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In lugnet.modelteam, David Laswell writes:
> In lugnet.modelteam, David Eaton writes:
> > Legally, Lego can't necessarily stop someone else from getting the domain
> > "ThisSiteIsSponsoredByLego.com".
>
> Yes they can.
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 about it, they can take you right to court (and would probably do
so and win in a heartbeat), but until they take legal action to protect
their name, you can get whatever domain you want, unless I'm mistaken.
> > 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.
Quite true-- but hopefully you get the jist of what I meant dispite my
mispeaking.
> > 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.
Well, right-- they shut down the domain. Site content can go anywhere it
wants elsewhere; provided that the content itself isn't found to be in
further violation of court orders.
> > 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").
Exactly. They can *try* and make it a case if they want, but chances are
they won't win unless the court agrees that you were just trying to be sneaky.
> What really matters is if there is
> an obvious non-LEGO justification for having those four letters in your
> domain name.
Precicely the point-- it's up to a court to decide whether or not such a
thing is "obvious" or not. There's no hard-and-fast rules about it of which
I'm aware.
> 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.
Although, let's say I had my heart set on "DaveLego.com" and changed my last
name to "Lego" just to get around the trademark. And used the site for
various hobbies of mine, including Lego. Walks closer to that 'fine line'...
> > 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.
Right-- for *MOST* Lego fans, it's enough. Not *all* by any means, but most.
And that's why it's there. So they can attempt to get word out (about as
best as they can) to any who will heed their wishes. Some people don't get
that far and are oblivious to the restrictions, some are perfectly aware and
still find it annoying to no end that they can't do as they please and fight
tooth and nail. But most people seem to get it. And if they're the unaware
type and are in violation, chances are someone will point it out to them
(especially considering the increasing online Lego fan population)
DaveE
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: My site is down :-(
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| (...) Well, there is technically one way they can do it. They could spend gobs of money to register everything that you could possibly think of. I know Lucasfilm does that to a limited extent (type in the name of pretty much any major Star Wars (...) (21 years ago, 16-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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| (...) 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 (...) (21 years ago, 15-May-03, to lugnet.modelteam, lugnet.technic, lugnet.build)
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