for eg. my website is fireballhosting.com

then someone started fireballhosting.net


i did not copyright or trademark "fireballhosting"

Originally posted by lobaloba9
i did not copyright or trademark "fireballhosting" No then ;)

Well, you could sue but you would not win since you did not trademark the name.

Some companies purchase all variants of their domain name to prevent others from taking control of them.

Originally posted by eddy2099
. . . Some companies purchase all variants of their domain name to prevent others from taking control of them.
Always a wise move. My soon coming brand has around 28 domains registered, everything from misspellings, to plural (always own the plural and never never never brand a plural unless you also own the non plural), to as many main extenstions there are. Saves a LOT of possible problems later. :)

can i sue someone for using my website's name?

Sure... If you're in the U.S. you can basically sue anyone for anything. But I digress. There is the first use clause (in the U.S.) whereby if you can prove you were the first to use the brand or mark, a court should find in your favor. That, however, may be difficult, and would definitely be expensive. Chalk this up to a "live and learn" experience.

The below sounds pretty much like what happened to you.

http://www.prairielaw.com/messageboards/message.asp?channelId=26&subId=&mId=489509&mbId=53

As with all serious legal matters, don't believe what anyone tells you except for a trusted attorney.

but then, amazon.com does not own amazon.net

why didn't they sue the owner of amazon.net?

how do i trademark or copyright the name in USA?

i am not based in USA.

Why don't you Trademark the name then? It's not like it's that expensive. You can register a trademark with My Corporation (http://www.mycorporation.com).

The reason Amazon does not sue the .NET is because it falls under a different category then the .COM. By the way, you can't copyright a name. It's not possible.

mycorp only accepts US residents.

If its not copyrgith or trademarked, you either change your name or live with it mate

Regards
Terr

You don't have to apply for copyright - it's granted automatically, even if you don't display the © info...

You may nab a few signups from the .net because some people are more familiar with .com and I'm sure some might want to go back to fireballhosting.net to relook over the plans and type .com instead :)

hehehe... that's a cheeky one dbbrock

I'm missing something here. Fireballhosting.com and fireballhosting.net have been registered to the same person since 2003. The contact info at both sites shows the same .com addresses.

Do you have a twin with the same name and address who copied the .com site to the .net site and kept the email addresses as .com ones so that the .com site would still get the business?

Lois

what i am really worried about is that this .net offspring runs a horrible service and his bad name affects my reputation.

i am using fireballhosting as an example

i don't own either sites

Originally posted by lobaloba9
i am using fireballhosting as an example

i don't own either sites

Oh. Well, if the other site copied content from your site, you can sue them for copyright violation, but that's about it.

Lois

I'm not sure if you can do anything about a similar web address, but you can definitely sue if the other company is employing a confusingly similar company name.

I'm speaking from experience by the way.

HVoice-Eugene wrote:
>> I'm not sure if you can do anything about a similar web address, but you can definitely sue if the other company is employing a confusingly similar company name.

Do you mean the combo of a similar company name and domain name, or just a confusingly similar name anywhere in the world?

Lois

.net domains will spill up to the .com. If someone is branding a .net, then the .com brand will get spillage up from that. Never brand a .net unless you also own the .com.

Originally posted by HVoice-Eugene
but you can definitely sue if the other company is employing a confusingly similar company name.


I dont think thats possible unless the company being copied has registered their trademarks, right?

writespeak I mean a similar corporate/trade name.
Yaser Not necessarily. The could argue that they have registered their company earlier and therefore have more rights to it.
Anyway, I suggest you trademark your name ASAP otherwise you might be in for some trouble.

Ive seen so many web hosts and small business websites in general have at the end of their site all content is copywrited and trademarked by so and so, in reality only a few have themselves covered.

Exactly. I does cost a few hundred $, but better safe than sorry.

In the beginning many web hosts spend cash on buying/leasing servers and other important tools to run their business efficiently, most think that trademarking/registering the company's brand should be down the list and late forget to do so only to their disappointment :D hehe

ok. i've registered .us .biz .info .org

are the rest really needed?

you know, the very rare .name .jp .cn .cc etc.

same case here it seems. i've been using webpod.com, ie. http://helpdesk.webpod.com for a decent number of my hosting customers (since '98), for some time now... Heck, even my legally registered company name is "webpod.com" (since 2002) for offering ICT services including domain registration and web hosting.

just few wks ago, someone using domain containing the word "webpod" spammed gazilion people (including me!) on their webhosting offers... (with fake testimonials i'm guessing).

now, i'm suddenly getting spammed like 1000 mails per day, instead of well under 100/day before...

it's hard to continue hosting business with the name now that the other guy has spoiled my name (owned since 1998). he bought that domain couple yrs later than me, and another one with the word "server" just last year.

several guys tried to trademark this name since 1999, but failed or abandoned.

