Site Reference Forums

For redirects to work effectively, you need to own and administer both the old and the new domain.

Depending on what server, server software and administrative rights you have - as well as how much DNS control you have - the redirects can be easily set up in a number of different ways

So, answer for us, a few questions and we'll get our help right along to you

1 - who was your domain registered through (eg godaddy.com, name.com, etc)?
2 - who provides your hosting?
3 - is your site on a windows server or a unix server?
4 - what webserver is being deployed (IIS, apache, lighttpd etc)


if you don't know the answer to 4, we can probably work this out from 3. If you don't know the answer to 3, we can probably work this out from 2 but may be less sure of 4

G'day Lauree.

Seems to me that it would be so much simpler to leave the URL as it is.

I don't know by how much you intend to alter your business name, but if the change is not too great, then the URL you have should still be fine.

Suppose you change your name from Build-A-Basket Oklahoma to Basket Builder Oklahoma or Oklahoma Basket Builder, there may be no gain in changing the URL.

I guess you are thinking of people searching on your business name. Well, it's unlikely that you get much, if any traffic from people typing www.buildabasketoklahoma.com into the search bar. Check out your stats to confirm this. Note that the regular customers who know the address, already have it bookmarked and simply click.

So there's a simple way of looking at things that you may wish to consider.

Regards,
Laurie.

yeah, with North.... I thought there was an issue with the current domain, thus I can't understand why there is the option for having '2 domains'?

Can U elaborate on the alleged 'trademark' offences? Not sure that anyone has much of a case unless they've had the mark for many years and the mark is; 'build a basket Oklahoma' and you have related invetories.  Even at that one has to show you intentionally infringed on said mark. If this is a new company with reasonably dissimilar product lines and presentation which is merely 'Build a Basket' or something... I would be suspect.

Have you consulted an attorney? Not to give away much of what some SEOs do fer a living, let me just say they are not above sending fake 'cease and desist' or 'DMCA' complaints to fish with the comptetition... Fake in that they aren't actually law firms, merely bullies.

There are even SEOs that stoop to sabotaging competitors link profiles by posing as law firms and demanding links be removed from sites (your recip partners for example) due to whatever mark infringements simply to get tons of links removed from the competitors profiles...

So, I would consider looking at things first... unless of course you did copy an offline business or other mark holder's business model when U created the site... Did you?

Trademark issue:  My company is Build-A-Basket Oklahoma.  I have trademarked that name in the state of Oklahoma.

I was contacted by a man from another state who said he owns the trademark & domain name for Build A Basket.  After researching his claims, I found that he does indeed have a FEDERAL trademark on "build a basket"

He says that my company name is too similar to his.  He has had his trademark for about 4 years or so, I've only had mine for about a year.

I'd love for there to be another answer to this situation.  We honestly did not know that someone had a similar company name or trademark when we named this company.  As you can imagine, changing a company name is not going to be an easy task.

The reason for the 2 domain names would be because I currently own - and have advertised buildabasketoklahoma dot com  Seems like I would need to have the domain for the new company name as well.

Thanks for the info on the tutorial/previous postings on redirects - I'll check into that soon. 

Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Basket Lady

Thanks again guys.  Has anyone ever used:  The Master 404 redirect script
the software mentioned in the articles?  Based on the author's info, it sounds simple enough - wonder if it really is.

Thanks Gypsy - not sure if the domain violates anything or not - but I'd like to be prepared either way.  grrrr  This is entirely too frustrating.

Thanks!
Basket Lady

ColoEagle wrote:

Lauree,


I would do some research into the limitations and requirements regarding his trademark Build a Basket and your name Build a Basket Oklahoma.

Similar, yes
Different, yes

Now if you were using just Build a Basket I would say he has grounds. Otherwise unless I am missing something I see it as two different companies.

Wouldn't this be similar to creating a company called "Google Arizona"?  I seriously doubt that Google would allow that to get by legally. 

I have no legal experience, so this is just my opinion, but it would seem that her "Oklahoma" business name is misleading enough to lead to litigation.  At the least, it sounds like a franchise of the parent - again, something that doesn't seem like a good idea.

I would be surprised if the trademark owner doesn't file the necessary paperwork to get your domain also.

Last edited by morepro_cory (2008-04-22 18:50:57)

Lauree. You need to get legal advice.

It's my understanding that in Australia, what morepro_cory said about the business name is correct but the same restrictions don't apply to a domain name. You only need to put a hyphen or a dot in to make it different. And two identical domains (exactly identical) can't be registered, because it's a database thing.

There's no reason why your domain name must reflect your business name unless you manufacture and sell Ford motor cars or something like that. From a SEO viewpoint it's good if the words appear in both. That's why I suggested above that you change the business name as little as possible, using the same words. Quite simply put: don't mess with the domain name!

Note that SiteReference is owned by a company called "Paradise something or other." There are people who visit this forum who have 20,000 websites (yes, 20,000 sites) They obviously don't all have the business name and it doesn't matter, because their traffic comes from search on keywords.

Regards,
Laurie.

Last edited by laurie_m (2008-04-23 18:05:59)

You would need to do the redirects to avoid problems with duplicate content.

It's not a duplicate content penalty, but it is a problem.

However, stick with the domain name that you have. Much simpler! No reason to change. You could have saved your money spent on the new domain.

If you wanted to (which you don't) you could register the exact same domain name as your competitor, only with a hyphen in between two words or some such minor difference, and there would be nothing that he could do. Or if he has a .com, you could register a .net of exactly the same domain name, provided it's available.

So just change the header in your site and keep going. The only issue is the registered trademark or registered business name (whatever it is).  The domain name is not an issue.

But what you can do if things get nasty is this:

Get yet another domain name, exactly the same as his except for a hyphen or a capital letter. Set up a site, deliberately targeting his key terms, with all new content. You really need only one page on which you can direct the traffic to your main site. Skin it the same so it all goes together.

A free blog might do the trick but wouldn't be skinned the same.

With a bit of good SEO you'll get most of his traffic. Then he'll be wishing he'd never tackled such a tough cookie as our basketlady.

Regards,
Laurie.

Ah, it's all in the name. Doesn't matter how you spell it. It's phonetic for "you're something else."

Regards,
Laurie.

I would argue that "Build a Basket is a descriptive term and so generic that it should not have been able to be trademarked.

Now one thing on trademarks. It is the STYLE in which they are PRESENTED that is trademarked (like logos). So if they don't have hyphens and you do - it is different

I imagine then that anyone with Gift Baskets in their name can make a claim on your new one under the current progress on your old on. (like giftbaskets. com site)