Dash and no Dash

[INVIGOR]

I hand regged a name. Names are for illustrative purposes: They own angle-lok(.).com. I registered anglelok(.)com without the hyphen. They called me saying I was in violation of a trademark. Sure enough, a look at the uspto website shows a tm for them plus three other entities with the hyphen and one without the hyphen. Am I in violation?

How can I offer to them for a reasonalbe amount. Seems to me pretty nimwit not to reg version without the hypen then try to get it from me, but of course, I'm no pro. JOHN B?

 

[DNQuest.com]

Vague to receive any real help. Is the name distintive and unique? Is there a secondary meaning? How is you domain being used? Why did you register the domain?.. there are other questions that could be asked, but I hope you see where I am going with this.

 

[katherine]

Questions to ask yourself: what are you doing with the name, do you have a legitimate interest/need in it etc.

Could hyphenation result in a name that is 'confusingly similar' to another well-known name ? Probably yes.
It is not reasonable to expect TM holders to register and keep all possible typos and variation of their names just for the sake of defensive registration.

TM law is one thing, but common sense most often provides the answers.
PS: it's possible that the non-hyphened version you got has been previously registered and was unavailable to them.

 

[INVIGOR]

To answer dnquest.com, the name is no more special than the names given. lok is correct, the first word is almost the same.

SDSINC: You're post makes a lot of sense. I regged it as a "type" of equipment the company I work for specialize in. There are several types. There is a ____ lock (one in question, breech lock, plug type, etc. _____lock.com and _____loc.com were taken so I regged the only one available, _____.lok.

Hard to say. I think I'm just gonna ask for the fee to file a wipo hearing.