Is it legal to take a name that doesnt have a copyright but a site uses it?

**Darren06** · 02-12-2004, 05:26 PM

I'm just wondering say you searched through the copyrights and that name uses the service you would use it for but does not have a copyright. Do you think you would be able to use it for the same service?

**Steen** · 02-12-2004, 10:32 PM

Copyright is for published work I believe.

I think you are talking about Trademarks.

**Darren06** · 02-13-2004, 12:13 AM

Yes that too.

**namedropper** · 02-13-2004, 04:20 PM

Darren, your best bet is to go read up on the basics of trademarks versus copyrights and so forth.

The short answer here is that a trademark doesn't have to be registered as a trademark to be a trademark, so if the name reminds you of some specific place then using it to do the exact same thing they are doing would be violating the trademark they have.

But, honestly, we'd need a lot more information (and you'd have to start using the terms correctly) before we can know for sure what's what.

**Darren06** · 02-13-2004, 08:05 PM

OK heres more info, the name will be dropping soon, it offered the same type of service I plan to use it for, and there seems to be a canadian company/person using the name that was registered after the dropping domain was. They have the same name as the dropping .com, so this is kind of a confusing issue for me.

**namedropper** · 02-13-2004, 08:31 PM

OK, so then you have to ask yourself if the name is descriptive or not... as in, is the obvious use of that name this same service.

For example, If I want to sell wigs at wigbox.com and there's already a wigbox.net, it shouldn't matter, because obviously wigbox.com is probably going to sell wigs.

On the other hand, if you want to sell bagels at RoundUp.com and there's already a RoundUp.net selling bagels, people generally wouldn't think of RoundUp as a bagel place except for the fact that this other place is using that name to sell bagels (trademark).

That might help you decide.

**Darren06** · 02-14-2004, 12:43 AM

I searched through the trademark database for both the countries and there is no trademark for it.

**namedropper** · 02-14-2004, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Darren06

I searched through the trademark database for both the countries and there is no trademark for it.

As already stated, something doesn't have to be registered as a trademark to be a trademark.

If you don't want to give specifics, your best bet is to hire an intellectual property lawyer.