Domain name

[Country Flower]

you know if Disney have any restrictions to put the name Disney in a comercial Webpage name?

 

[Country Flower]

any?

 

[KelNottAt]

I don't think so. I think whoever registers a domain name gets to own it. Think of all the "hate" sites like disneysucks.com, ripoffdisney.com, etc. (I just made those up, btw - don't know if they really exist.)

My office is right next to my company's webmaster. Sometimes I overhear her registering all the hate sites relevant to our company. Of course, we never post a page there, we just have first "dibs" on the name and keep it to ourselves so no one else can use it.

Now, if you're gonna use a trademarked name for money-making purposes instead of free-speech, you might get in trouble. I think I recall my colleague referring a newly-discovered hate site against our company to Legal because its business infringed our trademark.

 

[Snow_White]

Company A owns the trademark for term "Blah Blah". Company B registers blahblah.com and uses it in the same class that Company A trademarked it under (i.e. both are "band" sites), then Company A can sue Company B for said domain.

If I were you, I'd stick with abbreviations (i.e. disboards or wdwinfo, rather than DISNEY____)

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Disney, like most major companies, is very proactive in their protection of their copyright and trademark rights. For example, a local charity group here in Virginia got a cease and desist letter from Disney when they advertised in the paper that one of Disney's characters would be appearing at a fund raising event. It was a costume that someone in the group had sewn. (How they found this obscure ad in a local paper in Virginia is actually rather amazing to me.)

I would imagine they would go after web sites with the same vigor.

Consider what the negative impact would be to you if you were forced to change the name of the site after it is established.

 

[Country Flower]

Thanks to all. The site Im talking about is a travel site specialized in Disney Trips.

 

[bicker]

you know if Disney have any restrictions to put the name Disney in a comercial Webpage name?

They most certainly do. This website used to be the "Disney Information Station" and even had "Disney" in the URL of the website. Pete changed the name of the website and the URL to avoid legal problems with Disney.

 

[consultant]

Rekindling this.

I think I may have wasted $18. I'm starting a Disney Collectibles resale site. I bought three domains:

wdccshop.com
disneylimited.com
disneycollectorstore.com

Do you think they'll eventually come after me?

 

[consultant]

Well, found this (and other similar docs on the net)

http://www.brownwelsh.com/HPLowry_archive/609082.htm

Looks like I'm screwed for all domains. BUT, if you google some terms, you'll see a lot of sites using it. The problem is, if I build sites on these domains and build up traffic then Disney comes along and takes them away, I'm screwed and have to start on another domain and have to rebuild traffic.

Googled disney collectibles

Results include:

disney.collectiblestoday.com
finddisney.com
disneyanamania.com
disney.pronto.com
disneycohen.com

Googled disney collectors

Results include:

disneycollectors.com
i-love-disney.com

Googling wdcc

results include:

wdccduckman.com
disneyclassics.net
wdcc.org
wdcc.com
disneyclassiccollectibles.com (seems someone is squatting on this one?)

But interestingly, 90%+ of the sites listed, DON'T have disney in the domain.

It appears it might be harder or impossible for Disney to go after sites that disney is not in the primary domain name but in the secondary: disney.somedomain.com ??

And/or one or more of these sites go permission from Disney.

disneycollectors.com is the one that has me most intrigued. But I've from what I've read if the content of the site doesn't overlap with any products or services Disney offers you are okay. Disney does Walt Disney Collectors Society though (waltdisneycollectorssociety.com) So how does disneycollectors.com still exist?

Time to write Disney I guess.

 

[bicker]

Try something like mickeycollectibles.com...they can't come after you for that.

 

[consultant]

Ya, I sent a few e-mails to Disney people (admin for disney.com, designated legal counsel etc). I am awaiting a big NO, and TRANSFER THOSE TO US IMMEDIATELY reply.

But when all you are going to do is sell Disney collectibles, vintage and limited edition items no longer sold by Disney, then I don't see a big problem (but I'm not a lawyer for a multi-billion dollar corporation).

I think I can maybe get away with wdccshop.com? Seems like they haven't gone after wdcc domains? But I can't remember if any of those domains are selling WDCC items - that's probably the litmus test on those domains.

Then there's the disneyanamania.com domain. They ARE selling Disney products (links to their E-bay auctions). If they don't go after them, then they shouldn't go after me.

 

[consultant]

Just checked into disneyanamania.com.

The domain was registered in January 2008. No wonder. The lawyers probably haven't caught up to this one yet. Oops, I think they are probably going to be getting a notice from Disney now on the count of me as I pointed out examples hoping for Disney to agree, ya, some domains we just let go as long as they are not directly competing with our products and services.

Of course I guess they could consider selling vintage items is competing with selling new items. It's all Disney.