Trademarks in domain names?

**beley** · 07-13-2006, 09:08 AM

I just recently bought 2 domains for literally chump change and was going to make them into blogs. One of them has "google" in it, and I'm wondering if I should invest a lot of time into building a blog about Google SEO if Google can just come and take my domain.

The domain is googlearticles.com

Any thoughts? Should I just press forward and see what happens or play it safe and develop some of the other sites first?

**ltn1dr** · 07-13-2006, 09:20 AM

I would press forward if and only if you thought the site would be successful mostly because of the domain. Otherwise, I'd just use another domain and 301 this one to the main site.

**Atomm** · 07-13-2006, 10:37 AM

I believe they can take it away from you. Here is an example of a similiar situation I have been involved with.

It was 2000. I worked for an ISP. We hosted a website called DellClub.com. It was a community site for owners of Dell computers. There was nothing shady about it. We received a cease and desist letter from Dell. It went to our lawyers and they felt the letter had merit, so we had to shut down the site. I thought it was a bad move by Dell, but they wanted to protect their name.

I think it's fairly similiar to what you are trying to do.

With that said, there was a post about Google loosing their trademark. If that happens, I bet you could cash in on that domain.

**imported_bigdaddy** · 07-13-2006, 06:38 PM

Quote:

With that said, there was a post about Google loosing their trademark. If that happens, I bet you could cash in on that domain.

yeah I read somewhere thay because Google is now so big it is becoming a "Household Name" & they will soon lose rights to the Google trademarks so I guess you should be fine :chinese:

**imported_mill** · 07-13-2006, 08:22 PM

hehe i think i have like 5-6 of real sweet google domains.

**Andreas Bard** · 07-14-2006, 07:52 PM

I would not use that one.

//Andreas

**Hexation** · 07-14-2006, 08:53 PM

Too risky right now. No point in putting all that time in it when you have to take it down the next day.

**beley** · 07-14-2006, 09:41 PM

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to sit on the domain for now and work on developing some of my other sites in the meantime.

**Bookworm-SEO** · 08-29-2006, 03:46 PM

Google just entered a couple of dictionaries as a verb. Besides, there are so many google domains around, they'd probably focus on misspellings first. On a related note, I recently found goooogle.com redirects to google, so maybe they'd buy it from you. I wouldn't ask for the attention though.

**handsome rob** · 08-30-2006, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bookworm-SEO

Google just entered a couple of dictionaries as a verb. Besides, there are so many google domains around, they'd probably focus on misspellings first. On a related note, I recently found goooogle.com redirects to google, so maybe they'd buy it from you. I wouldn't ask for the attention though.

They made it into the dictionary and then said "No! Nonononono! Stop!". Probably trying to backpedal away from losing their TM.

And they wouldn't buy the DN from you, they'd just serve you with a C&D and take it from you in court. If it were Microsoft, you'd get a C&D, a lawsuit, and THEN lose your domain.

**NBF** · 08-30-2006, 04:23 PM

I wouldn't use it for a site you care about. I read over at TechCrunch recently that Digg is coming after domains with their name in it. Apparently, if they don't defend their trademark ALL the time, they won't be able to defend in a case where it really matters. That's the law.

Laura