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Soo.. what's the legality of this?

J

JMorton6

Senior member
I'm working on a social networking site with a unique name that I own the .com for. The guy who owns the .net is using it for a Chrome extension of the same name. It's not any good and his site has only had like 35,000 visitors over the years. The name is not trademarked and there's no actual registered company under the name. So this probably isn't something I should worry about, but just in case, how do I properly handle this so that he can't claim afterwards that I stole his name (which to be perfectly honest I saw many months after I had the idea).
 
You need to trademark your name, then send him a cease and desist. I am not a lawyer, though, so I am talking out of my ass.
 
you're working on a site. it's not a completed product. you know there is another product with the same "unique" name. change it
 
Saint Nick said:
You need to trademark your name, then send him a cease and desist. I am not a lawyer, though, so I am talking out of my ass.
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My knowledge of IP law is limited but I know this much:

-Trademarks can be rejected if it's found that the OP was NOT the first one to use this name in a business sense (which is something that would only happen if the other guy tried to fight it).

-Trademarks are only granted if you have a legitimate use for it, and you have a certain amount of time to produce said use before they take the trademark back. The OP already has a domain registered and is in the process of making a site so he should be good on this front.

So, if the OP is really worried about it I would simply trademark the name yourself. This would prevent him from going after you, to a point. You'd still have to have proof you were the first in naming though... such as having your domain registered before his. If you tried to fight him and he had evidence of his domain being registered first you may be SOL.
 
Why not change your social networking site name to something else?
It's easier to change now when you are still working on it.
That will avoid future headaches and legal troubles.
 
There is nothing to worry about. First of all, the same name can be used by multiple businesses. If you own the domain and have an actual website, you are fine. For example look at nissan.com, or Apple Computers vs Apple Vacations vs Apple someotherbusiness.

The only time you might run into a problem is if you're using an exact name that's trademarked in that specific industry. For example Blackberry trying to use BBX for an OS name when there's a software company that had BBX already trademarked.
 
VenomXTF said:
There is nothing to worry about. First of all, the same name can be used by multiple businesses. If you own the domain and have an actual website, you are fine. For example look at nissan.com, or Apple Computers vs Apple Vacations vs Apple someotherbusiness.

The only time you might run into a problem is if you're using an exact name that's trademarked in that specific industry. For example Blackberry trying to use BBX for an OS name when there's a software company that had BBX already trademarked.
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Thanks. His name isn't trademarked, but he had it first, and we will be in the same industry basically: the dot com industry, and to be specific the social networking dot com industry. What do I do to handle this properly, and what if anything should I be worried about? Changing my name is not an option - it's amazing and the .com cost a fortune.
 
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You should just be glad you don't have an existing business and have that (unique) business name being squatted by domain name farmers.
 
Saint Nick said:
You need to trademark your name, then send him a cease and desist. I am not a lawyer, though, so I am talking out of my ass.
Click to expand...

Have you ever read the story behind nissan.com?

http://nissan.com/

http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php

nissan computers was using the name "nissan" before nissan motors was founded. nissan motors sued nissan computers and nissan motors lost.

From what I understand, it boiled down to who was using the name first.
 
there's common law trademark and there's registered federal trademark.

Generally, if nothing is registered (you've search uspto?) then common law only applies. Which means it has to be the same geographic area AND has to be the same industry. So even if you both did software, if he focused on California and you focused on New Jersey, you'd likely be okay. Internet changes the common law game a *little* bit but not much.

As for everything else, register it. But as long as you're the only person doing a SaaS product with that name (Software as a Service), you'd be fine. Chrome extension is a different industry.... there'd be little reason for a social networking site and a downloadable product to be confused (though it's possible, so get a lawyer if you want to be safe).

I'm not a lawyer. This is from experience only. CYA.
 
lol @ social networking site. Like that's never been done before.

Is your site's name "Facebook" by any chance? If not, you might as well give up now.
 
SunnyD said:
lol @ social networking site. Like that's never been done before.

Is your site's name "Facebook" by any chance? If not, you might as well give up now.
Click to expand...

And I wonder what the world would be like if those Google guys gave up because Yahoo! was the 100lb gorilla in the search market.

Or if Steve Jobs gave up because of IBM.

Or Microsoft shelved the XBOX because of Sony/Playstation.

Or if Facebook gave up because of MySpace.

Or if America gave up because the British were coming.

Its funny. The big players in Silicon Valley (Like Google/Facebook/Apple) all took on large mega corporations that seemed unchallengeable.
 
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Patranus said:
And I wonder what the world would be like if those Google guys gave up because Yahoo! was the 100lb gorilla in the search market.

Or if Steve Jobs gave up because of IBM.

Or Microsoft shelved the XBOX because of Sony/Playstation.

Or if Facebook gave up because of MySpace.

Or if America gave up because the British were coming.

Its funny. The big players in Silicon Valley (Like Google/Facebook/Apple) all took on large mega corporations that seemed unchallengeable.
Click to expand...

Wow nicely said.
 
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