When capitalizing on the social networking explosion, it's best to not be too obvious that you're ripping off somebody else - especially when everybody knows that somebody else and the high-priced lawyers that come with. For example, a site called "MySpace for Midgets" is wrong for two reasons, but we'll just focus on one.
Harvard Law: If a party owns the rights to a particular trademark, that party can sue subsequent parties for trademark infringement. 15 U.S.C. 1114, 1125. The standard is "likelihood of confusion." To be more specific, the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods. In deciding whether consumers are likely to be confused, the courts will typically look to a number of factors, including: (1) the strength of the mark; (2) the proximity of the goods; (3) the similarity of the marks; (4) evidence of actual confusion; (5) the similarity of marketing channels used; (6) the degree of caution exercised by the typical purchaser; (7) the defendant's intent. Polaroid Corp. v. Polarad Elect. Corp., 287 F.2d 492 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 820 (1961). I tried to bring this up with the president of EDJ-Associates, Edwin De Jesus, when I received a press release about his new social networking site for business professionals, Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark Murdok:MySpace For Trademark Infringement
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