I was surfing the 9Rules blogging network and came across Lorelle’s post:

Using WordPress in Your Domain Name? Don’t!

I guess lots of people (myself included) take brand names, trademarks and intellectual property for granted at times.

We’re so used to ‘using’ a brandname as a verb or a noun, that we don’t realize that technically, we’re eligible to legal action if someone chooses that course of action.

As Lorelle says, if you own a domain such as WordPressTemplates, WordPressPlugins, EasyWordPress, you might encounter some difficulty.

That is unless you can justify its usage as an ‘adjective’, we’ll leave the lawyers to settle that one.

On another note, a contact has recently received a legal letter from Google, due to the usage of ‘google’ within his domain name.

I don’t believe he’s determined what his course of action will be, however this could be a sign of things to come.

Till now, domain names have contained trademarked terms and have been operating with relative impunity.

As more companies realize the power of the Web however, I’d expect that we’d see more enforcement in the near future.

Till then, tread lightly, tread slowly and with both eyes open.