> This month is rounding out to be my best month so far with EPN, about $3500 in revenue so I'm sorry to have to go but I knew this day would come eventually. The EPN business model just isn't sustainable, I've read it time and again on these boards.
>
> I'm thinking that moving to Amazon would be a good temporary fix until I can figure out some better merchants to work with at this point.


The domain name certainly plays a part in your search engine rankings, but it's only a small part. The keywords and content are your real traffic drivers. I have domains that are virtually unrealted to the content, but yet they rank well because of my keywords and content.

Find new domains, set them up and migrate your content to them. Put placeholders at the original domains that explain you have moved to new domains to better serve your visitors/customers. Use a .htaccess file to redirect any incoming links to that placeholder (as opposed to your host serving up a 404 error)

I have a popular site, that ranks high, and I just did this. In my opinion, this domain wasn't a trademark violation, but it gets enough traffic and business that I didn't want to take the chance. It had the word "bay" at the end - completely, totally and obviously NOT related to eBay, but I changed it on my own, to avoid any potential issues.

I see a steady amount of traffic hitting the placeholder page and then continuing on to the new domain.

My point is, you obviously have a good combination of keywords and content, don't throw it away just because your annoyed with their new rules.

~ Gary

Take a look at this thread on another site from 2003

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/182179-post636.html

To ensure our trademarks are protected, we ask that third parties
engaged in commercial MINI-related activities make clear that they
are not officially licensed, and limit themselves to “fair use”
textural references to MINI in their literature. For example, a
commercial website may not use MINI in its domain name or tradename,
nor may it make trademark use of the MINI mark. It must ensure there
is no suggestion that it is an authorized, licensed, sponsored or
affiliated MINI portal. Neither enthusiast nor commercial sites
may use the MINI logo or any imitation thereof without permission.

Pretty clear-cut permission, though they may have changed their policy. The magic phrase "Not affliated with" appearing prominently on your page can do wonders too.

Get a lawyer.

but buying "myBay.com" and setting up a blog all about your life living on the beach in Tampa is not.

but then promoting eBay on that site is. because it brings the context back to ebay.

I should then have no problem of infringement using mini-cooper.com (or min-icooper.com or coopermini.com, etc...) to sell wireless devices.
If you are actually serious when you say that then it is in your best interest to completely avoid EVERY trademark you can lookup in the database. Clearly you don't get this at all. Any of those would generate a lawsuit or at least a letter, probably within 24 hours.

You can use mini for many things. Using cooper is less flexible. Using them both together is asking for it.

As for RR: Did you search the USPTO database?
Did you notice that it's trademarked dozens of times by different companies for different purposes?
Does that mean that every railroad crossing sign has to be taken down? No.

If you think you might be infringing. you are. But more to the point, why do you want to attract that sort of attention?

Go to google. Type in trademark infringement and start reading.

Kind of tricky.

I should then have no problem of infringement using mini-cooper.com (or min-icooper.com or coopermini.com, etc...) to sell wireless devices.
Not only because cooper is not reg (minicooper is - mini-cooper is not) but because the reg word "mini" has nothing to do with wireless devices.

What about plurial?
If "model", "book", etc...are trademarked, is models.com or storeofbooks.com safe?

Let me know if I'm wrong since this issue is very confusing for me...

Forgot to mention what I saw in another forum regarding the use of the word " ebay " in a domain name like littlebayonets.com or jambondebayonne.com...

Interesting...

> If it's in the trademark database and you use it, you will be terminated by ePN.

ridiculous

Trademarks are all about usage, just because someone has a particular phrase registered doesn't mean that they own it. They may have the exclusive right to use the phrase in a particular area of business, but they don't have exclusive rights in all areas.

only if you dont want to fight them. There are thousands of active domains containing "mini"

McDonalds sues people over using Mc and loses some of the time, even in the food biz.

Hormel lost trying to sue an anti-spam company over spam trademark.

Apple won when sued by the Beatles over use of apple logo for itunes

Lego tried to claim the shape of the bricks was a trademark and lost.

google the suit over "window shopping"

> Do people know the hundreds of thousands words that are trademarked out there??
> So will you be terminated by ebay if your domain is myRRstore.com ??

With any business you have to do your due diligence. A simple search of registered trademarks will let you know if the domain you're considering buying violates trademarks:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4010:ctpa4a.1.1

Using scripting language such as php or asp and a 301 header redirect, I have never had any of the major search engines take more than 3 days to move at least 90% of my pages in thier indexes. It's quite painless.

The only thing I worry about is the negative effects this would have on SEO.

The other option is to throw them away. No brainer.

Multiple EPN accounts and been sued for trademark issues... enough said about this user?

You're right about the third slash and that is relieving. I'll still have a few sites active with EPN which is nice.

The nice thing about Amazon is that they don't police their own affiliates about trademark infringement, this is the responsibility of the companies to do.

You will be solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of your site and for all materials that appear on your site. For example, you will be solely responsible for:

I've already been sued for trademark violations twice and all the companies want is the domain. They're weren't looking for any "damages" from money "earned"..."thanks"