Do any of these infringe on trademarks for any reason?

adobephotoshop.com <--- (company AND product name?)
buystarbucks.com
adobephotoshopcs4.com <--- (exact name of product? maybe?)
photoshop.com <---- (more general product name?)
CS4.com <---- (even more general)
MakeMoneyonTwitter.com <--- company name in domain

What breaches the line of trademark infringement? There are a few domain names that include product names I want to buy but dont wanna get in trouble.

I think the line appears when,

adobephotoshop.com ( You would expect to find teh offical site )
adobephotoshoptutorials.com ( you wouldnt really expect an offical site, but a site for tutorials for photoshop. )


First one, you will get shafted.
Second one.. You shouldnt.

Originally Posted by lynxus

I think the line appears when,

adobephotoshop.com ( You would expect to find teh offical site )
adobephotoshoptutorials.com ( you wouldnt really expect an offical site, but a site for tutorials for photoshop. )


First one, you will get shafted.
Second one.. You shouldnt.

Shouldn't what, shouldn't get in trouble for it I am assuming?

Okay so the EXACT product name is trademark. Like StarbucksCoffee or TazoTea or AppleComputers or MicrosoftWindows ??

But anything more is okay? Like BuyIpods or DownloadAdobe or DownloadMicrosoft or StarbucksCoupons ???

MOST of those would infringe trademarks. "CS4" used alone is too generic and "twitter" as a word could not be trademarked. For "Twitter" the registered mark is ->

(5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM

It's not a matter of "Company names". Some company names are not registered trademarks or even able to be trademarked.

And Photoshop is NOT a "general" product name, it is a specific product.

Use TESS to find who owns names and marks.

chris, thanks for your reply!

So you are saying photoshoptutorials.com could be infringement? Or are you saying simply photoshop.com would be infringement.

i heard once "if the domain name could be mistaken for the company it mentions it could be infringement." Does this seem true? So "buyphotoshop" could be mistaken for adobe, but "photoshoptutorials" is less likely.?

"if the domain name could be mistaken for the company it mentions it could be infringement.

That often depends on how agressively the mark owner protects their mark.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

That often depends on how agressively the mark owner protects their mark.

Yes indeed. If I were you I would not risk at all.

Do you think that businesses that do not depend upon the internet would care less about their name being used in a domain, opposed to primarily digital? An example of this: StarbucksCoupons.com vs. PhotoshopDownloads.com Seems that Adobe would care more about their product in a domain name opposed to Starbucks that has other priorities. Thanks so much for your help guys! Just trying to get a major grasp on this before I start my internet marketing adventure

Nope.

As pointed out in post #7 it depends on the trademark holder. If they fail to protect their mark they could lose the right to protect it in the future.

Originally Posted by breadnbutter

Do you think that businesses that do not depend upon the internet would care less about their name being used in a domain, opposed to primarily digital? An example of this: StarbucksCoupons.com vs. PhotoshopDownloads.com Seems that Adobe would care more about their product in a domain name opposed to Starbucks that has other priorities. Thanks so much for your help guys! Just trying to get a major grasp on this before I start my internet marketing adventure

In any case that is risk to register such domain names. But at the same time if they are still availible for the registration that should be a sign for you.

Definitely some decent information here. I was wondering for awhile about the gray area with names. I had one which was on the line at one point, decided to drop it though because I don't want to be having to look over my keyboard for a lawsuit :P

I would never build a company around a domain that uses keywords that could be considered a copyright issue. There are some good examples to work with here. Photoshoptutorials for example may not be a problem now. Adobe wants to work with the web community and you would probably be ok. But that doesn't mean that in two years, five years, ten years... that a problem could not come up. Lurking on the horizon is the possibility that a court ruling or other precident of allowing 'photoshoptutorials' or 'starbuckscoupons' to exist increases liability or reduces the strength of the core trademark. Possibly companies who now accept many domain names with their trademark in them may be encouraged to shut that down in the future.

I think you would find out for sure if you contacted Adobe for example and asked them to put in writing your right to use the domain name 'Photoshoptutorials.info' or whatever. I'd expect you would not be granted that request which is why I would be hesitent to invest time and money in a website that only really exists because current management feels ok with it.

All of the mentioned names have trademark issues. If Adobe or StarBucks would want to lift a finger against trademark violators these domains would be among the first they would target.

IMHO if your domain name contains any words that are registered trademarks and your website is in the same field as the registered trademark you are risking legal action from the trademark owner. So running apple-store.com is fine as long as you are selling fruit. But if you start selling mp3 players - you may be violating.

Normally, you would get a cease and desist letter (or your webhost/registrar would forward you DMCA takedown notice (which is technically irrelevant since DMCA doesn't deal with trademarks - only copyright which is not the same) and if you drop the domain name or surrender it to the trademark holder you would that would be the end of it.

Normally companies are proactive about defending their trademarks because if they don't they can lose the ability to defend it in the future as was stated above.

However there are several important things you must know:
1) Even if you comply with C&D or DMCA takedown you can still be sued. Trademark holder may hold your accountable for the profit you've made off their trademark or even if you didn't make any - for damage you did to the trademark by causing customer confusion or devaluing the trademark. They can set damages to any arbitrary sum

2) If you choose to go to court about it, according to the trademark law, if the trademark in question is a registered one, you will be responsible for other party's litigation expenses if you lose.

3) Litigating against large company can be extremely expensive. Six-figure numbers are not uncommon.

So my advice would be not to play with fire unless you are operating from some country where courts don't give a squat about US trademark laws and corporations.

I'm not a lawyer though and this is just my humble opinion and not a legal advice.

Thanks so much for the information! I've decided to hold off on registering any potentially trademarked names until I can get in contact with my friend who happens to be a lawyer . I'll let you know that he says