Hi Guys,
We bought a domain name similar to our competitor of sort.
example.
while our competitor has the domain name
just to catch on the seo part.
Will we have any problems we are offering the same service.
If they have trademark protection, you might not be able to offer same service.
Otherwise its ok by law as far as i know.
Thanks for the response webcosmo.
We are making wordpress templates they are doing the same and they are trade marked as well. So for us to work in that domain we would to put up a new domain name to offer this service.
Trademarks are simply too complex to comment on a general concept so while it’s very smart to stay away from disclosing the actual name, it’s just one of those things where a slight variation could matter tremendously whether it’s in the name, the use, jurisdictions, time of first use, etc.
Of course that complexity carries beyond knowing the name and if you really do want to use the domain, you’d be best to seek out an attorney.
Thank you Ted for the advice, I really appreciate you guys helping me out.
What if we simply don’t offer a service on that domain but just put articles there so we won’t be offering any service comparative to our competitor that should be alright right 
While this is probably too simplistic an answer, likelihood of confusion is where this virtually boils down to. If a considerable number of users confuse your domain name with its trademark namesake, coupled with its trademark holder RAW (Ready, Able, Willing) to pursue and demonstrate such, there might be trouble.
Some factors affecting that are, but not limited to, strength of trademark, commercial success, and consumer behavior. All if any.
If you honestly registered that domain name with your competitor in mind, well…you have one answer to your question.
they’ll only confuse if we offer the same service or look like them in any way which we won’t be doing, just publishing articles on the site.
so neither service nor looks we’ll match our competitors, that hopefully won’t pinch us in the back
What type of articles? Are you making money from the site (ads, affiliate, etc)? What is the purpose of the site? One minute it’s a wordpress theme site, the next it’s an article site. It seems very contrived and there’s obviously an angle somewhere in relation to your ‘competitor’ otherwise you wouldn’t bother mimicking their domain name in the first place.
Regardless, I agree with Dave!
We’ll put wordpress articles on the site and not offer any services for wordpress theming that our competitor is doing.
Trademarks protect a company’s reputation and good will and prevent consumers from being misled as to the origin or quality of a product. Recently, trademark law has become further embroiled with domain name issues.
The domain name system was invented to allow internet users a way of accessing specific computers on the Internet through easily remembered names. Domain names have become a valuable property in today’s Internet economy. Consequently, trademark owners have been quick to use the courts when they feel others have taken domain names they are exclusively entitled to use.
In addition to existing trademark legislation, in 1999, congress passed the The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) to protect trademark owners from acts of cyber piracy by those who have bad faith intent in using a domain name to profit from another’s trademark.
There is now over fifteen years of case law concerning ownership rights in domain names, much of which is extremely fact specific. It has not been easy for the court system to fit the cyber world into existing trademark law. However, once a court found a domain name registrant was acting in bad faith they found a reason to prevent the continued use of the domain by the registrant even if they had to create new trademark law reasons.
Recently, ICANN has developed a dispute resolution procedure as an alternative to filing suit for trademark owners. Again, whether the registrant acted in bad faith will be a large factor in the ultimate resolution.
That depends. I notice that the more unique and/or famous the trademark, the harder it’ll be to use said domain name for anything unrelated to that mark.
If you register, say, DeltaBowling (light bulb moment?) to sell bowling ball products, that won’t necessarily infringe Delta Airlines’ trademark. If you do something like Prada Networks to sell anything IT, though, that might still confuse users with the famous fashion line.
And as Atty. Jaffe posted, there’s been over 15 years of litigation on domain-trademark disputes…and at least 10 years of Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) decisions handling that as well, including what you’re asking. While it’s still up to the trademark holder (if any) to prove such is happening, you best be ready if they’re prepared to go after you.
Anyway, this is all speculation. Have a fun 2012.