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My epidemic with a big name non-profit charity

guitarnerd

guitarnerd

Microsoft owns all
NLC
I am going through an interesting ordeal with the "Make a Noise Foundation" and thought you would all find it funny or interesting. I registered the domain "makeanoise.net" and they are try to scare me out of it

go to:
http://www.makeanoise.net
to read about it
 
"I'll forward this to our attorney"

rough!

they were a little rude to you, that's for sure.

good luck with it.
 
I am a big vai fan as well. However, I think the name is too similar as well as the ideas behind the name.
 
I can see how, if I were an organisation, I would take your e-mails and your purchasing of that particular domain name as an infringement. However, I also realise that the number of good domains still available is very quickly diminishing (if not already diminished).
 
Did you ever think that maybe they really just don't care about it at all, and that's why they haven't talked to you yet? Do you think the webmaster would really get in contact with him within an hour and type out a response like that?

Here's the simple answer: They don't care, and the webmaster doesn't really care.

Why not start your community on makeanoise.net already?

It's not an infringement at all on any grounds. You've made no illegal actions, they can't do anything, and the name as you said is a common phrase. You got the name, they didn't, it's yours, just use the name already...you paid for it afterall.
 
The worst thing you can do is start the community. They've threatened to contact a lawyer on it, and if you start the community, ESPECIALLY if you're making money off of it (google adwords count) then they have possible legal grounds against you.
IANAL. But I wouldn't start a community until you've gotten a written apology or something.
 
Your first mistake is contacting them. By contacting them, you were seeking approval, which you were denied and you went ahead and registered the domain.

Therefore, you are in direct violation of copyright and trademark infridgement, as you were clearly told by the company owning the trademark that you do not have authorization.

Your mistake holds no water in court.
 
Care to explain what makes this situation an epidemic ?

Epidemic

1. Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time: an epidemic outbreak of influenza.
2. Widely prevalent: epidemic discontent.
Click to expand...
 
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Robert said:
Therefore, you are in direct violation of copyright and trademark infridgement, as you were clearly told by the company owning the trademark that you do not have authorization.
Click to expand...

Not abiding by the wishes of a company does not equate to copyright infringement. I see nothing at all related to copyrights here, certainly no indication of copyright infringement.

As far as trademark infringement, that of course depends on if the name is actually trademarked and has been sufficiently defended. Doing a quick search of U.S. trademarks turns up "make a joyful noise" as the closest match, but not any "make a noise" trademark. Also, just registering a trademark (which they don't appear to have done in the first place) isn't enough (unlike with copyrights), you have to consistently defend it... doing so for such a common trio of words would be quite difficult. For example, if you search google for "make a noise" the #1 result has nothing to do with their foundation. So, it looks to me like they have no legal case at all. Their lawyer probably told them this, and that's why they don't want to respond anymore... after taking such an indefensible position they probably want to forget it ever happened.
 
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