pdblake opened this issue on Apr 21, 2005 ยท 57 posts
ratscloset posted Fri, 22 April 2005 at 10:35 AM
Trademark rules are different than what most people understand and the use of even a part of a Trademark name in a competive business (or part of the competive business name contain the Trademarked Name, such as PoserStore), falls under the theory that it might cause consumer confusion is protected under Trademark. Vicotoria's Secret has successfully blocked company's that sell women's garments from using the word Secret in their name. This whole crack down on use of Trademarked names in Domains and in Promotional material stems from some companies loss of Trademark Protection in this manner due to lack of enforcement. The case that recently (last year) involved an Electronics Company that tried to stop sites that were selling add on products from using the Trademarked name. The company lost and now companies like Canon, Epson, etc.. are cracking down on these types of sites when they find them. It is important to them, now that the supply side is their money maker.
ratscloset
aka John