[thelist] Trademarks and webpage names (not domains)

Lee Kowalkowski lee.kowalkowski at googlemail.com
Tue Apr 7 05:53:04 CDT 2009


2009/4/6 Nick Daverin <ndaverin at marian.org>:
> I forgot to mention that this page is not promoting the trademarked
> service... it's just a name chosen based on content.
> Also I'm not sure if the owner of the trademark will be happy with us
> simply using a redirect as one of their main concerns is that we show
> up first in Google...

So the owner has no issue with the content of your page per se?!?
Forget it then.  It sounds like the owner is clutching at straws.
Their problem is with Google's search engine results page, which you
don't control.

I don't see why one is not free to create a page using a trademark,
promoting it or otherwise, as long as you're not being libellous or
passing off, even if that product is readily identifiable without
using its trademark.

If your page is not even related to their product, what's the problem?
 As long as there's no likelihood of confusion, you're not even
offering a product similar to the owner's (I presume).  Parodies are
also fine if not some sort of vendetta against the owner.

I'm sure there's no legal right to be #1 on the search engine results
page (for what query anyway?).  Let me know if that changes, I'll be
wanting one of my pages there.  If the owner wants to have the tallest
tower, they should focus on building their own, not on knocking down
others'.

-- 
Lee



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