I bought a 'portmanteau' domain - is it treated the same as a generic?

[boxfish]

Hi guys,

Looking for a little bit of insight here please.

I recently purchased a domain name which is a 'portmanteau'.

For those that don't know (like I didn't) a portmanteau is a combination of two words, e.g shopaholic = shopping + alcoholic

For ease let's say it is shopaholic.com as it's very similar.

I bought the .com, twitter and instagram handles last month, and they were all registered since 2016.

They have never been used but have just been sat registered.

In 2018 a podcast appeared using the same name and they have posted episodes ever since.

I wanted to get a picture of where I stand with regards to copyright, if the term would be treated the same as a generic and if I am OK to develop it in the future knowing someone is already using the name and I purchased it after they started the podcast, yet the domain was registered before?

Appreciate any input, thanks

 

[martin-s]

Is the portmanteau in general use? How well accepted is it?

 

[boxfish]

Hard to say - sent you the domain via DM

 

[seemly]

This isn't professional advice by any means, but it does seem like it could be deemed a generic - unless the podcast has become some kind of household name, and has any trademarks?

Either way, thanks for introducing me to w term I hadn't heard before!
Every day's a school day!

 

[boxfish]

This isn't professional advice by any means, but it does seem like it could be deemed a generic - unless the podcast has become some kind of household name, and has any trademarks?

Martin's take was the opposite. Because it wasn't a household name, and most Google results led back to the podcast, it was more of a brandable - not cut and dried though.

I've done some digging today and found articles/domains/social media handles that include use of the phrase as far back as 2014, 5 years before the podcast started, which has put my mind at ease a bit.