Is it unethical

[Bok_Tukalo]

to buy the dot com domain name of your biggest competitor and have it link to your own company's web site?

[MrScorpio]

1. Yeah

Trademark infringement, baby

[Bok_Tukalo]

2. Really? I did not know that.

Any way I can confirm?

[short bus president]

3. ONLY if it's trademarked.

And then it's up to the mark holder to defend it. Which may mean simply buying the infringing dot com to avoid having to sue for it.

[MrScorpio]

4. Bingo!

[short bus president]

5. USPTO gives you free trademark search tools

to check out whether anyone else has registered the mark. Good place to begin one's nefarious scheming, Bok. ;-)

and :hi: hi Scorpio!

[MrScorpio]

6. How they hangin', Short B.?

[short bus president]

8. By a thread, Mr. S!

;-)

[Bok_Tukalo]

10. Thanks. I looked it up. They are there.

I guess I'll just have to wait for the lawyer letter.

[Tesibria]

7. It's perfectly legal to BUY it and not use it . nt

[Bok_Tukalo]

11. Where's the fun in that?

<eom>

[Tesibria]

12. welll.. preventative measures without the lawsuit

... they can sue if you're using it (allegedly) inappropriately -- but generally, they can't if you're just holding it and they refuse to meet your price to sell.

(of course, there are ALWAYS exceptions).

[northzax]

9. also perfectly legal to have your offshore unaffiliated company

buy it and link it to the skankiest porn on the Net.