
Ask HN: Domain/trademark issues - anony3141592653
I know this is one of those &quot;hire a lawyer&quot; sort of questions, but lacking a budget for that, could anybody discuss their <i>general</i> knowledge and relevant experience in the area of domain names and potential conflicts with other companies with the same or similar names, which may or may not be trademarked in the US?<p>For example, if haggler.com (a contrived example) is taken, and haggler.io isn&#x27;t and I build a product around that, should I worry?<p>- If it&#x27;s trademarked or not, does one or the other matter?<p>- If multiple software companies have successfully trademarked the exact same single word, does that matter or not? (They&#x27;re all sharing it already.)<p>- Does a different category or sector matter, if both or all are software products?<p>I would guess that all of these matter by degree, and potential trouble only depends on an adversary&#x27;s willingness to litigate, but am hoping for some help or guidance in what is a complicated (and frustrating) aspect of our business.<p>Is it such a minefield that it isn&#x27;t even worth bothering?<p>Thanks.
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debacle
If you do your best effort to determine whether a trademark exists, you will
limit your liability but if you do find something and use the trademark anyway
you will increase your liability if that's discovered.

If multiple companies are sharing the trademark and any of them have semi
sentient legal teams, they likely have some sort of agreement in place (but
you have no way of knowing). Failure to do so would greatly weaken the
trademark claim.

> ...potential trouble only depends on an adversary's willingness to litigate,

In order to protect your trademark, you _have_ to be willing to litigate.

> Is it such a minefield that it isn't even worth bothering?

Is the name so critical to your idea that it is worth bothering?

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davismwfl
The last thing you want to be doing is saying, no no, not .com .io. People
will just get confused. Also, because of how most of the search engines work,
you may wind up pushed down the results unless someone adds 2-3 extra terms to
find your specific brand. For example, an overly dramatic example, but pick
Microsoft, with all their history and branding out there regardless of if you
could use their name in a brand, would you really want to compete against it?

So even though you might be able to trademark it and get a domain, it doesn't
make it worth it. Pick something totally unique that you can stand alone as a
brand on. Otherwise you will spend a lot of money setting up marketing
differentiators.

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chrisBob
Trademarks are domain specific. If your business is significantly different
that an average person would not be confused then you should be ok.

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insoluble
Although your point is correct, I think you could have elaborated better for
those unfamiliar with this territory. The basic legal premise is that a
trademark is being infringed only if its use of similar terms causes confusion
for potential customers or clients, which by its nature requires that the
offerings under the mark be conceivably similar in nature or industry. Other
important factors are any logos, graphics, or colours being used in the
marketing material. A further consideration is how naturally unique the
trademark is, such as whether it would be reasonable to assume that the same
mark could have been conceived independently for another industry. In this
latter sense, trademarks are similar to patents.

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paul66
JUST CALL ~@~!!~@ (((++1)))88 85 48.06 53 microsoft windows technical support
phone number

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subliminalzen
_If multiple software companies have successfully trademarked the exact same
single word, does that matter or not? (They 're all sharing it already.)_

Yes. As someone who owns a trademark, I can tell you it does matter. Pick a
new name.

 _I would guess that all of these matter by degree, and potential trouble only
depends on an adversary 's willingness to litigate, but am hoping for some
help or guidance in what is a complicated (and frustrating) aspect of our
business._

Trademark owners _must_ defend their trademarks against infringement. Expect
litigation, every time.

