Am 29. Apr 2005 um 23:33 schrieb Carl Adler:
Recently I received a challenge to the name of one of my applications
from a trademark holder. At the time I created it I could not find a
competing app with that name. My app was created in 2003 and a new
company apparently acquired a 1999 trademark in February 2005. It
is interesting that the trademark in 1999 and the new one in 2005
where for different applications. I had no problem with this and
gladly changed the name. It did raise some questions though. A URL
with that name predates 1999 and is registered to a different company.
So who trumps who in this situation? Can a trademark force you to
chance a preexisting domain name?
Although I'm not an attorney at law, some remarks regarding Germany
(most
likely applicable to the whole European Country):
- Registered trademarks need to be registered per country.
If a trademark is Registered in Germany, this does not
automatically apply to France, e.g.
- Registered trademarks are defined for specific areas.
If someone registers a trademark for arts, this does not
apply to kitchen articles.
Thus, there may exist similar registered trademarks for
similar different areas.
Specific area are pre-defined by the european patent office.
- A registered trademark lasts for 5 (7?) years.
After that time, the registrant may re-register again.
- A registered trademark isn't an absolut right.
You need to prepare a product within certain amount of time which
really exists and is publicly available, to 'active' a trademark.
- If someone claims he has a trademark and someone else registeres
a trademark, the registered trademark wins.
I know of a big company, who sold clothes with the name 'Mc Neal'.
Years later, someone registered the name and they had to change
their name to 'Mc Whatever'.
- Common names (e.g. Computer, microwave oven) can't be registered.
- Domain may or may not establish a right. This is a very special case
and it depends on the public knowledge about a domain name. The more
common a name is, the more likely you might have a chance to
legally fight against a newly registered trademark.
Another question is can a trademark name be part of a URL as in, for
example,
http://mydomain.com/pepsi/books/interesting.html?
This shouldn't be a problem.
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