Death of My 30-Day Challenge

[Caro]

Just to reiterate - as it's a question that comes up every year.

We DO NOT recommend you choose a keyword phrase with a brand name in it.

In fact we very loudly discourage you from going down that path.

For the reason being what Jasper has unfortunately experienced.

So please anyone reading this - for this years challenge - just steer clear of brand names altogether even if you know your intentions are good.

Caro

[FredSanders]

When you send them their .28 cents, be sure to bill them for the cost of the domain. Or deduct it from their bill, and send a revised one.

[MrRess]

Don't blame the brand owners, it's a matter of trademark law that if they don't enforce their ownership of their trademarked brand name, they could lose exclusive rights to it. Think Kleenex and Frisbee. They quickly go after any use of their brand names as generic labels in the media. Other brands need to be "facial tissue" and "flying disk" or some other generic label.

[MarkChristensen]

Been there. Done that. Won't do it again. Sorry to hear it happened to you.

My experience was a few years ago with an email newsletter idea for the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota (just down the road from me).

I'd done several issues of my newsletter and called the mall management office. I was put in touch with some PR person who paused and said "... and who are you with??" She promised to get back to me and sure enough they did - with a lawyer's letter.

I've got a good friend who's a lawyer who was ready to go to bat for me (as was a bunch of his lawyer buddies who got pretty worked up about it - 1st amendment stuff and all). Just wasn't worth the hassle.

Talked to another friend who had a kiosk at the mall for a short time and gave me the inside scoop on how tough it is to work with most mall managements. I guess they've got a reputation for being tough to work with.

Needless to say, I don't do much shopping at the Mall of America.

Good luck (now stop reading the forum and get back to making content - just like I should!)

[syanide]

I had exactly the same issue last week as well. from the so called very helpful 'XXXXXXXX' the 'money saving expert'!!!! I didnt use my phrase in the domain though had some references to 'be a money saving expert' in the blog posts...

It's a blog as well, so Ive only had around 300+ people so far to it since the start of june.. I received the standard cease and desist letter. Where do I stand on this one, surely they cannot try and force the fact that I cannot use certain phrases in the text of my blog?

[Isha]

Jasper, one way to deal with the other domains you have is to first close them down to the public. Then, if there are any that are bringing in a decent amount of dosh for you, you can write to the companies and apply for a licence. I've no idea how much they would charge to give you a licence, but I guess no harm in finding out.

I got permission to use a company name & got a free licence (I shall prolly ask them to charge me a peppercorn fee for it), but I have very good relations with the company already, so they were great about it.

Good look with everything Jasper. And thank you for all the help you've given me in the past year with your forum posts.

[Tom Dean]

That is sage advice from Caro. Many brands do not allow their brand name in the url like mycamerasite.com/Nikon/Nikon-CoolPix.html

I have had to remove brand names from url's in the past although never from a review type page with review in the url. Still it's best to be very careful and read the sites tos etc.

Tom

[mountainman]

Clearly Caros advice is sound.

But is not exclusively enforced.
One area is training related to brands of software ( to avoiding naming names)

And in some of these cases brandtraining.com or brandcourses.com are in use by third parties to promote traning even in competition with the brand

I guess the only way to be sure is to ask!!

[hughmac]

Originally Posted by JasperEliot

I'm afraid that I made some critical errors in choosing keywords in my 30-day-challenge that are going to kill most of my 30DC projects. I'm posting them here for the benefit of the community in hopes they can learn to AVOID the same mistake.

Unlike Ed, who skillfully picked a generic keyphrase of 'Vintage Electric Guitars,' I found what I thought was a good keyphrase--Kohler faucets--and built a blog around it. My blog is located at kohler-kitchen-faucets dot com. With the best of intentions, I wrote articles and promoted this blog, attaching affiliate links to reputable sites like eFaucets dot com. I thought that I would be okay promoting this brand in a positive light as the intent was to promote sales of Kohler's products, which would be good for them and me.

This morning, I received a FedEx from Kohler's lawyers asking me to cease-and-desist with this website, and demanding that I turn over the domain to them upon immediate demand.

Although I have spent a lot of time creating this blog, I only have about 3 visits to this website each day. (Kohler's FedEx letter cost much more than any monetization efforts I've had on this website.) Note that I created this blog with the best of intentions and thought that I would be able to positively promote a brand without suffering legal repercussions. Obviously I was wrong. This has cost me A LOT of time and money (...and now, heartache).

The lesson I have learned, which I hope to pass onto the community is that you must be exceedingly careful if you are thinking about promoting name brands in your keyphrase. DO NOT make blogs using Nike or Coke or Dell or whatever in your keyphrase-- as there are legal ramifications. We do not own these trademarks...and I have now learned that even with the best of intentions, these trademark owners can and will come after us.

I own about 12 domains that all positively promote brand products, and now I'm sitting here waiting for those trademark owners to slap me with an injunction or other such legal demand. They are in the right; I am in the wrong, and am now paying the price.

I am so discouraged at my fledgling efforts to succeed in Internet Marketing that I am now about to abandon the idea and go back to the unemployment line, where I was forced to go when through company layoffs last December. To say I am totally frustrated and disheartened would be a massive understatement. Life really sucks! It really, really does. Anyway, I hope everyone here is having much more success than I and I wish you nothing but the greatest of luck and opportunity. (But please stay away from trademarked brands!!!!) If anyone wants to see what a legal demand to cease-and-desist looks like, send me a private email and I'll send you a PDF of the letter I received.)

I seem to remember from a while back that you could use the trademark domain name as a redirect.

Not legally i suppose but being a redirect its not visible long enough for anyone to notice!

ie if you have registered a trademarked domain in error as many of us have in the past then simply use it to forward traffic to another domain obviously without any trademark in the URL.

Of course its to late now for the particular domain that you were using because they know that you own it!

Also i see many urls that contain trademarks, not being used by the companies that own them, so i think that you have been very unlucky in this instance so stick with it and don't give up!