Is it legal to include another company name in your name? Example: Is OrbitzMoving.com (not related to Orbitz.com) legal? I used to work for Orbitz.com the travel site and remembered wondering how OrbitzMoving.com could get away with using the Orbitz name in their website url. OrbitzMoving.com was not related to Orbitz.com in any way, they just hijacked the name to confuse consumers into trusting them. Is this legal? Could you start a site called GoogleMoving.com? I have to think it's not, but OrbitzMoving.com lasted ~10 years. Would love to hear the right answer.
Anyone seriously planning on doing this or anything like it would be well advised to consult a good trademark lawyer with the specifics. Specifics will matter in such a case. That said: Under US trademark law, the key question is whether a reasonable person would be confused into assuming that there is some connection, and that the new firm could be relied on based on the reputation of the old one. if so, this is a trademark infringement unless permission is obtained from the trademark holder (not likely to be granted). Since "orbitz" is a coined term its protection is stronger, there is no natural object or concept this can refer to. "AppleMoving" is less likely to be confused with "Apple Computers" because apples are real things and need not refer to computers. The likelihood of confusion depends on the specific facts of an individual case. Note also that trademark protection is a matter of private civil lawsuits. If orbitz didn't choose to sue for whatever reason, nothing would have stopped OrbitzMoving.
There are a number of existing legal sites that do this, for free or for pay. The main concern for a website operator pertains to the DMCA "safe harbor" provisions, which protect against vicarious liability for infringement. A "report piracy" option is not sufficient; see this answer to a related question.
Both are to some extent correct, but as might be expected, the USPTO site is more accurate. Trademarks owned by virtue of use, rather than registration, are protected only in the market area in where actual use can be documented. Even state registration may be limited to a geographic market area in which use can be shown, and may not extend to the whole state unless use throughout the state, or at least in most major markets in the state, can be shown. As discussed in the news story &quot;Burger King Is Banned From Opening Within 20 Miles Of This Original, Mom-And-Pop Burger King Sign&quot; The owners of a small restaurant branded &quot;Burger King&quot; secured a state-level trademark on that name, but it only serves to exclude the well-known fast-food chain from a 20-mile circle. Remember, the prime purpose of a trademark is to identify the source of goods or services, and to prevent one supplier from benefiting by the reputation of another. In an area where the first supplier does not do business, there is considered to be no such risk of unfair competition. Also, nationwide protection is one of the benefits of federal registration. In addition, a mark is only protected for the same class of goods or services. Nationwide use of &quot;Pear&quot; as a mark for a brand of computer would not prevent use of the same word as a mark for a brand of automobile, say, or for a restaurant chain. Note also that trademarks are normally at most national in scope. A US Federal registration will offer no protection in Canada, or any other country.
Just assuming for the sake of this particular answer that everything happens in the U.S.: I'm not sure about the particular example of Open ZFS. The registration in the USPTO Records is in Oracle's name. Using OpenZFS for distributing the same kind of software as the now closed-source ZFS would seem to be infringing to me absent a license. Maybe Oracle just tolerates the use of the "ZFS" component by third-parties since they decided at some point to license the software under an open source license. In that case, they may have a dilution (http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/TrademarkDilution.aspx) problem and the mark may be invalid. If the mark is invalid, anybody can pretty much do whatever they want with it. That said, assuming for sake of discussion that the mark is valid, there is indeed such a thing that is similar to the copyright fair use in trademarks (in the U.S. at least). It's called "nominative fair use". You can read more about it here: http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/FairUse.aspx Bottom line is that under the nominative fair use doctrine it's generally ok for party A to use party B's trademark to refer to whatever party B is doing, even to sell products and services related to whatever party B is doing. As per the INTA document I just linked above, its for example ok to "use “iPhone” in non-stylized form on packaging for phone cases to indicate that it is usable with iPhone 6." Having a website (even with third-party ads) that discuss ZFS-related matters is similar to the iPhone example in my mind. Having a domain name that contains the mark seems riskier, but it's not necessarily downright forbidden. See: http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Toyota_Motor_Sales,_U.S.A._v._Tabari
The common law is permissive That is to say that, in a common law jurisdiction, the law is about what you must not do rather than about what you must do. Now, particular statutes may be phrased as requiring certain actions but, if you read them the “common law way” to coin a phrase, they are really imposing sanctions for doing the prohibited thing that falls outside those parameters. Since there is no legal prohibition on using multiple names (simultaneously or sequentially) you are free to do so. Now, there are common law prohibitions of, for example, fraud or tax evasion. So, if you use different names for the purpose of doing those prohibited things, then that is illegal but it is the specific criminality that is sanctioned, not the use of the alias in perpetrating it. The UK has a law that makes it a crime to not register the birth of a child. It also imposes some (and by most country’s standards, very few) restrictions on the name a child can be registered under. But there is no legal obligation on the child or their parents to use the registered name in any particular circumstances. There may be difficulties (amounting to impossibility in some cases) in obtaining a passport, opening a bank account, or claiming social security under a non-registered name but that is due to the necessity to identify the individual for which the name serves as a proxy. However, outside the requirements of specific statutes or administrative procedures, the common law position is that your name is what people call you and you identify as your name. The second part is important - I have been called dickhead on many occasions but I do not consider it to be my name. The UK has a patronymic tradition for surnames so, usually, on marriage, the female adopts the surname of the male and that, through the marriage certificate, becomes her registered name. However, it is extremely common for women to continue to use their original (and now not registered) name in their professional life and her new name in her private life. This can be problematic. My wife, has on server all occasions been refused permission to board a plane because the ticket (booked by others) was in her maiden name - a name for which she has no official identification. However, that’s a procedural problem - she didn’t do anything illegal.
