car names

[tambyrne]

Hi forum dwellers!

I have a question for you all

I regged my-ferrari.net and my-mini.com. There has been a decent amount of interest in my-ferrari.net as it has quite good type-in traffic (for there not really being anything there!!)

So obviously my question is does it go agaist any trademarks. I have talked to qualified company lawyers and they told me that they are both fine and neither Ferrari or BMW can stop the trade or use of the name. (as no reference to my ferrari has been trademarked and BMW can only trademark Mini with a capital 'M')

However you guys are the boys and girls in the know (with "field" experience if you will) and just wondered what you thought.

Thanks

Tamas

[Drewbert]

Well, start selling counterfeit Ferrari's at my-ferrari.net, and see how long your bank account remains in the black.

[hiOsilver]

Also, don't do anything stupid likes links to porno sites, popup hell, etc. If they come after you, it may be best give it up and move on to something else.

Don't worry about it, either. I used to own wwwcocacola.com. Now coke does (I gave it up when they asked for it), but they are so dense that it still points to my site!! They pay the registration, and I get the traffic.

[jberryhill]

"but they are so dense that it still points to my site!! "

You know, this happens a lot.

Time after time, when I negotiate a domain name transfer, I ask the attorney for the transferee, "what are your client's nameservers?"

99.99% of the time, they say, "What's a nameserver?"

I got tired of explaining it again and again. I just don't ask anymore.

As for the notion that "my-ferrari" and "my-mini" don't raise trademark issues, I would like to know where I can get what these "qualified company attorneys" are smoking on their lunch hour.

For the uninitiated, when I say "raise issues", I do not mean "determine a result".

Go read some "my" cases:

http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/100569.htm

http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/114459.htm

http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/114521.htm

[namedropper]

Originally posted by tambyrne
I have talked to qualified company lawyers and they told me that they are both fine and neither Ferrari or BMW can stop the trade or use of the name. (as no reference to my ferrari has been trademarked and BMW can only trademark Mini with a capital 'M')

Man, whether those people are true lawyers or just idiots pretending to have a legal background, they don't have the slightest clue about the basics of trademark law or domain disputes.