Hello HN -<p>I am in the process of building a startup and have a question regarding the name. The website I have chosen uses the .me TLD, and I intend for that to be part of the name. For example, say my site is Foo.me<p>Another larger company exists and has Foo.com, and There is a copyright for the Foo product - however, from what I understand names must be trademarked and are not copyrighted. My product is NOT a copy of Foo product, and I intend the product to be known as "Foo.me" . I cannot find any listing in the trademark database for "Foo". Am I safe in assuming my product name is safe from any infringement on Foo.com's name and/or product?
IANAL. Copyright isn't an issue. This is purely about trademarks.<p>The TLD is probably, or at least possibly, not considered when evaluating whether a consumer would be confused.<p>Are your businesses/products/brands confusingly similar? Are you in the space <i>general</i> space? Have you seen what areas they have applied for/received trademarks for?<p>If they're selling dishwashers and you're doing a SaaS app you're probably fine. If they're a search engine for dogs and you're a directory of cats you're probably treading on thin ice.<p>IANAL x 10.