Trademark concerns?

[beansbaxter]

I recently acquired 2 domain names that use the word Kawasaki in it, which is either known as a disease or the common motorcycle/heavy industry brand.

Most manufacturers need community-based websites to promote the growth and use of their product. Yamaha allows forums for their different musical equipment and their motorcycle brands. Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Ducati, they all do the same.

Yes, Kawasaki owns kawasaki.com and uses it, but they dont send out C&D's to Kawasaki forum owners because they need those communities.

There are Toyota forums out there for Toyota cars, trucks, etc. but Toyota doesnt stop those forums from using the Toyota name in the domain name or their respective logo's.

My question is, if I expand and develop these recently acquired Kawasaki domain names, what liabilities do I face?

If I use them to promote Kawasaki in a community-based format, is that wrong?

If I get a C&D letter, will they demand the domain names and at for what price? I didnt buy them to resell them to Kawasaki, but if they wanted them, then I would want what I paid for them which was considerable.

Thoughts?

[flamewalker]

If you do as you say, and you can find good examples where other similar sites were left alone, chances are you will be ok. The main thing that will get you in trouble is parking them or setting up a referral business with them and using their name to sell their product in the domain name. For instance, don't get kawasakisales.com and then forward them with a referral url to kawasaki.com to get commissions... big no no.

And even thats not guaranteed but more likely with parking or the like.

[HuntingMoon]

once you have your site all fired up and productive will be when Kawasaki is most likely to contact you. considering how protective most companies are when it comes to their tm's, they would probably shoot first and ask questions later.

if the content is what brings your users to the site, then using a safer domain will reduce your risk.

[Dave Zan]

which is either known as a disease or the common motorcycle/heavy industry brand.

Or a pair of towns and a city in Japan.