Fan site problems ?

[Glen Dully]

Hello. I’m pretty new to the domain game.

I’ve caught a .co.uk of a top level sports team

They own the .com but I now own the .co.uk
I would presume there name and everything to do with them is trademarked.

If I was to build a forum about the team is there anyway I could come into any trouble as I’m
Using there name.

Or would I be completely fine as long as I put unofficial forum ?

Any advice before I start building anything on it would be great. Thanks

 

[Adam H]

Stay away, brand a forum instead, you can always redirect the offending domain to your branded forum but it could be taken away at any point. Although many fan sites, including one I had for many years get away with it, you will always have it in the back of you mind that they could take it from you at any given stage. If they did that's every thing gone, all authority, all traffic etc that you've put time and money into..... gone.

 

[Glen Dully]

Stay away, brand a forum instead, you can always redirect the offending domain to your branded forum but it could be taken away at any point. Although many fan sites, including one I had for many years get away with it, you will always have it in the back of you mind that they could take it from you at any given stage. If they did that's every thing gone, all authority, all traffic etc that you've put time and money into..... gone.

Hey Adam thanks for the reply. Could they actually take the domain from me?
I was going to email them and offer them the domain. I take it that’s not a wise idea either ?
Thanks

 

[Adam H]

Yes they could take it, obviously through official routes and cease and desist. Probably not advisable to sales pitch them with it either, although I did just that many years ago my previous naive actions isn't something to go by

 

[Glen Dully]

What happened ? Haha

Might just park it up if they take it they take it no overally bothered.

Just thought they might offer me some money for it if they ever wanted it.

 

[Adam H]

Nothing happened in my case fortunately, I used it for quite a few years....think it was something like 6 years, It was only when the traffic got big and it became well respected that I suddenly started to worry about them taking it from me. When it was hitting rather large traffic numbers I had a conversation with the chairman to buy it, he was good about it and passed me on to the marketing director.

Luckily forums were not in their marketing plans going forward and social media was ( this was before facebook had brand pages etc ) so they were already thinking ahead of the game in some respects. The director saw it as me providing a service to the club giving fans somewhere to chat ( because we were pretty hot on being a bit more "PC" at the time as i saw it as a gap in the market. Every other fan forum was riddled by F this and C that which children and many adults didnt want to see ) So he kind of ignored us but I still got worried a couple of years down the line and rebranded so the traffic and authority could be redirected.

If it had been the previous chairman, I wouldnt have made it out alive, he shutdown quite a few popular fan sites much to the uproar of the fans.

 

[Glen Dully]

Fair enough.
I didn’t realise they could just take it from me.
I do now although probs would
Be easyier and cheap offering me a cheap price for it.

I might just re direct the traffic like
You said.

If I
Don’t put there name
I’m it I take it they carnt take it down ?

Cheers

 

[Adam H]

If its not infringing their trademarks then they can't do anything, the only other thing I would say and something I did get pulled up about was using official club Logo's, there is still thousands of sites which use the official club logo around their fan sites, but my guess is you have to get to a certain level of popularity before its brought to their attention. I had to design a logo which everyone knew was still aimed at the club but didnt resemble the official logo what so ever.

 

[Glen Dully]

Yeah I new about that. On google images there’s settings so you can search for free images that don’t have copyright on the pictures.

Thanks for all the other info

 

[scottmccloud]

Yeah I new about that. On google images there’s settings so you can search for free images that don’t have copyright on the pictures.

Those images aren't necessary free to use unfortunately and Google places the onus on you to do all the checking.

"Note: Before reusing content, make sure that its license is legitimate and check the exact terms of reuse. For example, the license might require that you give credit to the image creator when you use the image. Google can't tell if the license label is legitimate, so we don't know if the content is lawfully licensed." (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/29508?hl=en)

You could be in for an expensive shock if you've used an image from Getty Images for example.

 

[Adam H]

I wasn't talking about stock or professional photos or images either, I was talking about using Official club Logo / emblems on your fan site. Many fan site owners seem to think they can use a clubs logo and graphics, more often than not the club emblem is trademarked just the same as the trading name.

 

[Glen Dully]

Didn’t no that Scott so thanks for that info.
I didn’t realise.

 

[ausername]

I own a forum for fans of a specific football team, and I've been trying to pluck up the courage to shut it down because its a time drag and costs me money.... just a word of warning. There are exceptions to the rule of course.