Aussie Bob speaks wise words. Advice many should take before planning a host name.

1) Pick a unique name. But not one so crazy no one will remember it.
2) Trademark it.

I can tell you that once we received our three, a huge burden was removed. I got tired of seeing if someone took the .yi or .do versions before we had registered marks. Now if they do, I send a S&D letter to them and the upstream. Simple. Registered marks give you leverage over cybersquaters.

Now we just maintain names that have plural(s), common misspellings and only TLDs for extensions.

Originally posted by lobaloba9
for eg. my website is fireballhosting.com

then someone started fireballhosting.net


i did not copyright or trademark "fireballhosting"

Ask a Lawyer =)

Originally posted by HVoice-Eugene
writespeak I mean a similar corporate/trade name.
Yaser Not necessarily. The could argue that they have registered their company earlier and therefore have more rights to it. Doesn't matter. You can't bring suit in a US federal court over a trademark (or copyright, for that matter) infringement unless you've registered the mark (or work).

That said, it's certainly possible to start the registration process after you've discovered the infringement, as long as you can prove first use on other grounds. But in that case you'd have to wait for the registration to be finalized before you could actually do anything in court.

Originally posted by writespeak
HVoice-Eugene wrote:
>> I'm not sure if you can do anything about a similar web address, but you can definitely sue if the other company is employing a confusingly similar company name.

Do you mean the combo of a similar company name and domain name, or just a confusingly similar name anywhere in the world?
Originally posted by HVoice-Eugene
writespeak I mean a similar corporate/trade name. Also not exactly right. In fact you can't trademark a business name or trade name. You can only register a mark if it identifies a product or service. Now, lots of times the business' trade name is the same as the product or service name, but it's an important distinction -- and one that causes a good number of trademark applications to be denied.

I should do searches for my hosting company name more often!

What exactly is the issue here? I have owned fireballhosting.com and .net since summer/fall 2003.

what i am really worried about is that this .net offspring runs a horrible service and his bad name affects my reputation

How did you come to this conclusion? You have never used my service. I also think my customers would claim otherwise. I dont have a bad name, nor do I intend to create one. You dont have a reputation clearly, as your versions of the site that you "registered" (.us .biz .info .org) dont seem to work.

By the way, i really have no intention of letting the .com and .net names expire.

Have a good day.

Originally posted by lobaloba9
i am using fireballhosting as an example

i don't own either sites

I think there has been a misunderstanding. fireball hosting was used as an example only.

Originally posted by HVoice-Eugene
I think there has been a misunderstanding. fireball hosting was used as an example only.

Yeah, probably.

Just thought it was funny that it was MY site he used as an example!

We regged the more common tlds. .com .net .org .us .biz .info. We try to do this for each Domain we reg that is business related. Any other recommendations for TLDs or should that be good?

i doubt you have any need for anything but the main 3 (com, net, org)

fireballhosting, i was REALLY using your website name as an example.

i have no ill intentions, seriously.

fireball was the first random word i thought of.

sheesh. if you find it offensive, can the mods change fireballhosting to xyzdiasjdasdqweqehosting

Originally posted by frozen
We regged the more common tlds. .com .net .org .us .biz .info. We try to do this for each Domain we reg that is business related. Any other recommendations for TLDs or should that be good?

but what if somebody registered .tv or .name and ruin your website's name?

eg. scamming etc.

worse still, what if .tv has a higher ranking than .com or .net on google and your customers might mistake .tv as your new website or deem it as the better of the 2 since it is higher ranked?

You should sue yourself for not getting all the extensions and variations of your domain in the first place. The money you should've spent on the domains, is gonna be paid for legal costs.

No offense, I'm just being very straight with you: blame nobody but youself!;)

lobaloba9, I am not in the US either but was able to register a trademark there... just speak to your lawyer and they should be able to advise you on that if you are interested.

I don't know if this was cleared up or not, but since I saw some mis-conceptions of trademark and copyright law, I thought I'd give some information since I'm in this industry (copyright/trademark).

