possible domain conflict with professional football team(s)

[cmonline]

I am a supporter of a certain football club and recently saw a domain in the format initial initial afc / co / uk and bought it.

My original idea was to develop it as a fansite but I don't know if I would be able to as I would be trading using the name (albeit in initial format) of said club.

I've also realised there are at least 2 other professional clubs with the same initials in the english football league.

I'm now thinking of setting up a mini-site based around football betting so my questions would be:

1. will I be able to use this domain without protests from any club?
and,
2. if there are 3 clubs with the same initials who would gain ownership of domain if there was a dispute?
and,
3. could I possibly be up against 3 different sets of legal action?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[crabfoot]

Clubs like their fans - without fans, they would have great trouble existing.

On the other hand, clubs don't like having their name associated with anything where they don't make money.

I would write (snail mail, not email) to the club secretary, stating that you own the domain, that you would like to develop it as a fan site, and asking if the club has any objections GIVEN THAT YOU WILL MAKE IT ENTIRELY CLEAR ON EVERY PAGE THAT THE SITE IS UNOFFICIAL, and that you will provide links to the official club site.

There's a lot of fansites for clubs - and fans all want their club to succeed - so, in general terms, clubs like fan sites because they are in the interests of the club.

If you have a letter from the club secretary saying they like the idea, you are on the road to success.

 

[cmonline]

Thanks crabfoot, I think that is some good advice.

I will make contact with the club before I start developing anything or possibly look into selling it on ;-)

 

[namealot]

If they own the trademark (unlikely) your on thin ice, If there are three other clubs with the same and probally many people business also they would find it very very hard to try and win the domain of you.

If not you do not need there permission, They are not any different to any other business, If they are limited company then they have an obligation too share holders to maximise profits etc so they will not want you taking away possible revenue and would be very unlikely to grant you any permission and would want payment and if they did, would also want to have control over what you allowed on there because of sponsorship deals etc


You’ll see the web has 1000s of them Chelsea Liverpool mun utd etc cant stop them. Some very crafty people have even been known to buy a single share in a club/ business and used it to voice the opinion of the shareholder all perfectly legal

I would not contact them because if they say no very likely try and use you’re asking them against you?

A1 they could protest but it don't mean fiddly
A2 if any of them had a valid claim to the name they would be most likely to win it
A3 any name you register has the potential for legal action,You have to worry more about what you put on it than the name ?

(if your regged it recently and the club had not it’s very likely they did not want or knew they would not have a stong case to keep it reference the other, most clubs should be pretty clued up when it comes to marketing)

 

[crabfoot]

What planet do you come from, namealot?

If you ask the club, and you get an official answer saying "Go ahead, you're on our side", you put that in your file and you have a cast-iron defence if anyone gets stroppy.

You don't get that answer, you go back to plan B with the ambiguous betting site.

Many years ago, a friend of mine (marketing director of a plc at the time) convinced me we should spend a day busking inside a national monument (where his wife had an art exhibition). The site manager came round to see what we were doing - and mentioned that he sanctioned any buskers who asked nicely, but set the police on any that did not ask.

cmonline wants to set up a fansite - that's where he started. If he can't do that, he has an alternative plan for the domain - and it is a good one, which he can implement on another name if he wants to use those thoughts.

There are some occasions when I would go along with namealot's concepts, but the only football team which would justify his approach is the MK Dons.

There are two teams in the top flight which are "private" companies, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. They are the only clubs that might object to outside support. Everybody else would aid and co-operate with anything that inproves the reputation of their club.

Namealot - are you Red Kite in disguise?

 

[namealot]

The planet is called opinion which allows others to have them as this is a forum ? be they right or wrong I would not personally base my entire business plain around them, but take parts onboard and discard other.

As most clubs as you say yourself “clubs don't like having their name associated with anything where they don't make money.” Then the likely hood of them granting you permission without financial gain and stringent rules as to what you can put on there making it hard for you to monetise the site is pretty slim

Busking and domain names?

As the poster says there are two other clubs with the same initials then Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. As they have different initials it could not be both of them?

There are other clubs with the same initials just because you set up a site for one does not mean the others would not make claim to the domain name and your affiliation to one could have a bearing should the others have a higher claim and your cast iron defence would not be very good to the name (ignorance of the laws governing trademarks etc is not a valid excuse under British law but could be used as mitigating circumstances), normally only one would be judged to have a claim to a name ?

If you had gunners.co.uk as a fan site for Chelsea do you not think arsenal would not object?

In an ideal world yes get approved but in a business world very unlikely

as you have said you should change your name to Red Kite in posts are you sure you have not