.

I see your point. The above is just an example though, but my point is that, yahoofiji.com should stay with gounder he registered it first.

Well, anyway, it's just my 2 cents, I don;t know much about the law :o .

Btw, how can we tell the word is generic or not?

Originally posted by Santana
Btw, how can we tell the word is generic or not?


I'm not sure how they determine it exactly, but I would think it's a very fine subjective line. Generic words are usually those that are used for an actual product or service. So, for example, if you ran a Dry Cleaning business, you couldn't registered "Dry Cleaner" as a trademark. If you ran a web hosting business, you couldn't register "Web Host" as a trademark.

I'm sure YahooSucks.com has gotten their fair share of threats from Yahoo....but guess what, Yahoo still doesnt have it. You people gotta learn that these big rich companies are full of bluff and little action. In other words, their bark is bigger than their bite.

Originally posted by Webdude
I'm sure YahooSucks.com has gotten their fair share of threats from Yahoo....but guess what, Yahoo still doesnt have it. You people gotta learn that these big rich companies are full of bluff and little action. In other words, their bark is bigger than their bite.

I'm sure that Yahoo has threatened them, but YahooSucks.com et al are going to be fine. There is an exception in IP law that allows you to use a limited amount of another person's work to critique it. That's why you can see movie shots, game screenshots, etc. even in unfavorable reviews -- the creator of the work doesn't need to grant permission to the person doing the critique.

Although, we all know what happened with 2600 and Verizon...so what I just said might not apply anymore in a few more years if the lobbying of the government continues. :angry:

heh, you know that some people always hate the big guys, Microsoft/yahoo/ebay etc etc.

( this is randolf here - I had to reregister as I was unable to login at the old a/c)


"If Yahoo sends a legal summons he might be rather obliged to respond" - Lawrence

Yahoo did not send any legal summons - it is just a case of a big boy bullying a smaller one. Yahoo in this case also have to approach the domain registrar.

"Also, the "Yahoo" in "Yahoo Fiji" is the operative word" - Lawrence
to repeat
it is NOT Yahoo Fiji - what Gounder has is yahoofiji which in 90% non-english togues is pronounced as yahoof iji or ya hufi ji or yahufij ii ,
and nothing to do with yahoo { the reg mark is yahoo! }


Yahoo has a registered trademark on their name, which they are paying for.... In terms of identification, trademarks are to corporations as national flags and coats of arms are to nations, or colours are to a sporting team. Any business should really have it's own unique identifiers. - Lawrence

No sense,Lawrence - yahoo! is the tr. mark - yahoofiji has very little similarity to that if at all - also if a country uses red color or a star that cannot be used by another country as a flag ?? funny ! look at the pix of all flags - many have bits of similarity - no one is fighting on that.
and yes - if yahoo feels yahooabc..xyz can cause them trouble they should have registered it first rather than cry afterwards - if they have not they should better forget.

also as someone told - what is the point in .com .biz and .tv then ?? please explain !!

and oh boy ! it is not even yahoo.cc or yahoo.tv or yahoo abc/xyz .com - yahoofiji has completely different syntax and pronc and meaning !


"So if grounder follows your advice and winds up getting hit with a lawsuit by Yahoo!, are you going to pay his legal fees? "- Intelligent Hosting

i) that was my suggestion only - he is an adult free to do what he decides
ii) in any case yahoo wont go for a lawsuit and wont be able to withstand it
{ read posts by WEBDUDE and post on yahoosucks.com)
iii) the simple reason is yahoo and yahoofiji have remote similarity if at all - see the pronounciation stuff above
iv) are you going to pay legal fees ? yes I will contribute my bit and as much as I can- and many will sure who beleive there should be an end to big bullies

** many smaller guys have won legal suites against big players because of the courage and support they gathered on the way - rather than negativism like what you say - did you see the movie Erin Brochovich?


"I'm sure YahooSucks.com has gotten their fair share of threats from Yahoo....but guess what, Yahoo still doesnt have it. You people gotta learn that these big rich companies are full of bluff and little action. In other words, their bark is bigger than their bite." - WEBDUDE

greatly said - webdude ! if Gounder is not too tired or too afraid he should take a note from this, be inspired not just to keep the domain but even host it.If not host Gounder - keep it. Who knows yahoo wont go bankrupt and fall one day - gounder - you just hand over the domain to the next generation as a prized possession - never ever give it up.
yahoo cannot and will not do simply any damage to you - the pronounciation clause alone is sufficient to deter them.

