Legality of Domain Name Copying

A

AbbieRose

New member
I have attempted to register a domain name that I want, and found that it is registered to someone else. How legal is it to just use the same name, as a .net or a .co.uk instead of a .com?
 
I would suspect that as long as you're not using the domain to sell or promote a similar product. In other words using the name recognition of that company to benefit you financially and to their detriment, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Another issue would be if the name of the company is the same as the domain. In this case they could probably have you're site shut down.

Many times, although something is perfectly legal, if a complaint is brought to your host they may simply shut your site down versus trying to determine its validity.
 
Personally I would look for a new name, but it depends on what the web site is for. If you're having any type of business, I would not want to be associated with another company by name. So for that reason I would seek a new one.

Also, if you do have any type of business, you should try to get the .com TLD. It's still the most recognized.

Now, if it's just a personal site, then the .net / .org may be of use to you. I can't really say if the company that owns the .com name has a right to .net names or not. But they may have a right to their company name. I'm surprised if its' any size of a company that they haven't tied up at least the .net domain.

Bottom line, be unique on the net ...... which is getting harder to do now-a-days. ;)
 
I think it really depends on the domain. I'm a member of a well-known site that is at a '.net' address. The '.com' version wasn't very popular and faded off the map, but the domain name was great, so the owner snatched it up and ran with it...and now has a great site with the .net. Because the other site didn't have much of a name for itself, there wasn't any issue of copyrighting the name or legalities with the original site....but I'd be wary if the .com version of the domain you want is popular. They may go after you if you become too big, claiming that you stole the name.
 
Thank you. It's not a trademark, it is our family name. My ex husband owns the .com and has now cut off the email addresses for all the family and so we are debating making a .net so that we can reinstate out sites and emails.

Nothing to sell in this case, I just thought that it had expired and that was why we lost our accents. Turns out he's just being a turkey.
 
You should have no trouble getting the .net in this case. I say go for it and get a little revenge, lol. :shh:
 
Over the history of the internet, there have been a long line of websites with the same name but a different extension.

Within most cases, you should encounter no legal problems.

Should the name be Microsoft.gov or something, then Microsoft may try to take you to court...but i'm not even sure if they would have enough of a leg to stand on.
 
AbbieRose said:
Thank you. It's not a trademark, it is our family name. My ex husband owns the .com and has now cut off the email addresses for all the family and so we are debating making a .net so that we can reinstate out sites and emails.

Nothing to sell in this case, I just thought that it had expired and that was why we lost our accents. Turns out he's just being a turkey.
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As it's a family name there shouldn't be any problem. When you say "reinstate our sites", if you mean design/material that the users who will be moving to the .net are the rightful owners, then that's not a problem. If these sites were designed by your ex or someone other than the user/owner you may have issues with copyright infringement.
 
No, they are all sites that were built by the person with that name (using the person's personal name as a subdirectory). Mostly they were blog type things, and we had back ups of almost all from before he took them down. We were pretty much expecting this.
 
Personally I think I'd want to keep it separate altogether, including the name and start afresh, not with just another version of the same name. To me the main thing would be that all the family that wanted somewhere to gather and use would be together.

Instead of for example, smith.com, you could try something like changing it to thesmiths, thesmithhangout or thesmithfamily. Something that would still incorporate the family name but dissimilar enough to avoid having anyone getting in touch with your website looking for him, for instance.

I guess it depends on what kind of relationship you have with him now whether you'd want to remove any chance of association with the man or not.
 
I would think starting fresh would be a good idea here as well. The examples given by Hannah would be great and show that while you are still a member of the family you are not directlt affiliated with your ex. If he's churlish enough to cut off your e-mail and sites he may have other internet personality conflicts you don't want associated with you.
 
Having a unique name can be a good thing, but sometimes you can get EXTRA traffic by copying the name of a successful site with a different extension.

Of course, some of that extra traffic may be due to confusing you with the other site...but it still works regardless!
 
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