Discussion:
What is the name of your state? Louisiana
Good Morning,
My name is Keith Plaisance and I am the owner of a website called
I currently run this website to showcase the beautiful Louisiana outdoors.
On this site, we run database Webpages that have a different URL. The URL we use for these database pages is
alone does not work, but when you type in for example , you will notice the Baitntackle.net Reports page will appear.
In Louisiana, there is a copyright for "Louisiana Sportsman"
My question to all of you is "Am I in violation of a copyright" because I use ?
I recieved an email from the owner of Louisiana Sportsman threating me by stating he has the copyright of "Louisiana Sportsman" and ALL instances.
My company firmly believe we are ok because an example would be and are 2 websites both working on the internet, but contain 2 totally different sites not related to one another.
Furthermore, like I said at the beginning of my post, we DO NOT use the URL but
Can anyone out there tell me who is right or who is wrong and why?
Thanks Everyone in advanced for your responses.
Keith Plaisance
Owner

Answer:
NFL is an acronym for National Football league and National Food Laboratories. Duplicate acronyms are less of a trademark violation if the trademarked entities are in different industries.
It has to do with whether your infringment of the trademark is likely to cause confusion or will take away business from your competitor.
Since you are in the same industry as the legal owner of the trademark, and you are using the full name of the mark rather than an acronym, you can find yourself losing a lawsuit rather easily.
The "/reports" doesn't make a difference other than to point out how easy it would be for you to change your domain name for the reports without causing you large expenses of re-advertising you main site URL.
Answer:
Ok, Thanks, maybe I should not have used NFL to explain my question.
Another quick ex. would be and
But, in our industry, there are multiple prime examples of this issue.
For example...... they have websites in our industry titled:
etc.
etc.
All with different websites for differsnt companies. Why is my site different from theirs?
Also, the way I use its embedded in the backend of our site. We do not try to mislead internet users in any way, but we do use it because of its keyword potential to search engines**************..
And, How can he have rights to "THE" when I was allowed to purchase and use this name?
So do you still feel I would be fighting a losing battle?
Thanks again for your responses.
Answer:
According to the article below, my company should be allowed to operate using the name :
As more and more businesses establish Web sites to promote their businesses, the legal issues of the World Wide Web become increasingly important. By the time you're done reading this article, you'll understand how that confusion has developed, and how to avoid losing your business's name and trademarks to an unscrupulous competitor.
Domain Names
Many companies use their company name as their domain name--but many do not. Many companies that have had non-descriptive business names, such as the owner's name, are opting for descriptive domain names so people can find them more easily online. The relative ease and lack of expense in getting a domain name, and putting up a Web site, has increased the number of domain names to millions in only a few years. Each of these domain names may infringe on an existing business name of an existing business.
Not only are there millions of new domain names on the Internet--but the definition of the marketplace (remember, a name must be confusing in a particular marketplace in order for it to be considered infringing) has expanded. In the past, a conflicting name in another state might not bother a locally-based company. Who cares if there's an American Widget Group in Ohio if you're based in California and your widget clients never come from more than 10 miles away?
However, if you hope to generate business using the Internet, having a business name like Acme Widgets in Ohio (for example), when there are businesses using the same name in 10 other states may be more name confusion then you care to tolerate. Because when someone goes an Internet search engine and looks for your company name, they will get Acme Widget companies nationwide.
Network Solutions, Inc. ('NSI'), under contract from the National Science Foundation, assigns most domain names in the United States It does so on a first come, first granted the domain name, basis. Furthermore, it only looks at exact duplicates--it doesn't do the kind of "is this confusingly similar to something already registered" analysis that the trademark office or a court would do.
NSI doesn't check your business license; it doesn't check your phone listing; it doesn't check anything. Consequently, if you asked for microsoft.com before Microsoft did, you would have gotten that domain name--in fact, many people registered the names of large companies in the early days of the Internet, even though they had nothing to do with the company who's name they registered.
NSI's system has allowed both innocent problems (two companies with very similar names having a conflict over similar domain names) as well as intentional problems (competing companies gobbling up any name that sounds even vaguely like your company name).
For example, I have a client whose competitor registered his company name as a domain name. When my client went to start up his Web site and tried to get the domain name, he was told it was taken. Since his business name has a hyphen in it, he tried to get the domain name without the hyphen; however, that also was taken by the same competitor.
By and large, NSI would like companies to sue each other in cases like this. NSI wants a court to decide who has the right to the domain name, and then NSI will obey the court order. But suing someone for trade name infringement is a long and costly process. Not only don't you want to do it--but as an attorney, I can think of a lot better ways to spend my day. However, there is one instance in which NSI actually will take some action without a court order.
