Roku domain trademark infringement emails?

Thanks, good idea (any moderators listening who'd like to PM me to help sort this out?). I didn't think a domain name like rokudeveloper.com would be a problem, but apparently that's not the case. The sad thing is that were parked at GoDaddy pending me getting my developer website up and running, which I'm still working on.

The email stated: "Should you require additional information or wish to further discuss this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us." but they're not answering emails and provide absolutely no contact information.

"destruk" wrote:
Whois says it looks legit --
Admin Name: Domain Administrator
Admin Organization: Roku, Inc.
Admin Street: 12980 Saratoga Ave.,
Admin City: Saratoga

you sure you didn't just look at roku.com? That's a different domain.


mm-roku.com is registered to a company that apparently makes a living by scaring people out of domain names. I'm not sure why they would need that domain name with roku in it, other than to appear more legitimate?


Domain Name: MM-ROKU.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com


http://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?w ... ype=domain

If I put MM-ROKU.COM into a web browser it takes me to roku.com. I guess they could be using forwarding to do this? All very odd.

The MM company looks legit, would they be contracted by Roku? (though their name doesn't appear on the list of famous companies it works for) My question if this were the case would then be why is Roku using a 3rd party company to hound its own platform developers? It doesn't make any sense.

It looks like Roku employs their services -
https://www.markmonitor.com/services/br ... ection.php

http://www.whois.com/whois/mm-roku.com

Roku has posted here before that any domain names or competing products like RokuDeveloper.com are prohibited.
http://wwwimg.roku.com/static/imagereso ... eb2014.pdf

NO USE OF IDENTICAL OR SIMILAR NAMES; NO COMBINATION MARKS
You may not use any name or trademark confusingly similar to the Roku Logos or any other
Roku Mark. You may not use any Roku Mark in such proximity to any of your own trademarks or
third party trademarks so as to create a combination or composite mark. You may not combine
any Roku Mark with your own or other third party trademark to create a telescoped mark or
“mash-up” of the two (or more) marks.

RokuDeveloper isn't a mashup but a description, just like MercedesSalesman.com, and I don't see Mercedes banning that. In any event, the email suggests contacting them to discuss, and they're not responding.

The word Roku is a registered trademark.

© 2014 Roku, Inc. All rights reserved. ROKU, the ROKU Logo, ROKU READY, the ROKU READY Logo, "STOP DREAMING. START STREAMING.", "HAPPY STREAMING.", "THERE'S A TON OF ENTERTAINMENT IN THIS LITTLE BOX.", "STREAMING STICK", and "NOW THIS IS TV." are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Roku, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

"kc8pql" wrote:
The word Roku is a registered trademark.

True.

Just ask yourself - do you think "NikeExtreme" could possibly be confused by consumers as being part of the Nike brand due to its similarity to "NikeXtreme"? If yes, don't use it or they could shut you down.
Do you think perhaps, RokuDeveloper could be assumed by people to be affiliated, endorsed, or owned by Roku considering there is a Roku Developer Agreement that is? If not, get a lawyer to try to defend it or change the name.
If you change your website to be "BBEFilms Development" I'm sure nobody will mind.

A better question will be why does this forum insist on replacing the name " N I K E " with the letter x?

A better question will be why does this forum insist on replacing the name " N I K E " with the letter x?

Not sure what you mean there.

As to infringement - Our patent and trademark lawyers willeventually get around to contacting you if you have the word "Roku" in your domain name. I don't know if mm-roku is a legitimate contact, there are some people or organizations doing fraudulent takedown notices of late, so I would have to investigate and get back to you.

- Joel

Points well taken, but looking around - there are examples of other developers (for example, Axuretrainer.net), using a domain relating to a specific brand. Like many independent developers, I don't have the resources to get a lawyer involved, otherwise I'd argue that Roku's action is questionable. I've already expended more time and concern that I should have on this subject.