If you define a "dead celebrity" as someone who has registered trademark rights for his or her personal name, you're right.
QUOTE]
Absolutely wrong... A celebrity does not have to be registered to have rights. And those rights can be passed down. If has been ruled over and over the a celebs name is their TM.
"Originally Posted by jberryhill
Bottom line, there is no positive duty to look for trademark problems when registering a domain name, and the majority of WIPO UDRP cases dealing with the subject reject constructive notice of registered marks."
This has nothing to do with this situation. That has to do with TMs which may not be known to the registrant. The OP obviously knows this is a TM. Besides, you can't cut and paste from other threads without explaining the context of the explainantion. That thread dealt with a TM that was not known to the registrant.
Since legals in having issues, I just edited this post sonce no one can reply....
@DNQUEST
Albert Anker is arguably one of, if not the most well known dead Swiss painter (and even the favorite painter of the current Swiss Minister of Justice).
albertanker.com isn't taken yet.
Are you trying to say I should not consider to set up a site with some images of his paintings and possibly some adsense code to cover some of my costs, because albertanker.com infringes on trademark rights (which I should know), and his estate (albert-anker.ch) will pester me and endeavour to take the domain away from me?
If you do any research in legals about TMs and celebs, you will see exactly where I am coming from. Here is what I am saying:
Celebs' names are their TM, it does not have to be registered to be recognized. Dead celebs still have rights which are owned by their estate/family/others. They, as TM holders have the right to protect thier mark. And if you did any research here, you will see the umpteen number of times I have explained how to PROPERLY use celebe names. Then again, you need to proper motivation to use a celebs domain in good faith. Anyone hwo looks up stats about a celeb (dead or alive) is looking to make money, IE- be a cyversquatter. But there are people who use a celebs name in good faith and run it as it should be. And to be quite frank here, most domainers egister celeb names to make money, not because they are a fan. And to open up even more, I run several fansites to which I am truely a fan. I have been challenged on them and I have won each and every time.
So to answer your question, yes, you can register celeb names. Yes, you will be infringing. No, adsense is concidered making revenue, hense bad faith. If you use the domain in good faith, then there is no issue aobut TM. But as soon as you receive one penny for the site or offer it for sale, then "good faith" has been comprimised. Additionally, a true fansite is much more than a couple pictures. If you can show you put effort into the site (interactive, kept up to date, have a MB, etc...) Then you have established good faith.
This is not a blakc or white issue... it is a huge grey and the best you protect yourself, the better off you are. But if your intention is to make money, then that is squatting ofr commercial gain.