"heh, you know that some people always hate the big guys, Microsoft/yahoo/ebay etc etc."- klisis

people only hate when there are reasons , when big guys behave in the meanest of their ways - php and linux are no less big - people dont hate them - in fact love for them is growing daily - do you know that klisis ?


!! its amazing how except Webdude and one or two more, people in wht can be so timid and submissive - may be that explains why big bullies are getting bigger. !!

Gounder - dont give up - post in other boards - other sites like planetfeedback.com - you will find many sharing not just voice but action and money with you .

Well I don't plan to fight Yahoo in this matter. But the fact is there is no legal case against me since I shut down the site. The question is can Yahoo take my domain name from me? I hope not after this entire site is down.

As I had mentioned this before, yahoocanada.com, yahoochina.com, yahoojapan.com, and yahooaustralia are registered by individuals and they seem to have retained it. Why can this be a legal case against me since the site is not running. The fact is probably that Yahoo didn't think of this name "Yahoofiji.com" because it’s a small place and they probably know it existed.

Don't get me wrong, I love Yahoo and have nothing bad to say about them. Besides my site was not a challenge to them, nor a treat to them and nor would I have made any money there. The only I had bought this name is it is easy to remember.

Thanks for all your support, comments and suggestions. I had posted this issue on this board to get your opinion, which I did and that’s why I have decided to shut down the site.

The only question remains is, Can Yahoo take my domain away from me it is not running?

--------------------
Raj Gounder

Examples using words like "honey" in cereal names and comparing "disc" and "discount" completely miss the point that in trademark infringement cases, as well as in domain name disputes, decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. At the very least if you want to look at precedent -- what decisions have been made in the past -- you should look at similar examples.

There's some divergence in this thread between people talking about how things should be, and those talking about the way things are.

Especially to people that are aware of the internet and the web, when you say "yahoo" people think of the products and services of Yahoo! Inc. In the current state of trademark and patent law, that's an absolutely important point. If there's a real chance that people will confuse the two entities, or their products or services, because of a similarity in the name, the finding will probably be that an infringement has occured. As I mentioned before, the word "yahoo" is trademarked by other companies for other purporse, but Yahoo! Inc has a trademark for several different usages involving things like "presentation of information on computer networks."

My guess is that in the area of trademark law Yahoo Inc. would probably win. My guess also is that a domain name dispute also could not be won; cases already decided make it appear that anything with "yahoo" in it has been found to "rightfully" belong to Yahoo! Inc.

Of course, again, these things are decided on a case-by-case basis, and this is still a fairly new area of the law. If you go to court or to arbitration, there's no way really to know what would happen and what interpretation might actually occur. But a lot of people already have gone into arbitration with Yahoo! over this, and have lost.

[Edited, changed conclusion]

Well, as you'd expect this has come up before. Here's a decision on the domain name yahoo-usa.com:

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-1137.html

Reading this it does in fact look like the interpretation being made by arbiters would in fact end up on the side of Yahoo! Inc.

More decisions involving yahoo can be viewed here:

http://eon.law.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/htsearch?words=yahoo&method=and&format=long&config=icann_udrp&restrict=

By the way, regarding different uses of the word "yahoo" and how that might come into play, I wouldn't bank on that helping. This is from a decision regarding the domain name visayahoo.com, which was registered by a resident of the Philippines:

"Despite the particular meaning to Filipinos of the words Visaya hoo, in the context of the Internet, with which virtually all Filipino pc users are familiar, there is no plausible explanation for the respondent’s registration of the disputed domain name other than to benefit from the goodwill of Yahoo! and its famous YAHOO! mark and name."

Originally posted by gounder
...The question is can Yahoo take my domain name from me? I hope not after this entire site is down.

But then what's the point of having a domain if you can't use it?

