Thread: Gmail... again...

Originally Posted by sean_mackrory

Actually I think they can force them to change the domain name.

not that I know of. google paid for the domain, so legally it's theirs to keep. the trademark was made after the domain was purchased, so AFAIK, there's no legal grounds for the other company to stand on.

Originally Posted by sean_mackrory

Someone may own a sign for a store, but if the name on the sign gets trademarked they can be forced to take it down, even though they own the sign.

yeah, but they don't have to change the name of the store.

The laws favor businesses who first used the mark, and much of copyright law comes from the Lanham Act. The Lanham Act was designed to prevent trademark infringement. The law broadly prohibits uses of trademarks, trade names, and trade dress that are likely to cause confusion about the source of a product or service. Infringement law protects consumers from being misled by the use of infringing marks and also protects producers from unfair practices by an imitating competitor.

Many people believe that if they register a particular domain, for example www.arkansascoffee.com, then the person has trademarked that as a business name an no one else can use the name Arkansas Coffee for their business. This is not necessarily true. You must not only register the domain, but use the business name enough to achieve distinction, such as through customer awareness and marketing.

Trademarks can be distinctive words, phrases, logos, symbols, slogans or other things that identify the source of the product and make it distinctive. A trademark can either be inherently distinctive, or it can gain its distinctiveness over a period of time by being associated with a particular product or service (for instance, the Nike swoosh).

all from the legal database

>>G-Spot

sorry, I already own that



damn that was a good one