Is a Domain Name an Automatic Trademark?

TheWorkingStiff writes "I registered a descriptive domain name (something like "thesimpledog.com") and started a blog on it. About a month later I get a threatening letter from a link farmer who owns "simpledog.com" The owner of simpledog.com is claiming that he owns the trademark to the words simpledog even though he has no real business or rights by that name other than a static page with some text and Adsense slapped on it. There is no product, service or brand whatsoever. Does simply registering a two or three word domain give you instant trademark rights to those words even though you've never done anything with them? Should I give up my domain to a link farmer who is trying to bully me, or does he have a valid right to any phrase he registers that isn't already trademarked?"

Comments

Re:Automatic Trademark?

[gbulmash]

Well, the international Red Cross are jerks. They admitted all the Arabic Red Crescent organizations and have let them use their votes to keep Israel's Magen David Adom out of the organization. The U.S. Red Cross actually stopped paying dues to the international organization and the U.S. Senate has passed a resolution condemning the International Red Cross for allowing this to continue.

But what do you expect? There are more resolutions introduced to condemn Israel every year than there are to condemn ongoing genocides, like Darfour. Apparently the Arab states have nothing better to do.

Re:Automatic Trademark?

[mcvos]

There are more resolutions introduced to condemn Israel every year than there are to condemn ongoing genocides, like Darfour.

But you'll have to admit that the foreign occupation of Palestine territory has been going on for quite a bit longer than the current mess in Darfur. That and the fact that one is an external affair and the other is an internal one may have something to do with this. I'm not saying it's right, but global politics tend to move slowly.

Re:Automatic Trademark?

[gbulmash]

There's an old joke:

The Israeli Prime Minister and the head of the Palestinian delegation were about to sit down to peace talks when the Prime Minister asked if he coule tell a story.

"In the days before the Hebrews were to enter the Holy Land, Moses was camped beside a stream. He asked his attendants to give him some privacy so he might bathe and be clean when he entered the Holy Land. His attendants left, but after a few hours with no word from Moses, they began to worry. When they returned to the stream, they found Moses in the water and his clothes gone from the bank. 'Moses,' they asked, 'where are your clothes?' Moses replied, 'the Palestinians stole them.'"

And with that, the Prime Minister sat down. The Palestinian representative stood up in protest. "That story is untrue! There were no Palestinians in the Holy Land back then!"

"And that," said the Prime Minister, "is my point."

Calling the State of Israel a "foreign occupation" is no less propagandist than saying the only claim the Palestinians can lay to the land is "finders keepers, losers weepers".