JayC, Hard to tell them buttons apart, huh? :D

Originally posted by randolfag
"If Yahoo sends a legal summons he might be rather obliged to respond" - Lawrence

Yahoo did not send any legal summons - it is just a case of a big boy bullying a smaller one. Yahoo in this case also have to approach the domain registrar.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that they had. The point I was trying to make was that silence is not an adequate form of defence in this case.

"Also, the "Yahoo" in "Yahoo Fiji" is the operative word" - Lawrence
to repeat
it is NOT Yahoo Fiji - what Gounder has is yahoofiji which in 90% non-english togues is pronounced as yahoof iji or ya hufi ji or yahufij ii ,
and nothing to do with yahoo { the reg mark is yahoo! }

I took that as a joke originally, rather like the classic "You weren't here" paradigm. I hope I wasn't mistaken...

Yes, the reg mark is Yahoo. Use of the trademark does not have to be in it's exact form, just close enough for a court to decide that the trademark has been infringed upon.


No sense,Lawrence - yahoo! is the tr. mark - yahoofiji has very little similarity to that if at all - also if a country uses red color or a star that cannot be used by another country as a flag ?? funny ! look at the pix of all flags - many have bits of similarity - no one is fighting on that.
and yes - if yahoo feels yahooabc..xyz can cause them trouble they should have registered it first rather than cry afterwards - if they have not they should better forget.

Whether "yahoofiji" has similarity to "yahoo" is exactly what we're discussing... need I point out that *you* (and others) think it is not similar but *I* (and others) think it is?

The flags are a perfectly good example. If the US decided to replace it's stars with a Union Jack, I'm sure there'd be some conflict over the matter. Obviously, the flags are just an example, I don't mean to claim that their uniqueness is exactly the same as that of trademarks.




also as someone told - what is the point in .com .biz and .tv then ?? please explain !!

Because, as has been pointed out, different businesses can have the same name but do different business. Businesses may also exist with the *same* name, doing the *same* business but in different localities. In this case, Yahoo is certainly international, and thus covers *all* localities.

!! its amazing how except Webdude and one or two more, people in wht can be so timid and submissive - may be that explains why big bullies are getting bigger. !!


Oh please. If you're going to make that sort of judgement on people, please substantiate it with a little more than opinions expressed contrary to yours in a single thread.

Klisis also made the point that many people always hate the big guys. Are you such a person?

I do agree that Yahoo is unlikely to take action on this. They may well do, however, as not taking action here could affect their chances in more serious cases in future.

Of course, in the time I've taken to post this, the issue has sort of come to rest...

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
JayC, Hard to tell them buttons apart, huh? :D Heheh... yeah, and I do that all the time. Covered my tracks this time, though! ;)

Originally posted by gounder
The only question remains is, Can Yahoo take my domain away from me it is not running?


I'm thinking that having the domain name without using it could land you in just as much trouble - for cybersquatting. Anyone who knows more about that care to comment? I don't really know enough on the matter.

Originally posted by Lawrence

I'm thinking that having the domain name without using it could land you in just as much trouble - for cybersquatting. Anyone who knows more about that care to comment?I wouldn't think so, unless you are trying to sell the name or are holding it simply to keep someone else who would have a claim to it from using it. But you wouldn't be able to win a domain name dispute over a name you're not actively using unless you have clear trademark rights to the name.

the trademark issue is this:

if someone sees YAHOOFIJI.COM, can it be confused with YAHOO.COM, it doesnt have much to do with the names being similar, but can they be confused in the same business arena. Lexus Autos tried to sue LEXUS-NEXUS (legal info company), or was it the other way around..anyway, they lost cause the companies do 2 different things and you cant confuse the 2.

Originally posted by Fred
the trademark issue is this:

if someone sees YAHOOFIJI.COM, can it be confused with YAHOO.COM, it doesnt have much to do with the names being similar, but can they be confused in the same business arena. Lexus Autos tried to sue LEXUS-NEXUS (legal info company), or was it the other way around..anyway, they lost cause the companies do 2 different things and you cant confuse the 2. Exactly! If someone sees yahoofigi.com, they would immediately think of yahoo.com.

I've better say right away that I've been studying law.

