If the site owner gets pushed by GM he can use my domain for free.

imo sites like these a company should embrace sites like mentioned in the article .

It’s a fan page .. it will do more good then bad ..

I saw that TommyBahama.co, Hayneedle.co, and Godlikeproductions.co all got snatched up by “investors” too! Love it!

http://F0RC.com

This was the holding in the recent case of American-Steinway.com, a site that sold used Steinway pianos and OEXstreet.com, a site that used the trademark of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (OEX) for a web site providing investor information concerning OEX. Both sites were for profit. This so-called “nominative fair use” is permissible under trademark law, first recognized by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The standard is that the junior user needs the trademark to describe its goods/services; it only uses so much of the mark as is necessary; and it does nothing to create impression of afffiliation with the trademark owner. An additional requirement established under UDRP precedent is that the domain owner does not try to buy every domain variation and prevent the owner from getting a domain reflecting its trademark (which is bad faith under the UDRP).

One of the first (if not the first) case recognizing this principle was a 9th Circuit case involving a VW Repair Shop. Volkswagen argued the shop could not use their VW trademark. The court disagreed.

As for the GM-volt.com web site, the domain owner must do more to alert the public to the unofficial nature of the site. Not in small print at the bottom, but right on top in bold letters. Othewise, he runs the risk oof confusing users into believing that the site is affilated with GM.

From a matter of practicality, if you want users to find you because you sell a particular product, the domain name is obviously helpful to get users to find you.