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Hi there folks, I am thinking about starting a forum community about a brand I love. I was wondering what problems this would give me. Let's say I am an Playmobil enthousiast and I make a forum with the following domain name : www.playmobil-forum.com . I obviously don't own the brand name Playmobil, so is buying a domain name with a name you don't own illegal? Thanks in advance! |
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My domian is www.applehack23.com, and I got into some trouble with Apple for a different reason, and they visited my site, didn't say anything about Trade Mark violations. I say do it, most companies enjoy fan sites. They don't own letters. |
I'm not a lawyer, but trademark is what you're going to run up against, not copyright. Some companies enforce their trademarks aggressively, others view fan sites with favor and don't hassle them. The safest bet is to ask first.
Hmmm,makes sense indeed. So does it depend on the company? Some don't care you use their name, others do?
edit : Great, thanks ageekmom!
I would say you should be covered in these circumstances but adding a simple tagline such as "fan commuinty" should do. If you discover an issue from the company you could just change the domain and redirect your old domain. SO long as you make it clear in a page such as an about page that you have no affiliation with the company, I don't think you will face trouble.