DSF

Hi Guys

What do you think of this....

If I had a website along the lines of

www.MYharleydavidson.com

would there be any trademark infringement?

I have an idea for a personalisation site (not Harley) and am thinking that putting MY infront of the trademark may or may not be an infringement.

If you have had experience of this let me know...

Hi Simon
when i first started and being pretty niaeve i designed a mug a best seller for me this consisted of a black colour change mug with flames around the base which i put the name in the flames i also placed the harley badge on the mug i sold shed loads before i had a letter from harleys lawyers in michigan . luckily it was a cease and desist letter but with the letter came a list of what i couldnt use which basically said any combination of harley and davidson in any form of split ie Har ley david son and also their badge . basically if you could accrue it to harley it wasnt allowed now this may well be them trying to scare me (it worked) but my understanding ids if you can play on words but it still is associated with a brand then they have a recourse on it i suppose it depends on the brand you are sailing close to the wind with .

I understand that selling stuff branded as Harley would be a no no.

But lets say this as an example...

I set up a website as follows

www.myescortcabriolet.com

I then sell personalised goods to go on a (ford) escort cabriolet and use 3D rendering to show the car and give users the option to upload to see it (3D gateway sort of thing).

What do you think?

I agree it is sailing close but I think it is a grey area

S

P.S. it is just an idea at the mo (nothing to do with Ford or Harley )

You'd have to look into the company in question whose trademark you are potentially infringing on, and see what their reputation and history is with patents ... I wouldn't advise buying/using myiphone.com for instance!
One surprise on this to look into would be the recent IkeaHackers problems ... you wouldn't have thought Ikea would be the type of company to do anything, especially with a website that essentially promoted theirs, all seems to be good in the end, but you do have to be careful!

Hi all. If it helps then using a trademarked name in a domain name is illegal if you have commercial gain out of it. So although it is not illegal to buy a domain name with a trade marked name you cannot use it for financial gain. I know this as I have various "Olympics" domains (yes, I was bored one night a few years ago!) and I received letters from the Metropolitan Police (London) a few months before the 2012 games saying if I use them for financial gain then I will be given more than a slap on the wrist! So tread carefully.