Sydney [wexfordkid] asked:


There’s a certain fictional character whose name I want to use as part of a legal company name ([name] Enterprises, or whatever). The character appeared in a story dated 1927, so the copyright will be expiring soon. Once it does, can I legally use this name as a part of a business name?

robbie asked:


I run a successful company & sell alot of business online.. My domain name for the business was due to expire & needed to be renewed but the company failed to do so!.. Now the website is down & I am not earning. What should I do?

Richard Ryan asked:


I want to use some material from a book called “BESM Third Edition” (ISBN-13 978-1-58846-474-3). Copyright is held by Arthaus Games, but Arthaus is no longer in business and does not seem to have any way of reaching them. Even the domain name they had, http://www.arthaus.com/ has expired and a third party has put up a totally unrelated website.
–
If I can show evidence of trying to contact them or a partner of theirs and get no response, will I be violating Copyright to make use of the printed matterial?

Rochak asked:


Hi

While building a website several years ago (when I was a kid), I used a couple of images which I got off the internet. The website I built was dormant for years (never updated it and no one looked at it). After a couple of years, the domain name and hosting expired and the website got down on its own.

I am now getting legal letters from getty images asking me 1000′s of dollars for using two images without permission..

I would like to know if there is a way around this? The website was never used for commercial purpose and no gains were made. Is there any safe way to speak to them and get this matter settled. As mentioned the website is not live anymore nor are the images being used along with it.

This has got me quite worried.. hope someone can help

Dub McGee asked:


potential clothing line. Since day 1 he wanted me to be his partner in this. I have a business mind while he does not. I purchased the domain name for the clothing line (I paid all of the domain fees). I designed 90% (or more) of the designs and apparel. I did 100% of the stuff for the business side (I contacted manufacturers and stayed in consistent contact with them, I looked into and followed up with the all of the legal stuff [business name, trademarks, etc], I did all of the research for ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING [trade shows, fashion shows, expos etc.] etc.). He would always talk about how big and successful the clothing line would be (which I don’t doubt) but he was not carrying his weight at all. I would try to get him more involved but he would always refer to the end result, how big it was going to be. He would also claim that he’s not good/capable of the technology and business stuff.I became annoyed and tired that he would continually talk the end result but never do anything to get there. When it was time to renew the domains I let him know that it was his turn to pay for them (chump change he had too, $20). I continually reminded him that they were going to expire. He ended up letting them expire. He wanted me to try to get them back since we could not renew them. The domain service provider said they would resale them but for a fee of around $150, he didn’t want to pay that much. It has be over 10 months since my old roommate has made any effort in establishing/creating this clothing line (making it more than a name). I am not in contact with him any longer as we have gone different directions. FINALLY, MY ? – If I purchase the domain name and get the trademarks and make this successful can he claim ownership since he came up with the concept? I was thinking that I would write up a contract pretty much asking him for permission to own, establish, and promote this name leaving him out. I was thinking that with clever wording and the approval of 3+ attorneys I would do this. Is this contract/agreement necessary since he does not “legally” own the name (but did come up with it..so ethically he owns it)?

Carrie asked:

My great-grandfather copyrighted a musical composition in 1934.
He and his wife renewed the copyright after the 27 or 28 year period, in 1961. The copyright was also renewed in the name of their son (my grandfather). When my great-grandparents died, the copyright was therefore transferred to my grandfather.
According to what I’ve been able to find out, the copyright will expire 95 years after the publication date– therefore, in 2029. Is it possible for my grandfather to apply for an extension on that copyright, or will the work necessarily have to go in to the public domain in 2029?

Legendary asked:

Could I register a Federal TradeMark, and then go sue the person who has a .com with the trademark name in it then sue them for trade mark infringement and force them to turn over the domain? I know it sounds preposterous, but according to our stupid trademark infringement laws this might seem legal.

What if they had the domain registered before I had the trademark?

And, what if they already have the domain, then I register the federal TM, but then their domain expires, then they renew it, then technically they registered a domain AFTER I owned the trademark, thus making it trademark infringement.

I’m tired of people bullying me out of domains that only have ONE word out of their multi word trade mark, so I’m just seeing if there is any way to “give back to the community” exploiting our beloved US laws.

I don’t know how kMART.com got away with it without infringement with walMART.com because they both provide the same service.
More details.. let me reiterate the fact that the website I would be trying to legally take over does NOT have any trade mark on the words used in their domain.

Ex. some body buys ILOVEFUZZYCATS.com, but doesnt own a trade mark.. they just run their own little website.

Then I go trademark the name (“ILOVEFUZZYCATS”). Could I then sue them for TM infringement and have their domain taken away?

BT asked:

Okay, so pretty much the most of this huge company/site’s trademarks are now dead/abandoned according to the registry.

They have 200+ million users, and are a HUGE site worldwide…so their name is valuable to them.

Would I be able to hire a patent/trademark lawyer, and ‘steal’ these from them like a domain, since they expired? Then would I be able to sue the company for tons of money for continuing to use them?

I’m just curious how this would work legally.

It seems practical, and legal.

Their comp nay name expired last year, and most of their other 100 trademarked words just expired n January. Non have been re-registered yet.
When I said this site, I’m not talking about Yahoo XD

I’m talking about another site that was sold a while back for half a billion dollars. lol
I’m not actually going to do this. I’m just curious how it would work out if I did.
I actually do own a very similar site, which I could use to cover up my reason for the trademark?

Then I could be exploitative later ^_^

brasiedub asked:

In 2005, I have registered a .com domain with my name, for 2 years. That domain expired in 2007, and as I was going to change webhosts, I never bothered doing it before the domain registration expired, and my previous webhost never bothered telling me I should have done it 1 month beforehand. Now, I have lost my domain. I was expecting it to be released again after 2 months, but it is just being used by firms which are obviously expecting me to contact them and pay a rip off to get it back. Obviously, I am just an individual, but imagine, if I had a business, and was losing business day after day. I really want to sue my previous webhost, but I live in Ireland. Can anbody help, or suggest something, or if you are a solicitor specialized in customer protection, would you contact me, please? Thanks!

mcneelys2000 asked:

Hi,

I bought an expired domain recently and was thinking about using some of the old content it had. But, the old content showed:

Copyright 1998,2003 – “Author’s Name”

I found the old site content on archive.org. Since the old owner no longer owns this site nor domain, the copyright is outdated (2003) and I bought the domain rights – does this allow me to use the old content?

Any answers that revolve around legality would be appreciated.

Thanks
Isn’t there a difference be online copyright and other copyrights?