Potential dispute advice please

[figleaf007]

Hi

I have found an available domain name of 'name ofafamousamericantvstar'.co.uk (not naming him here!) - the .com is a parked page by someone else. I plan to park with the possibility of developing with Amazon links to buy the DVDs, etc.

Now, if that star, who does not seemed to have claimed back his .com and has not bought his .co.uk decides at some point he wants the domain, what is the worst that can happen to me and my site? Can they claim back my parked/affiliate earnings? Will I necessarily have to give it back?

Your advice on this will be really appeciated.

Thanks....

 

[accelerator]

Whilst you should not take this as gospel, there are a lot of unofficial fan sites out there, and providing you make it clear that your site is a fan site, and you are being nice about the person involved, usually I doubt that the star involved would have a big problem with it. If you use the site to sell related merchandise through aff links then the star will be benefitting from that anyway.

People with more experience in running fan sites might add to this post, but I expect that the worst that could happen is that you get challenged for the domain through the Nominet DRS procedure, I am not certain as to whether you could then face loss of earning proceedings but I doubt that this would be the case.

A famous person does not usually have their name trademarked, so that is one big difference, as trademark carries a lot of weight when it comes to .co.uk dispute resolution. If they had a trademark (like some British footballers do) then they are obviously more concerned about their brand identity and I would be more cautious.

Anyone here know more?

Rgds

Accelerator

 

[Alien]

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[figleaf007]

Thanks for your replies guys.

The name of the person is not the brand, so I think it is unlikely it is trademarked, he is more famous for being in xxxxx show, though his name is well known. But I think you are right, if I position it as a fan site rather than simple store, it's more likely to get a sympathetic hearing.

I wouldn't touch a footballer's name, hence even though jermaninedefoe.co.uk dropped today, I'll leave that one to someone else!

No, it's not Celeb BB related, haven't checked those out yet, anyone got jaikey.com!!!!!

Anyone else with more info, will be delighted to see what you have to say.

Cheers....

 

[retired_member3]

I see a certain beverly hills cop was reg'd today and .com is parked

 

[figleaf007]

Ooooh, close, didn't see that one, quite a nice reg for whoever got it. If you get it, total respect!

 

[retired_member16]

Ahem, that be me

Ive got a few celeb domains and all carry "unofficial fan-site" somewhere.

As has been said above, as long as the site is not pointing to a dubious site and is not ripping people off, then most stars would be quite happy.