Violations of intellectual property always seems unfair whan it's the BIG corporation that's excersising it's legal rights. But rules are rules, and in this particular case, it's soo obvious that the name has been taken solely with the intent to profit on the Yahoo name. Thereby, the only way out is closed. Let it go before the true **** will hit the fan.

Whether it's legal using "Yahoo" on a restaurant or any other non-Internet business is hard to say. First, it all depends on under which jurisdiction you're doing it. I'm European, and to us it seems as if US companies and individuals think the US laws rule globally. Not so.

Normally, it's a go ahead. You can make tractors called Yahoo, and they (the Internet Yahoo) can't do **** about it. But if you're doing something that will smudge their reputation, they can. Example is a rat poison brand that happened to be the same as a prefume brand. Despite their extremely different kind of business, the rat guys had to change the name.

I could go on forever, but won't. Instead, can someone say something about e webhost called PowWeb?

Originally posted by Dani
First, it all depends on under which jurisdiction you're doing it. I'm European, and to us it seems as if US companies and individuals think the US laws rule globally. Not so.Of course, such things are regulated under Trademark Law treaty and international intellectual property agreements. Kind of a hodgepodge, but there are standards and regulation such as under the Madrid Protocol which registers marks internationally.

Normally, it's a go ahead. You can make tractors called Yahoo, and they (the Internet Yahoo) can't do **** about it. Exactly, and as I pointed out the name Yahoo is trademarked in the US by companies other than Yahoo! Inc. for use for things link barbecue sauce and boats. But we're talking about a use for which Yahoo! Inc. already has established rights, and adding a geographical identification like Fiji to a name probably isn't ever going to cut it unless perhaps the original mark holder has similarly restricted their mark; I couldn't, even as a New York resident, start bulding cars under the name FordNewYork Motor Corp.

I might be able to, though, incorporate as The Ford Corporation (assuming no one else in NY has incorporated under a similar name) and build cars. The state wouldn't care what I was doing when I incorporated the name. As soon as I got started, though, I'd expect to hear from Ford Motor Corporation's lawyers about trademark infringement. That goes back to the confusion early in this thread about incorporation vs. trademark -- two completely different thngs.

I'm not a lawyer, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D

When you register a trademark you have to specify what products/services the trademark will be used on. Am in the midst of the process & the paperwork. UGH!!!! You have to document samples of how it will be or is used.

Lexis-Nexis fought against the Lexus car company because they felt Lexus was too similar to their Lexis trademark. They lost because the products are very different (car vs legal research) and because the spelling is different. Lexis as a product of Lexis-Nexis has been around since 1973. Toyota started their Lexus division in the early 80's. (Am up on this case because I could throw a rock out my window and hit the LN headquarters.)

Yahoo is a recognized brandname. Using a similar name for another internet purpose would most likely be considered infringement. A spoof or parody might be okay, but it would be a case-by-case ruling.

Companies have to fight to maintain the integrity of their trademarks so they don't fall into public domain. Kleneex is one such trademark, the term is now used to represent all
"facial tissues" not just the Kleneex brand.

Originally posted by KG
I'm not a lawyer, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D . . . . . . .ROFLMAO!! :laugh:

yahoofigi.com does sound to me like one of the Yahoo Australia's etc typ pages.

I would call them and let the take over the domain, ask for it to post a message like "THe web site you have requested has moved to _____.com please update your links and bookmakrs." for a couple months, expidite the update process on getting your link and email changed in their directory (as it can take a VERY long time), and as I believe they have already offered, reimburse you for the domain registration costs.

It could be taken as infringing as Yahoo has message board services and YahooFigi sounds like an infringement on their international sections.

You might want to look for something like webfigi.org or something since you are not-for-profit, or some similar name, that way if there is a dispute, you will at least bee seen as an ORG. Also, might run a few checks of the trademark search, I did that and had to change my slogan.

gounder has stated that he has registered a new name for his bulletin board.

figitalk.com

Simple; yet effectively states what it is ;)

Originally posted by Dani

Normally, it's a go ahead. You can make tractors called Yahoo, ...


Hmm... isn't it that famous brands receive protection under trademark law regardless the category of product?

Isn't Yahoo such a famous brand?

Also Yahoo is protected as company name

And it's highly distinctive

I would hesitate to use Yahoo in the name of just any commercial product what so ever.