Legal Question in Business Law in California
Does this constitute misappropriation?
Hi,
I belongd to a company's website with a trademarked name that provides message boards for it's users. Those users on the message boards have dubbed themselves with a nickname derivative of the company name. (It is not used by the company itself.)
I created a website, sort of a fan site to compliment the company's website, offering free graphics and such for use on their website. My website name uses the nickname their message board visitors are known by. I would like to offer items (not related to the original website) for sale on this site. (I do not currently make any money off this ''fan'' site.) If I brought in an income from this site, would it be considered misappropriation of the company's name? Thank you in advance for answering my question.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Does this constitute misappropriation?
Difficult to say for sure without knowing the trademark, and how close it is to the name of the forum, but in general, your use in commerce of a mark that is confusingly similar to a registered mark is a violation of the Lanham Act (as well as various state laws).
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