Domain name copyright

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wekano7

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#101643 5-May-2012 02:04

Hi there

I am hoping this is the place is answer my question.

1. I want to register a domain for my business, Alpha Beta Painting Services, with a domain that is a searched long-tail keyword (i.e. "auckland painting services", so www.auckllandpaintingservices.co.nz

2. However, Auckland painting Services Ltd is the name of one of my competitors, who has registered a different domain for his business.

3. Can I still register this domain even though it is the name of someone else's business? Can I be sued for this by them?

Thank you so much!

Cheers,
CJ

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#619945 5-May-2012 05:30

You can register anything. If it is a trademark the owner may request the DNC to revoke the registration.

If it is a trademark he should defend it and you shouldn't use it.

Having said that, prepare for a bitter dispute as no business likes their name, trademark. Or not, being used by someone else even less a competitor.

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sleemanj

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#620048 5-May-2012 12:22

It would be ill-advised to register that domain name. It would almost certainly be handed over if the actual Auckland Painting Services contested.

And the fact that you (now publically admitted on this forum) knew of the existence of Auckland Painting Services, that would really not work in your favour at all!

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gzt

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#620081 5-May-2012 12:57

Imagine for a second there are no legal risks or remedies at all.

Businesses with similar sounding names have to deal with these kind of things: Calls and mail from the other guy's customers wanting to know how the job is going or complaining about work not completed, asking about people you don't know, misaddressed delivery of courier packages.

The reverse is true as well. From time to time they'll get your cheques in their mail.

kiwiharry

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#620086 5-May-2012 13:07

wekano7: Hi there

I am hoping this is the place is answer my question.

1. I want to register a domain for my business, Alpha Beta Painting Services, with a domain that is a searched long-tail keyword (i.e. "auckland painting services", so www.auckllandpaintingservices.co.nz

2. However, Auckland painting Services Ltd is the name of one of my competitors, who has registered a different domain for his business.

3. Can I still register this domain even though it is the name of someone else's business? Can I be sued for this by them?

Thank you so much!

Cheers,
CJ

I personally think this is a very bad idea. What is the point of trying to register a mispelt domain name. I know if I were to look for Auckland Painting Services I would spell it exactly like that and not aucklland with 2 l's.
You may get the odd hit from somebody accidentally mispelling it but it's not exactly a great business decision.

As others have said you would most likely create friction with your competitor.

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mattwnz

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#620088 5-May-2012 13:10

I don't believe you can tradmark a placename. eg Auckland widgets. But if there is a company registered with that company name, then I just won't bother, I would come up with something new, as they possibly could try to claim it, and is it worth the hassle.

redjet

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#620090 5-May-2012 13:12

While keywords in your domain name can help with SEO it's not the main factor.

TBH, I think you are better off just creating your own brand and building it up.

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Ragnor

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#620168 5-May-2012 16:56

I would register something short, easy to remember and easy to communicate like: abps.co.nz (which is available actually) rather than worrying about keywords in the actual domain personally.

I agree with the earlier comment that other factors are more important now for seo. Google has shifted away from what's in the domain name being important due to abuse by spam/scam sites.

Just having a page named: /auckland-painting-services will likely be effective if you follow basic SEO guidelines.

If you really want to you could still register auckland-painting-services.co.nz and aucklandpaintingservices.co.nz and just setup them up as redirects to your actual domain or basic 1 page sites that link to your actual domain name. Probably not worth the cost/effort though.

You can see how keywords in the domain name have decreased as a search ranking factor here
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors