Ethics in business

Ethics in business  »  #1 Pet Peeve: Trademark/Copyright Infringement in Website Names

#1 Pet Peeve: Trademark/Copyright Infringement in Website Names

by Meghan
Meghan Senior  
I'm always on the lookout for new places to advertise, so I've seen a lot of safelists, traffic exchanges, and classified websites. It drives me NUTS when I see websites that are obviously infringing on a trademark or copyright, like "Star Trek Hits", "XBOX 360 Ads", "Jedi Force Advertising", etc.

What makes people think that this is okay and why invest time in setting up a website that will quite likely be flagged for removal? Even if the original creator has not registered a name as a trademark,
people like George Lucas often have good arguments in court for words
like "Jedi" not being used by anyone other than them. It seems like, A) a moral and oftentimes legal infringement, B) unprofessional, and C) a waste of time.

Oh, and it's not going to provide any sort of keyword value for your website, because instead of competing against just other advertising sites, you're also competing against a major fan base creating websites.

Just my 2 cents....okay, maybe a nickel.
Nov 2nd 2010 12:41

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Comments

Gilberto Cintron Senior   Viral, Local, Social & Mobile Marketing Expert
Hi Meghan people do things for the strangest of reasons. However in this case, I'll bet they are motivated by one thing, $$$. I think the logic, or rather the rationale, is that they will set up a site, despite knowing it is going to be shut down, hoping to capitalize on it before it is shut down.
Those are my thoughts, but I'm sure others could think of more creative reasons.
Nov 2nd 2010 12:50   
Cheryl Baumgartner Professional Premium   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
The entire reason in a nutshell? To profit from the power of the name. There's a blog on here from a couple of years ago about Clint Eastwood suing a furniture manufacturer for naming one of it's chairs "Eastwood". No biggie right? The furniture maker was quite obviously hoping to capitalize on Eastwood's famous name. Some of their other models: Brando, Bronson, Connery etc.

The problem is that this is using someone else' trademark, name etc to imply an endorsement or support of the product by connecting that name or trademark to it. And yes they should be shut down however unless those who own the trademark/name speak up, it usually flies until some honest soul says "Hey, that's not right."
Nov 2nd 2010 13:57   
Bj aka Bill Brown Magnate I   Hosting and Backup Service provider
if the owner decides to take action and they have actually registered the trade mark / copyright then the infringer will not only have to pay all earnings from the site but they can also claim 3 times the cost of their legal fees.
Nov 2nd 2010 16:38   
Dave Gilbert Senior   Web Entreprenuer
I actually wrote an article on copyright because 99% of all material on the internet is not properly protected see hxxp://myviralblog.com/blog/2010/03/16/copyright-infringement-you/

replace the xx with tt
Nov 2nd 2010 17:47   
Meghan Senior   
Thank you everyone for sharing and participating in the discussion.
Nov 3rd 2010 08:40   
Warren Day Senior   
I think this stuff usually doesn't matter because most of these sites are so lame that they won't even hit the radar anyway. It doesn't make it right, It just illustrates how hopeless some people are.
I really don't understand what the attraction is when Ad exchanges are using TV/movie/pop culture stuff in their name,
for instance I'm a fan of MMA/UFC but that doesn't mean I want to advertise somewhere with UFC in the name.
It doesn't add value and even suggests how low the traffic numbers are that they are able to go unnoticed
Nov 6th 2010 14:52   
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