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In lugnet.modelteam, David Eaton writes:
> Legally, Lego can't necessarily stop someone else from getting the domain
> "ThisSiteIsSponsoredByLego.com".
Yes they can. It not only blatantly contains the word "LEGO" in the
domain name, but it makes an untrue statement of sponsorship, thereby
encouraging anyone who casually stumbles across the website to assume that
TLC does actually sponsor that website, and that they must obviously be okay
with whatever content is on that site.
> However, in some countries (US at least, I assume many others), Lego has a >copyright to their name.
They don't hold a copyright to their name. It is a registered
trademark, which is a different situation altogether. Copyrights expire,
but trademarks stay active as long as you continue to use them (which is why
Disney makes a point of keeping The Mouse active in their multitude of
logos). Furthermore, TLC has an internationally recognized trademark,
rather than a locally recognized trademark. When they use "®", it means the
trademark is recognized worldwide. When they use "™" it means that the
registration is pending, or not recognized in all countries. This is why
TECHNIC™ recently changed to TECHNIC®. Copyrights apply to inventions,
creations, artwork, and other similar things. Trademarks apply to the
identities under which those things may or may not be sold. The Bionicle
parts are copyrighted, the Bionicle name is trademarked.
> So they could take it to court and potentially find you in violation of their >copyright, forcing you to shut the site down.
Not quite. They can force you to surrender the domain name, but they
can't force you to shut the website down. You're allowed to register a new
domain name for that website if you want. And if you can still afford to.
> But if your site is something like "PutYourLegOn.com" or
> "WhenAleGoesBad.com" or "FullEgo.com", and *especially* if your site content
> has nothing to do with Lego, chances are a court would determine that you
> hadn't violated Lego's copyright and would allow you to keep the domain.
If the word is hidden amongst the letters, then no, they can't touch
the website unless you do something stupid to make it obvious that you're
trying to sneak through a loophole (like if you advertise your website as
"whenaLEGOesbad.com"). It also doesn't matter too much if your website
doesn't have anything to do with LEGO. What really matters is if there is
an obvious non-LEGO justification for having those four letters in your
domain name. If your last name was Lego, and you had decided to make a
website to detail your family tree, and you had registered the Lego.com
domain name _before_ TLC got ahold of it, you could not legally be forced to
surrender the domain name because your last name would give you just as much
legal claim to use that domain name for non-LEGO purposes as TLC had for
using it for LEGO purposes. As I mentioned in a previous thread, there was
a NYC based catalog company (I want to say it was J. Peterman) which lost
its domain name lawsuit because the person who had registered it had the
same name as the catalog, and had registered it for his personal website.
Another point where you can get into a sticky situation is if you do
have an obvious legitimate claim, but you approach them asking for loads of
cash to surrender the domain name. If it's obvious that you're trying to
extort the company rather than run your own website, the courts can order
you to surrender it for just your current registration fee.
> In any event, Lego's fair play document just asks you to be considerate, and
> think ahead. And for most Lego fans, that's enough.
One would think so. It's not though. There are people who will resist
as much as they can afford to, and there are others who are not aware that
it's mentioned in the Fair Use Policy (if they're even aware of the FUP at all).
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: My site is down :-(
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| (...) You're not using a standard character in the second case there, so I can't tell what you mean exactly, but I'm assuming you mean TM. The distinction isn't actually the one you're making; the full r-in-a-circle symbol means that the trademark (...) (21 years ago, 15-May-03, to lugnet.modelteam, lugnet.technic, lugnet.build)
| | | Re: My site is down :-(
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| (...) Oh? By means of a court case, sure, but can they legally stop you before you even register the name? IE is there some sort of law in place to proactively prevent me from squatting a trademarked named site? I mean, sure, once Lego finds out (...) (21 years ago, 15-May-03, to lugnet.modelteam, lugnet.technic, lugnet.build)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: My site is down :-(
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| (...) Legally, Lego can't necessarily stop someone else from getting the domain "ThisSiteIsSponsored...Lego.com". However, in some countries (US at least, I assume many others), Lego has a copyright to their name. So they could take it to court and (...) (21 years ago, 15-May-03, to lugnet.modelteam, lugnet.technic, lugnet.build)
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