Like someone said, you can sue anyone over anything. :) How easy you win/lose the case, depends on how much you bring to the table.

Ok, first off... pretty much anything you do is "copyrighted." Intellectual copyrights start from the moment you write something. So this message is copyright me. :)

That being said... when you "create" a name or logo... you've started the copyright process. If you can PROVE you created it first (more then just, it was on my website, something like a print ad with your name/logo, etc), then you have some ground to work on.

Trademarks (servicemarks, registered marks) are basically an insurance policy on your work. It allows you legal ground and official documentation and what not.

What is very important to realize in trademarking, is you are trademarking for A SPECIFIC INDUSTRY.

That means... Allstate Insurance owns the TM to Allstate. I can not create another insurance company that uses the name Allstate. I CAN create a company called "Allstate Web Hosting." Now if I TM allstate in the internet services realm, no one else can market allstate as a web host.

Allstate Insurance owns allstate.com because if got to it first basically. Allstate Movers (http://www.allstatemovers.com/) could own Allstate.net and Allstate Insurance couldn't do a thing about it (except buy it for a very large sum).

I hope this is helping out some. :)

So what if I did start an insurance company called Allstate Insurance? Well, then I'd get sued. Allstate owns the TM to it. The first use clause comes in when something isn't trade marked yet, or i'm contesting the trademark of allstate. maybe I created allstate insurance back in 1778 or something.

Trademarking allows the ability (or the ability to do it more easily) to transfer ownership of TMs and what not as well.

MOREOVER... trademarks can often be region specific. So if I'm a small company and open up a Chicago Hosting, Inc. in Illinois.... someone else could open up a Chicago Hosting, Inc. in Texas.

So if you want to protect yourself... really and truelly so that NO ONE else can use your name... get ready to fork over an amazing amount of money to trademark your name in the OODLES of industries and the many many regions. Its an impressivly costly endeavour.

And so is sueing someone... which brings me to my last point. It doesn't matter if you trademark or have first use rights unless you're willing to sue the person. As soon as you don't sue people over what you own... it becomes basically public.

Example... Kleenex tissues. Kleenex is a BRAND. But if I start a Jeff's Kleenex company... and kleenex doesn't sue me, then that's one step closer to kleenex becoming an item/word instead of a brand, which is basically already has. But kleenex sues people, so I'm stuck with Jeff's Tissue Paper company.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a good resource actually... http://www.uspto.gov

More specifically... this "What Is" page is pretty good at giving you a quick overview of things... http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/whatis.htm

i think if you just put your domain on some tshirts, cups, mousepads, etc., you'll feel a lot bettah? Of course sueing someone on the opposite end of the globe is always satisfying! How bout blueballhosting.com/.net/.ws - get it? start over, buy a few! not all! and, your reputation is solid as far as we are concerned so if you ever need a reference just ask me?

Originally posted by electron33
You should sue yourself for not getting all the extensions and variations of your domain in the first place. The money you should've spent on the domains, is gonna be paid for legal costs.

No offense, I'm just being very straight with you: blame nobody but youself!;)

Agreed. I grabbed the main 3 for mine, amdac.com / .net / .org

The others people can register at will as I don't view them as professional extensions. They'll only increase my sales by doing so.

Amdac wrote:
>> I grabbed the main 3 for mine, amdac.com / .net / .org

Why .org? How likely is an organization to have a domain name like a commercial one, or to be mistaken for a company?

I once saw a site with something like johnsmith.org for the domain name. The site was about the person. It looked silly to have an .org domain name for a personal site, but it was there.

IntraHost wrote:
>> I hope this is helping out some.

Great explanation about copyright/trademarks. Thanks for writing it.

Lois

Originally posted by electron33
You should sue yourself for not getting all the extensions and variations of your domain in the first place. The money you should've spent on the domains, is gonna be paid for legal costs.
Absolutely! :gthumb:

Originally posted by writespeak
Why .org? How likely is an organization to have a domain name like a commercial one, or to be mistaken for a company?

Those three seem to be the most common. It may not be a commercial company, but it's quite possible an unethical organization could grab that domain and deprecate my company's image. I just like to keep all basis covered. :D

can anyone trademark anyname they wish to save their selves in future?

there is many sites using my company name in arabic although their domains are totally different, is it possible to sue them for just using the 'company name' in that website?