Hi !
I'm developing a personal project similar to https://www.spacehey.com (that imitates MySpace) but, in my case, is a "resurrection" of Fotolog.
Fotolog was a website similar to Instagram where you could post a photo, write a caption and follow people. It was very popular here in Spain and in South America in 2007-2012. In 2019 the project finally dead after many years of decadence and nowadays https://www.fotolog.com is random news portal...
The point is that I would like to name FotoBlog (not Fotolog, obviously) to my project, but I don't know if it's very similar and it could bring me some legal problems... What do you think ?
And... What should i keep in mind for be "legal"?
Thank you !
Choosing the name "FotoBlog" for your project could pose legal risks if it closely resembles the previous Fotolog. Conduct a trademark search, check domain availability, and consider consulting a legal professional to ensure compliance. Develop clear terms of service, privacy policies, and user content guidelines to mitigate potential legal issues.
Hi David, I can only speak from the UK perspective as that's my experience. Normally with questions like this you first check the trademark status. A quick search shows that FOTOLOG is a trademarked in the UK and the address is in Spain which suggests it's the company you're talking about:
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00903813003
The existence of a trademark obviously means you can't use the name Fololog for your business. However, it also means you can't use a similar name that could seek to mislead or impersonate the original brand. Given that what you're doing is a "resurrection" of Fotolog then I'd say you'd be on pretty shaky territory from a legal perspective. The trademark does not expire until 2024 in the UK so they could potentially sue you for IP infringement. If I were you I'd call it something else!
Thank you Georgia ! And thank you for the research :)
I see... I think that it's going to be the best option. I think that it's going to lose some identity or essence but I think that it's a safety option.
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Do you want to make money from this project? I'd say unless your site gets popular, lawyers won't care.
Hi ! Thank you for your answer...
It's not the main goal but I have a little bit hope that it goes viral xD
Don't worry about it, if the entire service is dead you can't really create any damage to the people who previously owned it and drove it into the ground by using a name made from two common words (photo/foto and blog) that arent the same as the name of their now-dead service.
Thank you for your answer !
I'm scared just in case that the project goes viral or something... Because it's a bit possible (I don't know in what scale)
I think that I'm going to think other name and that's it xD