Comment on domain name with your own name?
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I use a domain with my surname in it to host only things where I reveal my identity anyway. my Linkstack, my personal blog, etc.
I did have to exchange a couple emails with the legal department of a very wealthy company after I registered it because my last name is part of their company name.
beirdobaggins@lemmy.world 1 year ago
How did that exchange go?
They try to tell you that you can’t use your last name?
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, basically. I laid it out that it was my actual surname, and not only was the domain not going to be used in their industry, but wouldn’t be used commercially at all. At that point they backed down and basically said ok but if you try anything funny we’ll be back.
I did a lot of digging at the time and you actually can trademark a surname, kinda, but there are a lot of specific circumstances surrounding it that I could have also argued didn’t apply. Problem is, they know full well I couldn’t afford to fight them on it in court so if they really wanted it taken down they probably could have pushed me into it. Once they saw I was just a guy with the surname using it for personal websites, the fact that they backed off was kinda cool since they probably could have pressed me way harder if they really wanted to.