Domain Name Creation

[artistic012]

Greetings my name is David Polanco and I am interested in
creating a dot com that would basically show users how much a
certain website "sucks". Here is an example: aolsucks.com

Now then Im interested in creating one of my own.
Is this legal? Will the company in question get me for
name slander, or something else totally ridiculious?

Please help,
David Polanco

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This has been discussed at length in numerous articles. If you do so, you must make sure that you never will sell the name or give an indication you will, even for a penny. This is because the "use in commerce" gives rise to infringement claims. That doesn't mean if you use the site only for personal reasons you won't get sued and the company offended hopes you won't spend money on legal fees. At the same time, if they do the press will eat it up.

Here is an article on such a case, which states the same thing above. A potential safe harbor is refraining from the receipt of any monetary compensation or act that does or would imply that you might be involved in some type of commerce, no matter how small.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/691648.asp?0si=-