Mere usage of a trademark may be a violation if unauthorized. A great deal of litigation has revolved around whether an attempts to register a domain name which contains a protected trademark is a violation of the owner s rights. The short answer is that registrations for the purpose of sale to the trademark owners are violations. Domain name owners who have usurped trademarked names have been forced to surrender the registered name. This type of behavior was and is unlawful under U.S. trademark law and courts do punish offenders.
Trademarks can appear in portions of the URL other than the domain name.
A subdirectory name can use a trademark, or a specific file name can contain a trademark. But a federal judge in California has ruled that such usage is entitled to less protection than domain names because it is merely descriptive and does not entail the likelihood of confusion that domain name usage does. The court found that as long as the content of the page does not lead to confusion about source, then there is no violation when a server uses a trademark as a descriptive indicator. As in other areas of law, freedom of speech may be a defense to suit for violation of trademark, particularly when satire or parody is involved. The defense is limited, however, and will generally not avail when there is commercial intent or alternative avenues of communication.