The main problem I see you running into is that if they decide for any reason to go after you (even just cause now they want your domain), it won’t matter if they have a solid legal standing or not. They can afford to tie you up in court indefinitely, and you will likely be unable to outlast them.
Source: This is exactly what happened to my family. We have the same last name as a large corporation, and in the early days of the internet we registered a domain based on a name-related slogan they had used in an older commercial compaign. We were just hosting a basic family website and email, and clearly had no conflicting or overlapping IP. We even checked in advance - they did not own a trademark for the slogan or the name.
A few years later, they decided the wanted the domain for themelves, but instead of offering us a fair price to purchase, they first filed a trademark for the slogan and then sued us for the domain. If we’d had the funds to continue fighting we would have eventually won, but we’re just a middle class family and they’re a large multi-national corporation with near infinite funds to pay their lawyers. We lost the domain, and it cost us a small fortune in legal fees fighing it.
Proceed with caution.
7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
I’m of the mindset that you bought the domain you can do with it as you please. Where I think you’d get into “trouble” is if you were talking about piracy or something associated with their IP.
And the best possible outcome is they contact you and buy it for some much larger amount than you paid for it.
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I wouldn’t touch this with a 10 foot pole. Squatting on domains that contain a trademark with the purpose of forcing a company to pay you out for it is illegal.
AA5B@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The problem is buying means nothing about whether it is legit or whether a company decides they want it. It only means you reserved it. Any disagreements are hashed out after the fact in court. It’s not a game that individuals can afford to win vs a corp