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In lugnet.modelteam, David Eaton writes:
> Oh? By means of a court case, sure, but can they legally stop you before you
> even register the name?
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 character, hit CTRL-Enter, and see what happens),
but it's not generally cost effective to do it very much.
> IE is there some sort of law in place to proactively prevent me from >squatting a trademarked named site?
No, since that would prevent anyone with just cause from registering
that same domain for personal use. Or other companies with the same name.
The Apple music company has just as much legal claim to the www.apple.com
domain name as the Apple computer company, but it really makes more sense
for the computer company to have that website, since that company is more
likely to receive web-traffic.
> 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),
Not entirely true. Yes, they can do that. Yes, they'd probably win.
No, they probably wouldn't drop the lawsuit in your lap the instant they
found out about your domain name. They try very hard to refrain from coming
across as a bully, and I know they like to use the lawyers as a last resort,
not a first volley.
> but until they take legal action to protect their name, you can get whatever >domain you want, unless I'm mistaken.
Yes. Just like with all civil suits, it is up to the individual to see
that his/her rights are not violated, unlike criminal cases, where the
Department of Justice bears primary responsibility for enforcement.
> Quite true-- but hopefully you get the jist of what I meant dispite my
> mispeaking.
Yeah, it's pretty obvious what you meant, but there's a lot of
confusion surrounding the whole trademark/copyright/patent realm. And if
you think this is bad, just try figuring out who can legally publish photos
of a celebrity posing with a non-celebrity next to confidential material
(hint: it changes by State).
> 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'...
Right. The court could rule that you changed your name for the express
purpose of infringing on a trademark, and use that to rule against you on
the domain name (I'm not sure if they could force you to change your name or
not)...or they could rule that by changing your name you are legally
entitled to hold that domain name as long as the website has nothing to do
with LEGO bricks...or they could rule that by changing your name you can do
anything you want with that domain name. It kinda depends on the mood of
the judge and how persuasively the various lawyers argue the two sides of
the case. Chances are, however, that if _you_ changed your name, they'd
rule against you. Now, if your parents changed your name to Lego when you
were a little tot, you might be able to get away with it.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: My site is down :-(
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| (...) Yes, that's true. The current limit on second-level domain name length is 63 characters. Alphanumeric plus -, basically. Assume a four letter name, like Lego, and that's still getting near a *google* possibilities, give or take a few powers of (...) (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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| (...) 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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