Interesting question I've got here...what happens when one of your visitors registers in your forums under a company name of sorts...ie: "Microsoft" or "Wal-Mart"

Personally, I can't see myself doing anything about it. I think it would be hard for one of these companies to prove that your forums endorse the name and posts in any way not to mention these companies need to prove somehow that it is a disservice to their trademark.

I'm almost certain that this kind of thing would never cause any problems, but it is just a question that I've seen asked recently and it kind of made me go "hmmmm..." ...you never know, it's a crazy world we live in these days.

On another note, what if you run a forum on an industry of sorts, like demojames here at AdminFusion. He runs forums on the demolition industry. What does he do if somebody comes in and registers under the name "CATERPILLAR" (large construction company) and starts posting, maybe even acting as if they own or work for the company - but in fact do not...what do you do?

Funny you should ask. I do have some members that their username is the company's they either work for or represent. A couple of them I know them personally. Now the ones who have signed up using their companies e-mail address, I will either call or do a search and verified that they do work for those companies and are “authorized” to use their name.

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Outside of what demojames mentioned with verifying their status with the company, it can be hard to confirm this. If someone registers with the name "Microsoft" but they used a different e-mail address to signup, would you automatically assume they aren't associated with that company? It would be too hard to confirm and unless they are doing something that could cause that big company to do something about it, what action would you take? I haven't had this happen yet so I can only assume I'd not make them change their username. If the example above were true and Microsoft contacted me with a cease and desist order, then maybe things would have to change.

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Mark Blair
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I had a user once who registered under the name 'marlboro'. My problem wasn't the trademarked name but a cigarette brand's promotion. Since then I am not allowing any trademarked names on my forum - easier than dealing with each name on its own.

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Latin Forum

I generally don't like seeing trademarked things as a username, in my opinion it looks very unprofessional. Also, the less legal things that I might possibly have to worry about the better.

A german forum was given a cease and desist notice over a user name http://www.ironsport.de/forum/ desist notice http://www.ironsport.de/klage_gegen_forum.html <<< in German but heres the jist of it.

The private operator of a German bodybuilding forum received a cease-and-desist letter last Friday for one his forum members using a registered trademark as a user name. The trademark was registered in Germany in 1999 and apparently has never been in use nor is it related in any way to bodybuilding. Nevertheless, the lawyer specified the amount in dispute at 100,000 Euro (~120,000 USD) based on the number of registered forum members (~30,000) and number of posts (~385,000). At no time did the operator commercially benefit from someone displaying the trademark on his forum; his site has been financed solely by Online ads and commissions from an Online store. He received three days (of which two are non-business) time to reconsider, to remove all traces of the trademark on his board, and to end the dispute by paying an agreement and consulting fee of 5,206.31 Euro. Otherwise he would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The operator is currently obtaining legal counsel and evaluating his options.

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Germany is terrible in this way though. There are many examples of German lawyers demanding money (from German website owners) skipping the cease or desist step.
So if you are a German webmaster it is better to host your site somewhere else.

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Latin Forum

Wow, great article, kpr...I had never actually heard of a real-life story regarding this. And I can hardly believe it...It's very clear that the forums were not profiting at all from the use of that username, and I don't understand how the owner of the trademark was being harmed...I'm sure there's more to the story, but it would be interesting to know what the big deal was about the name...

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...some super-sweet signature

I have tried to find some more info on this but im drawing a blank on it. I think maybe once name was changed then all was forgotten but i find that hard to believe once a cease and desist has been delivered then it usually goes further as it looked like the forum wasnt complying to there demands.

I think i will reg a new name on my forum Google and microsoft.

j/K

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I don't have a problem with this, but I think I'd ask a member to change a name that's too potentially harmful for my peace of mind Better safe than sorry ...

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