Is this a copyright violation?

[Living Media]

I've got a potential client who's asked me to register a domain for them. It has five characters, a hyphen, and then "ebay.com" It's not a parody site, it's not Ihate-ebay.com. The client lives in another country - they're not US-based.

Is this a violation of copyright? Is there anything *I* should do about it (I register domains for the clients, but it's immediately transferred to them.) Or can I be held liable if this is some kind of violation of copyright?

Or am I in the clear, legally, if I go ahead and register the domain for the client?

[interactive]

I'm not a legal expert but as long as it's in his name then it should be fine. The best thing to do though is just not to register it if your worried about, a $20 domain or whatever isn't worth being sued over.

[nameslave]

eBay has been ACTIVELY pursuing just ANY *bay.com domain registration, not to say *-ebay.com which is apparently cashing in on their trademark.

As an intermediate, it's better to register the domain name in the owner's name from the very start (instead of transferring it later) and keep yourself as the Administrative Contact on their behalf if necessary.

But regarding this particular case, I would certainly recommend the client AGAINST registering such a domain name.

[Living Media]

nameslave, interactive, thanks. I thought this might be the case.

I'm emailing the client (who didn't make a payment when he signed up, so I would have had to contact him anyway) and advising them of the possibility of legal action by Ebay to protect their trademark, our limits of liability, and so forth.

[kunal]

Hey Lesli,
I had a client who had a similar problem. They started a site with ebay somewhere in the name. They were contacted by the world intellectual property guys and asked to hand over the domain to ebay. Effectively, you can not have any name with the 4 letters in the same order."ebay"

Its a curse!!!

kunal

[interactive]

Originally posted by nameslave:

eBay has been ACTIVELY pursuing just ANY *bay.com domain registration, ....[snip]


Ya they've gone after a couple people. They just got laughed out of court. They need to get their act togethor, it's just a word.

[nameslave]

Originally posted by interactive:

Ya they've gone after a couple people. They just got laughed out of court.
The keyword here is COURT. You don't just walk into court bare-handed. It COSTS you at least $5k to retain (just to start with, not the final bill) an attorney of THEIR capacity. So unless you have a lawyer brother who has nothing else to do, don't try it at home. :D

[effortless]

All depends if somethingebay is actually a word that is recognizable in their language (outside us). If the site is not an auction site, and there are five letters in front of it, I don't think you would have a problem. But you're treading in largely untested legal waters.

[Living Media]

I haven't heard a word from this person, so I didn't order the domain or activate the account (truthfully, when I first saw it, my reaction was "They're trying to find a host to set up an Ebay scam site.") I suspect that I never will, either. Ah well, five more days and I void the order completely.

The plus side of not having automatic / instant account activation: people like this never get a toehold on my servers.

[interactive]

Originally posted by nameslave:

The keyword here is COURT. You don't just walk into court bare-handed. It COSTS you at least $5k to retain (just to start with, not the final bill) an attorney of THEIR capacity. So unless you have a lawyer brother who has nothing else to do, don't try it at home. :D

I was talking EBay. I'd bet money that they have their own lawyer.

[McDesign]

I'd stay away if I was you. :)

[nameslave]

Originally posted by interactive:

I was talking EBay. I'd bet money that they have their own lawyer.
I was actually talking about the other party who had to spend at least $5k just to retain a lawyer of capacity comparable to those (yes, it's plural) of eBay.