Trademark Registration
Under NSI's current policy, the owner of a federal trademark registration in the United States or a registration in a foreign country may challenge use of an identical domain name. If you send NSI your trade name registration, along with proof that you asked the owner of the trade name to stop using the conflicting name, and after some additional internal procedures, NSI will put the name on hold. That means neither the original user of the domain name, nor you can use it. You still have to go to court to get a final disposition of the domain name. However, as a practical matter, once this other person has his or her Web site closed down--they are very likely to negotiate with you to release the domain name to you.
The reason why this is such a quagmire is that NSI's policy is at odds with traditional United States trade name law, in the following ways:
The concept of confusingly similar is absent. Only identical matches are dealt with.
The concept of marketplace is eliminated. This is not really NSI's problem. The Internet has erased a lot of traditional commercial boundaries.
Registration of a trade name will give you rights that are superior (at least in terms of putting a domain name on hold) to those of the first user. In other words, even if they were using the name long before you registered the trade name, you can still get NSI to put a hold on the name if you register before them.
What does this mean in practice? Let's look at an example. You own "American Widgets" and you've used that name for 40 years. You've never registered the trade name, which you certainly don't have to do. You've stopped a few people from using similar names. You even stopped someone from selling widgets under "America's Widgets" because it was too close to your name.
You get americanwidgets.com as your domain name. Your arch competitor, Universal Widgets goes to NSI and gets american-widgets.com, which they get because it's not identical to your domain name (although NSI's concept of identical is not always clear, and it's possible NSI might reject a name that only differs in the use of a hyphen). Because of their more creative use of search engines, they start getting more hits on american-widgets.com than you do on americanwidgets.com.
As the final insult, they decide to register American Widgets as a trade name, using their domain name as proof that they use the name in commerce. They are granted registration because the trademark office only looks at conflicting registered marks. The U.S. Trademark office doesn't care that you've been using the name for years, so long as you never registered it. Or perhaps your competitor goes to another country where they can get a trademark registration in a few days. Then, using their registration, they go to NSI and put a hold on your americanwidgets.com domain name.
The fact that you probably will be able to undo the hold by going to court and arguing the traditional "first person to use the name in commerce has superior rights ..." rule, is of small comfort to you. What should you do?
Does this mean that you should register any name you are using as a domain name? Not necessarily. But it does add an additional reason for registration. The decision will be based on several issues, including the competition in your area of commerce; the amount of time and money you're investing in both your name and your Web site; existing similar domain names; and, how much money you want to spend.
Another consideration is the fact that U.S. trademark registrations take about a year to process. The entire domain name--trade name issue is being examined by both international and U.S. groups for more efficient solutions. So you might register your trade name only to have the rules change before your registration comes through.
The cost of a trade name registration varies from attorney to attorney. Generally, the initial fees should run approximately $200-$250 plus the filing fee of $245, and perhaps a trade name search, which should run about $75-$100. However, the total fees are harder to pinpoint because the U.S. registration scheme is a "challenge" system. In other words, the Trademark Office can and will challenge your registration to try to narrow its scope, while you have to defend your right to a broad registration without any disclaimers. This will add to your initial legal fees.
The only way to really determine whether registration is worth your while is to talk to an attorney. But you've invested a lot of time, energy and money in a name for your business. If you are advertising on the Internet, the cost of a consultation should be nothing compared with the risk of losing your name on the Internet.
IS THIS ARTICLE NOT CORRECT???????
Answer:
All with different websites for differsnt companies. Why is my site different from theirs? Maybe nobody has tried to assert trademark rights for the name against the other companies. Maybe they've all come to an agreement. Maybe the domain names were already in use before some tried to trademark the name. Maybe they just haven't got around to enforcement yet. Maybe they are currently in court. Who knows?
And, How can he have rights to "THE" when I was allowed to purchase and use this name? Anyone can buy any available domain name -- the domain name resellers do not take the time to determine whether or not you have the "right" to use that domain name, if you want to buy it and it's available to you, they will sell it. In other words, purchase of a domain name does NOT necessarily purchase the right to use the name.
According to the article below, my company should be allowed to operate using the name : Did you even read the article you posted?
"The only way to really determine whether registration is worth your while is to talk to an attorney."
You don't need to convince us -- you need to talk with an attorney, who can review ALL of the relevant facts, and advise you accordingly. Some Random Guy was dead on -- you are in the same industry, you are using their mark, you haven't given us any information that would even begin to swing things in your favor. But we don't have access to all of the facts, that's why you should hire your own attorney, maybe that person can come up with a way to let you keep your domain name.
EDIT: Further, when the article talks about how the domain name registrar only deals with "exact" duplicates (which you essentially have anyway, BTW), it then goes on to explain how that is NOT what U.S. trademark law says (trademark law doesn't require duplication, just "confusingly similar") -- and guess what, the courts win. Maybe the trademark holder wouldn't be able to prevail with the domain name holder (although he likely would, based onthese facts), but he almost certainly would prevail in court.
But again, talk with your own lawyer, who will have access to ALL of the facts.
Answer:

IS THIS ARTICLE NOT CORRECT??????? When did you confuse an article of opinion with accurate legal advice???