The domain you mention has godaddy as its registrar, but the registrant (I.e. 'owner') is 'Jackson National Life Ins Co' according to godaddy's own whois server. To answer your question: a person or other entity can register as many domains as it likes. Absent a trademark or other name-related dispute, you have no grounds to dispute a registered domain simply because you think it's being 'hoarded'.
A reasonable person might well believe that your enterprise is being sponsored by or is affiliated with Amazon, and so you would be infringing Amazon's trademark. Even if there is no reasonable confusion, Amazon might well think otherwise and take legal action against you. You don't want to start a business by defending a lawsuit, even if you win, particularly not a suit from your supplier. Why not choose a different name, particularly as that would make it easier to expand into non-amazon cards later? Something like 'Buy Better gift cards' or 'Gift Card World' might be a better choice. In general, you may not use a firm or product name that would cause reasonable consumers to confuse you with the trademark holder, or to think that you are endorsed by, affiliated with, or sponsored by the trademark holder without permission (which you are not likely to get).
Speaking from a U.S. perspective (which may or may not generalize elsewhere), trademarks can be used by different companies when they operate in different industries. An answer on Avvo by Kurt Van Thomme captures the important question when using an existing trade name in a new industry: The question in these kinds of circumstances is often whether the goods or services offered by the two companies are sufficiently related such that a consumer would be likely to think a company providing the first product or service would be reasonably likely to provide the second product or service also. Kurt's answer includes an example where the name "Pioneer" is used by a seed company and an electronics company. The two products are unlikely to be provided by the same company, so there is low risk of consumer confusion. In my layman opinion, it seems unlikely that J.K Rowling or Warner Brothers would use the trade name Voldemort to market a software development tool (as it seems unlikely they'd market a software development tool at all, unlike a complete video game, which would be a more likely product), so you could legally use the name insofar as it is not likely to cause customer confusion. Note that you still might attract negative legal attention if the trademark holder is particularly litigious, so when I say "you could legally use the name" I mean that you could probably win a lawsuit (at whatever legal fee costs) if one were filed against you. However, some marks are regarded as "famous" or "well-known" in some jurisdictions. In that case, the mark is afforded much broader protection, and your ability to use it in a different industry is greatly diminished: Famous marks are those that enjoy a high degree of consumer recognition in a particular jurisdiction or in a specific field of commerce or industry. However, few trademarks enjoy the status of “fame.” Examples of marks held to be famous in certain jurisdictions are COCA-COLA, KODAK, WIMBLEDON and VIAGRA. For example, you could not start a business selling automobiles under the brand name "Coca-Cola" even though it is tremendously unlikely that the Coca-Cola Company would branch out into selling cars. The mark's status as "famous" would still allow the Cola-Cola Company to succeed in stopping you from using that mark in commerce, even in a vastly different industry. If the trademark holder of the name Voldemort succeeded in persuading a court that the mark met the jurisdiction's standard for a famous mark, then you could not use the name even for your software development tool. Note also that because trademark is intended to reduce confusion over the source of a good or service, trademark holders can lose their trademark by failing to defend it from confusing uses. Therefore, some trademark holders aggressively pursue even borderline cases to ensure they don't endanger their trademark.