04-13-2008, 06:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-13-2008, 06:12 PM by mom2manyboyz.)
I've actually had personal experience with this, and wasn't sure of my legal rights, so I signed over my domain voluntarily. Here's my story:
A company was created a few years ago called "ChaCha" it was marketed as the worlds first human powered search engine. They hired people that work from home to perform searches and I was one of those people. They called us "guides." We were encouraged to build up our "networks," or other guides we had invited. We were to earn a commission from their earnings. We were given ChaCha logos and told to distribute them freely on flyers, business cards, etc. I never did that, but I did set up a forum for the guides in my network. I did it so I could communicate with them. I purchased a domain name, ChaChaguides.net, and set up my forum.
Within a year I heard from word of mouth that ChaCha was cracking down on the use of their trademark. I didn't really understand this because we were initially encouraged to use it to get guides signed up. I got a letter from their attorney saying if I didn't sign over my domain, I would be sued. I wasn't using the domain to profit. I was just using it to communicate with my network. I signed over the domain.
How can you trademark a commonly used word in a domain such as "apple" or "chacha." Can you sue everyone that claims a domain with the word apple in it just because Apple is a multimillion dollar company. What about ChaCha. It is a dance, right?
A company was created a few years ago called "ChaCha" it was marketed as the worlds first human powered search engine. They hired people that work from home to perform searches and I was one of those people. They called us "guides." We were encouraged to build up our "networks," or other guides we had invited. We were to earn a commission from their earnings. We were given ChaCha logos and told to distribute them freely on flyers, business cards, etc. I never did that, but I did set up a forum for the guides in my network. I did it so I could communicate with them. I purchased a domain name, ChaChaguides.net, and set up my forum.
Within a year I heard from word of mouth that ChaCha was cracking down on the use of their trademark. I didn't really understand this because we were initially encouraged to use it to get guides signed up. I got a letter from their attorney saying if I didn't sign over my domain, I would be sued. I wasn't using the domain to profit. I was just using it to communicate with my network. I signed over the domain.
How can you trademark a commonly used word in a domain such as "apple" or "chacha." Can you sue everyone that claims a domain with the word apple in it just because Apple is a multimillion dollar company. What about ChaCha. It is a dance, right?