Please rate my site.

[narobe]

Re: Please rate my site.

Well just as Vasili has told you, I also agree that you have graphic creativity, keep up the good work.
I'm not in to law but I understand that no company can sustain in a law court that they have the exclusive rights for an ***** symbol, what you can't do is copy a logo and I think that's not your case.

[rangaz007]

Re: Please rate my site.

Hi

Very nice professional & colourful looking site. Shame I didnt hear of you when I was designing my company logo.

The only thing which I can see, is on your pricing page at the bottom your price drop down box is overlapping the text behind it.

Overally a really nice site.

Thanks

[pink_eeyore]

Re: Please rate my site.

You shouldn't have trademark issues unless you called yourself Macdesigns. McDonald's go after anything that resembles their name (they went after a place in the Ireland that called themselves MaC Coffees – guess who had to change their name?) and many times they win. As long as your product or service is different from an existing company and they can't prove how they lost business because of you, or that your company confuses their product in the minds of their customers they most likely won't spend the time trying to pursue you. In worse case, if it goes to court, and they prove how they lost money or name recognition because of you, all the courts will do is ask for you to change your trademark - first offense is just change your trademark, no money fines except court fees because you claim you did not know nor had intentions of infringement.

However, since your business is under US laws, and you want to have your z***** name trademarked for you alone, you need to apply and pay for it (http://www.uspto.gov/).

If you don’t want the hassle, and don’t care about being the only company in the US with your name than don’t worry about it. You can always apply in the future once you get large enough. If someone else also uses the z***** in the US but you can prove you started using the unregistered trademark before the other party did, the court will give you the rights and ask the other party to change theirs.

Unless your trademark sells your product like coca cola or Marlboro worldwide don’t worry about it because they have to spend thousands in each country to protect their trademarks otherwise anyone in Zimbabwe can call themselves Marlboro and sell something completely different and Marlboro won’t be able to do anything about it. Small business do not really need to concern themselves with trademarks or infringements as their business is usually locally and not at a large enough scale that can truly affect a different company’s profits…

Good luck with your site, it looks very professional!

[zappleman]

Re: Please rate my site.

Thanks for all the information, very very much appreciated.
Will be enhancing the site further so watch this space.

Had a look at the dropdown box (google checkout) and noticed it is asking me to download a plugin further pushing the dropdown even further, any ideas?


Andy
www.z*****.co.uk

[Karen Mac]

Re: Please rate my site.

Part of this is sort of correct. They dont have to PROVE a loss at all, just that the NAME is trademarked and that the design/logo/name is close enough to confuse a visitor or imply that its part of their own company when it isnt! This is why McDonalds wins obscure cases. Just displaying the "*****" along with your name would be enough to get you nailed..LOL

Not to mention this wont be FREE .. you will have more than COURT costs to pay. You will have their attorneys fees to pay if they win and YOUR attorneys fee. Youd be a fool to march in there and plead your own insanity! Ignorance is NOT a defense when it comes to the internet as the information is WIDELY available. It wont just be U.S. Law, you will be crossing into international law.

If you get indexed and start pulling traffic.. or they start seeing your name come up in searches for them in any shape or form (and big companies pay people to research up to 200 pages in the listings for keywords) You can expect to get a registered letter!

In any case its a nice looking site ... youve done a great job with the design. Most likely youll be ok for a bit either way, and they may not find you or see you at all but i wouldnt BET on it.

Karen

You shouldn't have trademark issues unless you called yourself Macdesigns. McDonald's go after anything that resembles their name (they went after a place in the Ireland that called themselves MaC Coffees – guess who had to change their name?) and many times they win. As long as your product or service is different from an existing company and they can't prove how they lost business because of you, or that your company confuses their product in the minds of their customers they most likely won't spend the time trying to pursue you. In worse case, if it goes to court, and they prove how they lost money or name recognition because of you, all the courts will do is ask for you to change your trademark - first offense is just change your trademark, no money fines except court fees because you claim you did not know nor had intentions of infringement.

However, since your business is under US laws, and you want to have your z***** name trademarked for you alone, you need to apply and pay for it (http://www.uspto.gov/).

If you don’t want the hassle, and don’t care about being the only company in the US with your name than don’t worry about it. You can always apply in the future once you get large enough. If someone else also uses the z***** in the US but you can prove you started using the unregistered trademark before the other party did, the court will give you the rights and ask the other party to change theirs.

Unless your trademark sells your product like coca cola or Marlboro worldwide don’t worry about it because they have to spend thousands in each country to protect their trademarks otherwise anyone in Zimbabwe can call themselves Marlboro and sell something completely different and Marlboro won’t be able to do anything about it. Small business do not really need to concern themselves with trademarks or infringements as their business is usually locally and not at a large enough scale that can truly affect a different company’s profits…

Good luck with your site, it looks very professional!

[Vasili]

Re: Please rate my site.

Whether or not the "*****" is displayed is of much smaller consequence than the fact the word Z***** itself is a Registered Trademark in the US, as per the Boolean Word Search I posted so you could see. *And keep in mind, I chose this one out of the three Registrations only because it had an ***** in it ....

Since you are hosted on servers within the US you are required to comply with US laws, and it don't get any simpler than that!
And Karen is very correct: ignorance is always indefensible, as the law demands each to perform "due diligence" as a matter of course in compliance and official filings (meaning it is up to everyone to fully investigate the propriety of their Business establishment, per US Commercial Code).

PS: It's not just court costs and attorney's fees .... a simple abstract for punitive damages based on a claim for any number of causes -- actual or potential (damage to reputation, loss of income, unfair business practices, etc.) could be levied for far more than you are prepared to comtemplate!
For instance ... say they file a $425 suit claiming infringement and a singular abstract claiming simple loss of potential income (very hard to disprove, if assuming negligence of performing due diligence based on no attempt to secure differentation), the minimum treble damages will be awarded using this formula: 13 months previous gross income averaged for monthly figure times 6 months = minimum award, and very rarely it is less than 12 months figure that is stipulated, as the maximum is 5 years. How much could that possibly be to risk without an arguable defense? Not to mention the fuss they can stir up with ICANN, possibly even forcing you to surrender the domain (likely, if they persue it).

Do what you want, but man-up to the risks and be prepared to deal with any reprecussions should there be any!
You could even be "pro-active" by sending a letter to them, stating that you intend to serve primarily clients in the UK, and just set your transactional systems (and pricelist) to the Euro or something to demonstrate your intent to specify a non-competing market ..... that would be the best demonstration of your "innocent" intentions! (And then keep their agreeable reply safe for eternity! LOL)


Sounds like a bunch of "jailhouse lawyers" in here, OMG!