What is the rule of thumb here? Is it right to register a domain for something that is trademarked? What will happen if you do? Will the trademark holder possibly demand it from you? Is there money to be made here? This is all new to me...

It probably depends on what you do with the domain or what you name the the domain name, and of course who has the trademark. I got three domains with Nintendo in them that the real Nintendo has never even contacted me about, but has only contacted users on my message board, when for example they posted ROM links. I've had one Nintendo domain for nine years.

Once I did register nintendoHQ.com...and the wrath of the Nintendo lawyers were quickly on me!!!!

Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 15:56:16 -0700
From: "Nintendo Legal" <NintendoLegal@noa.nintendo.com>
To: <wacko-AT-king-of-da-wackos.com>
Subject: Nintendohq.com

Dear Mr. Wacko:

It has come to our attention that you have recently registered and are using the Nintendo(R) trademark in the domain name of your website referenced above.

Because of the high quality of our products, and the loyalty of our customers, Nintendo enjoys substantial trademark rights. In order to preserve the good reputation of our products, Nintendo must carefully protect the use of its various intellectual property rights, including use on the internet. When a site using our trademark(s) is brought to our attention, we feel it is appropriate to respond.

Please stop using any Nintendo trademark in a domain name and transfer ownership of the domain name referenced above to Nintendo. In addition to this email, we will send you, by certified mail, a Registrant Name Change Agreement to complete the domain name transfer. Please sign this Agreement in the presence of a Notary Public and return it in the envelope provided. We will be glad to reimburse you for the notary fee.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely yours,
Sayoko Blodgett-Ford, Associate Counsel
Legal Department
Nintendo of America Inc.
(711) 666-1337

I took the site down and let it expire...and some PPC site replaced it.

Usually if you register a domain name that is owned by a big corporation, you'll receive a C&D letter once they're aware of it. They'll demand the domain pointed to their site and that the ownership is transferred over to them.

Google is an example of a company that active goes after cybersquatters.

But can they force you to transfer ownership? Especially without compensation? Sounds like immenent domain in cyberspace to me.

Originally Posted by John

But can they force you to transfer ownership? Especially without compensation? Sounds like immenent domain in cyberspace to me.

Sometimes they offer to reimburse you for the domain registration fee. If they don't, it's not like you have a choice because they'd take legal actions against you. Smartest thing to do would to stay away from registering trademark-infringing domain names.

What if you have that proxy-privacy registration? Can they still find you?

Yes, if they want to press the matter they can take legal action to force your registrar to disclose your "private" registration.

In answer to the original question, yes, there's money to be made if you find a domain getting traffic, but if it has a copyrighted name in it the copyright owner can force you to turn over the domain to them -- and rightly so if it's getting the traffic based on their advertising money and good name.

I would not want anyone to use my trademarks for their profit, so I am not doing it myself either.

There are definately money in it, and I have heard of people making loads of it also.

//Andreas

I remember there was a site Mikrosoft which always post microsoft news and is posting programs similar to microsoft .. and then now as you see it is closed ... it was bought for huge amount of money ...

I understand there is no money in this. You can buy the domain but you can not take it hostage, demanding more money than you paid to the registrar.

Register coca-cola.com and its only worth 14.95 if that is what you paid. I believe its protected under some sort of new law that does not allow cybersquatting.

You would either surrender the name or sell it for the purchase price.

It depends, really. If you register it for the purpose of getting money, that's not good, in my opinion. But if it just happened to be trademarked name... that's another story.

Originally Posted by Lee

What is the rule of thumb here? Is it right to register a domain for something that is trademarked? What will happen if you do? Will the trademark holder possibly demand it from you? Is there money to be made here? This is all new to me...

It all depends on the domain and how it is being used. Bruce Springsteen tried to get the domain BruceSpringsteen.com a couple of years ago but he failed. Other celeberties have succeeded but it really comes down to the intent and the way that they are being used in these cases. This is somewhat of a bad example because "Bruce Springsteen" isn't trademarked but it was a cybersquatting case.