Legal aspect of selling a copyrighted movie themed domain?

[autistictriangle]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering about the legal aspects of selling domains that are associated with copyrighted movie related words. For example, if John owned jedi.com and jedi.io and jedi.info, would it be okay for John to sell these three domains? Any input regarding this would be appreciated.

 

[fm1234]

It depends on context and the specific terms in the domain. In your example, you'd be begging for trouble -- LucasFilm not only has a trademark on the term "Jedi" but has aggressively gone after perceived trademark infringement for all things 'Star Wars' related for decades. They even sued a government contractor in the 1980s for labeling the Strategic Defense Initiative "Star Wars." (they lost, but the fact that there is pretty much no one LF won't sue is the point here.)

Obviously you could be using the term "jedi" as a hypothetical, but the specific case is worth considering. Any domain name containing a term such as that one is going to likely be used for the obvious purpose -- to capitalise on the popularity of the term due to the related film -- and in any commercial context at all you will be asking for issues.


Frank

 

[Name B]

I think jedi.com is best because .com is common extension and most important factor is traffic.

 

[flippawilson]

It depends on context and the specific terms in the domain. In your example, you'd be begging for trouble -- LucasFilm not only has a trademark on the term "Jedi" but has aggressively gone after perceived trademark infringement for all things 'Star Wars' related for decades. They even sued a government contractor in the 1980s for labeling the Strategic Defense Initiative "Star Wars." (they lost, but the fact that there is pretty much no one LF won't sue is the point here.)

Obviously you could be using the term "jedi" as a hypothetical, but the specific case is worth considering. Any domain name containing a term such as that one is going to likely be used for the obvious purpose -- to capitalise on the popularity of the term due to the related film -- and in any commercial context at all you will be asking for issues.


Frank

I think this is very interesting. The other day, I was just listening to someone on a radio program talking about the ridiculous aspect of copyright infringements. Don't get me wrong, intellectual property is well worth the fight to keep.

But what the guy was talking about on the program was,say 30 yrs,40, 50 years from now, if we have companies coming out every week etc,at what point does someone get there very name trademarked?Technically, We are already Incorporated for those that have a SSN.

Will there be any wiggle room for originality when we have things like 1000 youtube videos uploaded everyday(modest number).
Surely someone has thought of a HarryPotter type of story before J Rowland(name check?)

One lawyer basically said, one has to be found in "bad faith" when deciding if they intentionally meant to use a similar name.

It's almost like, it depends on how popular something is in order for there to be any weight in the legal repercussions. Surely, the word Jedi was around before Luc stoled the story, I mean borrowed from other ancient stories.

 

[fm1234]

Ideas are of course borrowed and rehashed, but the trademark process is not trivial -- with few exceptions most trademarks are carefully vetted before issued (put from another angle, most trademark applications are not approved.)

Just going on the specific case of the Jedi, the characters are obviously inspired by ancient warrior-monk types such as are found in Eastern folklore and history. Similar characters existed in literature and to a lesser extent film prior to Star Wars. But intergalactic warrior-monks who are telekinetic and wield energy swords and are called Jedi fall under IP protection.

 

[flippawilson]

we just have to be careful,the field is getting very litigious.It's a good business though, read ancient books from scared relics and then spin the story around.A little fun fact , the word Jedi has roots in the word dejhuty(dej=JED...)(no point in looking in a public textbook, it's not there)from "Egypt" then of course all the obvious Jewish mysticism,feudal societies and Knighthood later down the line.

But regarding to something close to the issue, some trademarks are more penetrable because the company may have less strict measures for things like Fansites,forums etc.

For example, Valve, the makers of Half Life, are known to go after folks testing the copyright waters.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

You can sell what ever you want. How that works out or if the ownership is disputed is another matter.