Hi,

I’m looking into creating a blog website, and I have purchased the domain “dedsec.org”. Ubisoft holds the rights to the name dedsec so I was wondering if I should sell it or not? I bought the domain for $20. I plan to just post about Libreboot and other hacking stuff on it. Maybe, if its legal, can I possibly use the domain for my computer store?

Edit: switched EA to Ubisoft

  • neatchee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    5 months ago

    Oh boy, let’s take this piece by piece…

    DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

    First: let’s talk about the difference between copyright, patents, and trademark

    A patent protects a method of doing something - like a novel piece of code, or a newly invented drug formula - from being duplicated and used or sold without your consent.

    Copyright protects creative works - like art, books, and computer software - from being mimiced. It literally deals with the rights to copy something

    Trademark protects brands - like a logo or company name - from being used by other people for profit. It usually deals with marketplace confusion, as when someone creates a competing product with a similar logo to try to benefit from the logo’s recognition and popularity.

    So, with that said, what are YOU dealing with?

    Well, since you’re not selling software or utilizing anything from the WatchDogs game universe, you’re pretty much free and clear on both patent and copyright.

    What about trademark?

    Well, on the one hand, you are not competing with Ubisoft in any way, nor are you attempting to represent yourself as related to WatchDogs. So, by the letter of the law (in the US), they don’t have a valid complaint.

    However, trademark under US law has this funny feature where an entity that holds a trademark is required to vigorously defend it when they become aware of potential infringement. This is to prevent the selective application of trademark. That is, if I know John is using my trademark and I don’t go after him, then Steve uses my trademark too, I can’t suddenly claim to have an interest in defending it when I didn’t care before. Steve can point at the fact that I didn’t go after John and say “you already gave up your trademark by failing to enforce it”.

    So how does this impact you? Well, unfortunately, even if you are technically allowed to use “dedsec” under US law, if Ubisoft has a trademark on the term “dedsec” specifically, AND if someone at Ubisoft became aware of your use of their trademark, they would likely come after you for trademark infringement just to cover their ass. You might even win in court, but it would cost a whole lot of money that you would likely never be able to recover.

    The good news is that the very first step in a trademark dispute is a cease and desist letter. They’ll demand you stop using their trademark. At that point you can either comply, refuse, or offer to settle the matter by selling them the domain.

    What you do with this information is up to you.