Blogging and Domaine Names

@JudithP (295)
Canada
September 3, 2010 1:11pm CST
This week I was contacted by company that told me I was breaking copyright laws. Apparently my blog and his site had the same name. I shut the site down for now and I've gone through every other site where I had it listed and deleted the link. I've been using the name for about two years but he purchased a domain and his own site so I lost out. I now understand why freelance writers say it's so important to have your own domain. Okay, so I learned another important lesson this week. Have any of you run into this problem?
1 person likes this
6 responses
@LouieWpHs04 (4555)
• United States
5 Sep 10
Well, wait. Who had the name first? You or them? If it was you even if it was just a blog I am pretty sure that would mean you would have precedence over them.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Sep 10
Nevermind. I read the response you said to the above responder... so, yeah. Sucks. You do know that if you change it slightly they can't do anything to you. A prime example of this is Yahoo added an exclamation point so that people couldn't complain or do anything about it. A simple slight title change should do the trick.
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@JudithP (295)
• Canada
5 Sep 10
Yes Louie they had it first. I just don't know why it didn't come up when I did the search. I'm not to worried about it. It was a fairly new blog, only five months and I really hadn't even started throwing it out there to the net. Every thing happens for a reason and so this time I'll just go with the flow. Thank you for your concern. Have a great day.
• Australia
4 Sep 10
I don't know how unique the chosen name is but if he hasn't trademarked the name, I don't think there's much of a case. At any rate you should be able to change the name of the blog which should solve the problem.
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@JudithP (295)
• Canada
4 Sep 10
Apparently the name has been trademarked since 1999. Oh well it will give me a few days to give the site a new look and a new name. You never know it might have been the best thing that could happen.
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
3 Sep 10
wow thats too bad. i havent had this problem but i was only blogging with a well known blogging site.
1 person likes this
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
3 Sep 10
Cher I am using a well known blogging site and they usually do the search when you first put the name and url in. At the time I created the blog no one was using the name. Since that time someone has seen fit to hijack my name and use it for themselves and because they bought the domain, it's theirs. I've learned an important lesson, listen to your mentors, they know what they're talking about.
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
3 Sep 10
hI jUDITH, i DON'T HAVE A BLOG & DON'T VENTURE OUT ON THE COMPUTER VERY MUCH. sORRY U HAVE RUN INTO THIS TROUBLE. tHAT WOULD BE ABOUT MY LUCK, LOL.
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@JudithP (295)
• Canada
3 Sep 10
I knew it could happen because I use a free blogging site. It just irritates me that someone else couldn't be creative enough to make their own. I guess I do have some talents.
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
4 Sep 10
Hi JudithP, since you are using a blogging platform, the blog url will definitely ends differently from that company. I mean xxx dot com is definitely different from xxx dot blogspot dot com I dont see how that breaks copyright laws. It is easier to change the name of the blog, and not impossible to change the url of the blog. I dont see why you need to delete the blog. You can contact the host of the blogging platform to make a name change.
1 person likes this
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
4 Sep 10
Thank you scheng. I won't be deleting the blog, just going for a name change and an url change. The blog has been up for awhile but it was only recently that I started really contributing to it. This time I'll do a complete search on my own and I won't rely on just the blogging site itself. I usually only have to be burned once before I learn a lesson but there's absolutely nothing to stop it from happening again. I'll just make sure I pick a name that doesn't ring any bells for anyone else.
@puccagirl (7294)
• Israel
3 Sep 10
Wow, what a bummer! This never happened to me, so I have no experience of my own related to this, but I can totally relate because I can imagine how I would feel if it happened to me. I hope you manage to build something new soon!
1 person likes this
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
4 Sep 10
I haven't lost anything. My site is shut down for a couple of days so I can figure out what to call it but I should be back up and running by the middle of next week. Thank you for your kind thoughts.