Trademarked, But....???

[wordplay]

Hi All,

This may be a common question, but....

I'm considering reg'ing the plural of a dictionary word, (the singular version gets over 5 million Google responses). However, I've come to discover that the plural is trademarked by a major cosmetics firm.

The plural of this word is also used as a science term... so it's not like "Kleenex" or some other made up brand.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Theo]

In the end, how you use it defines whether there is a tm breach or not. Bear in mind that if you park the domain, you might end up serving ads related to that exact trademark. Therefore, be very careful when you register domains knowing that they exist as tm's.

 

[wordplay]

Thanks, Arco... If I reg it, I'll develop it as a completely unrelated product or service... and never park it.

 

[HuntingMoon]

hopefully the name will not be registered by the owners of the site you did the availability search at. some of these companies are using crowdsourcing to pickup names. it seems like you know what uses to avoid. you can also get a legal opinion to document your good faith use.

 

[radioz]

A TM owner only owns a name for certain purposes. If it is truly a generic word, they almost certainly don't have an 'all encompassing' TM. Unfortunately, many TM owners feel that THEY own THE trademark which is seldom true unless they made up the name m (ie - Kleenex).

If you do park the name, make sure that you don't have any listings for products for which the TM owners are covered for. I own one name that had this problem and I simply agreed to change the keyword. That was a reasonable company and lawyer though. For another I fought an over reaching TM owner on the basis that they, indeed, did not 'own' the word involved (a common dictionary one word domain). I won that one. They could have had the domain for $500 (its a .BIZ) but, Nooo, they spent $4K on a WIPO hearing plus legal fees. I spent $125 and used up a laser jet cartridge! They had previously won another name as the owner never responded to the WIPO request. You also need to look at the WIPO judges records as you do have some input on which judges will hear your case.

To see what the TM that you are concerned about (if its a US TM), go to:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=if0ue5.1.1