What are some examples of a large company or brand not owning or using the "obvious" domain name like company.com or brand.com? Examples from the past would also be useful.
posted by smackfu on Sep 24, 2009 - 45 answers

Could I copyright or trademark my full name and social security number and would that be an effective strategy in protecting my privacy and reducing unauthorized use of my personal information? [more inside]
posted by Xurando on Nov 13, 2006 - 16 answers

Can someone explain to me how trademarking works? I am starting a company with some friends and we are trying to come up with a name. When we look up a name to see if it is trademarked at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site, we see numerous trademarks for the same name. How can this be? Can a name be trademarked by more than one company?
posted by mudhouse on Jan 20, 2005 - 23 answers

What should be done (if anything) about a site that is capitalizing on my site's distinctive name and search engine ranking to popularize itself in a way that is totally unrelated to my site?

I run an RSS feed directory with a distinctive name, reasonably good content, and a decent rank in various search engines. Last night a "watch" application told me that 2 new sites now contain my site's domain name in their URLs.

I took a look at both of these sites, and they are simply embedding my domain name in their URLs so that they have a chance of matching on searches for the name. The actual pages are throwaway filler (as is the entire site).

I'm flattered and insulted.

My site's name is not a trademark (perhaps it should be), and I don't want to draw artificial attention to it by posting a link, and I certainly don't want to link to the offending sites.

Has anyone else had something like this happen to them? What can be done?
posted by jeffbarr on Aug 25, 2004 - 0 answers

Just received a "cybersquatting, trademark infringement and unfair competition" letter for registering a domain name. If any MeFi users have had a similar experience, I would love to hear about it. [more inside] [more inside]
posted by cup on Mar 22, 2004 - 10 answers