Microsoft Product Name for Domain Name

[kream]

What is the name of your state? California

Microsoft has a product, Microsoft® Expression®. I have a registered domain name expressionwebforum, which will be a community for Microsoft® Expression® Web users. Does my domain name violate copyright or trademark laws?

Thanks for your help.

 

[quincy]

Generally, a trademark is owned by the business that first uses the mark. Once it is owned by that business, that business can prevent others from using it, or a similar one.

If people can be confused by the dual use of the trademark, or if the trademark is used on a competing service, or is being used in a way that is related to the original use, the business can stop its use by others. Also, there are laws known as "antidilution statutes", and the original trademark owner can go to court to prevent its mark from being used in a way that would "dilute" or weaken it, tarnish it, or make it "common" from overuse.

I would say that you would be violating Microsoft's trademarked MicrosoftExpression by using your expressionwebforum as a forum for MicrosoftExpression users (although your domain name may NOT be infringing if used for a totally different purpose). You could be forced to choose another name.

Wait for responses from others, however - they will most definitely correct me if I am wrong.

 

[TomD1974]

I would agree with quincy - if "expressionwebforum" is a place for people to come and express their feelings about dogs and dog-related topics, it is very unlikely that anyone could claim infringement. The fact that you are using it to talk about Microsoft's product of the same name could certainly be deemed as potentially confusing to the marketplace.

However, you might want to mock up what you plan to do and contact Microsoft about it. They may allow your use of that domain name for that purpose because what you do might be seen by the appropriate people there as a benefit to them. Yours would certainly not be the first site that discusses MS products and alludes to a product name. Otherwise, if they do not see it that way, you may invest a lot of effort in your site and then get shut down.