Trademarks in domain names and MySpace

[lionhart321]

Chris, you mentioned in one of your articles, "Do not buy or use a domain with another business’s trademark as all or part of it. You will end up losing the domain." Then you told how you were forced to give up Amazon-Coupons.com.

My question is, what about all the MySpace resource sites like MySpaceThemes.com and MySpaceGateway.com? There are hundreds of these and they have been around for years -- why doesn't MySpace go after them?

I was thinking of starting a resource site for another popular social networking site, and was just wondering what is the real risk in basing my domain name off theirs? I would not be competing with them in any way; on the contrary, my focus would be writing original articles to help and encourage people to use their service.

[Chris]

Just because MySpace doesn't go after them, doesn't mean MySpace cannot go after them. It is a risk they take.

If I were you I'd avoid that potential future risk and just play it safe.

There is nothing wrong with example.com/myspace/ you can use it in your URLs, in your page text etc, just keep it out of the actual domain.