Similar Sounding Names of Popular Websites

IT.com

Jeffrey

New Member
Will the big companies sue me if ever I will try to register a domain name that has a similar sound as their company? Just for example and I'm not implying that I will do it as I might get into trouble, I register a domain name "gugle" or "feysbook". Can I register it without having any future problems with these established companies?
 
You could be sued at any time for most any reason, so really the issue is whether it's likely to happen. Both "Gugle" and "Feysbook" look different enough to me. Usually when a powerful company goes after someone for cybersquatting it's because the person has used the original trademarked name and changed it in a minor way such as altering one letter or changing the ending from .com to .co or .net. Google and Facebook would need to show that you registered the domain with the intent to profit off their trademarked name. Instead of suing, I think they'd be more likely to contact the hosting company and send you a cease and desist letter, if they do anything at all. Of course, I'm not an attorney and it may be worth it to contact a professional.
 
I wouldn't play around with anything Google related because you're going to need Google for search engine ranking and ads. Best not to anger them. I would normally agree with Domainant's laid-back take on this issue, until I read this thread on the forum. If France can seize a domain that's been registered since 1994, there's little hope for the rest of us.
 
I just read and replied to that thread about France and it is sad or scary. I won't play with Google as they are one of the giants in the internet industry. I made that an example just for easy reference.

Foroux mentioned that we need Google for search engine ranking and ads. Is Google our main target in increasing our ranking? Can we use other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo instead of Google?
 
The main question is why are you registering the names like "feysbook". If the registration is attempting to take advantage of "Facebook" traffic then they are probably going to try and stop you. If it's for another legitimate reason then you probably won't hear from them.
 
Foroux mentioned that we need Google for search engine ranking and ads. Is Google our main target in increasing our ranking? Can we use other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo instead of Google?
You can target other search engines and attempt to raise your ranking on them. I think the latest numbers showed that Bing was gaining users. but Google is still king and will likely always be number one. Bing has its own SEO tools. I'm not that familiar with optimizing content and domain names for Bing so I'm not much help here.
 
The main question is why are you registering the names like "feysbook". If the registration is attempting to take advantage of "Facebook" traffic then they are probably going to try and stop you. If it's for another legitimate reason then you probably won't hear from them.

Just for curiosity's sake, I googled feysbook and there is a website with that domain name. To answer your question, yes I would like to get that advantage without actually getting into trouble if possible. It is very hard to get organic traffic these days and getting some of the traffic that big companies have might not hurt them that much as long as I don't offer similar product or service.
 
Feysbook may be spelled differently and the actual site be about something entirely different, but when you speak them, they sound the same. So can a company sue over something like that? Depends on the company and how well-padded their legal department is.
 

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