What are the legal issues around using a companys trademark in a domain name?
Check out the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – it’s the forum where most of these disputes are resolved (via arbitration). In general, the original trademark holder will have to show that their trademark has “acquired the status of a famous mark,” and that the unauthorized domain name is confusingly similar to that mark. Factors to be taken into account with respect to the latter include evidence of actual confusion, the possibility the consumers will think that the mark is “used, approved, or permitted” by the trademark holder, the sophistication of the complaining company’s consumers and the sophistication of the consumers that patronize the allegedly violative web site, whether the complaining company “routinely uses its mark with other generic words in domain names for websites offering services related” to that company (such as BigStoreEmployment.com to list available jobs), whether the complaining company owns and op
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