Appraisal on: OpenUniversityAustralia.com.au

[Natasha]

Hi All
your feedback & advice would be most appreciated on this. Does anyone have any knowledge of past sale prices on University or Education perhaps? (keyword planner on exact match 18,100 @ $1.64
Cheers Natasha

 

[Data Glasses]

i could not find any trademark but i do wonder about this name? Sales opportunities may be limited so i am unsure on value, good luck
~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Universities_Australia

 

[Natasha]

I really appreciate your reply & link Spacey. Yes this is the singular not plural. But still gets quite a lot of searches. I'm just a beginner so I encourage all comments.

 

[James]

Low because already an established business with this name.

 

[elbranch]

I don't think it was a good idea to register this domain name there is a trademark for this (with "universities") from 2005 here:

***************
Trade Mark : 1060252
Word: OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA
Image: LTRS O & U FORM ENDLESS-BELT,VERTICAL,BROKEN
Lodgement Date: 10-JUN-2005
Registered From: 10-JUN-2005
Date of Acceptance: 11-NOV-2005
Acceptance Advertised: 01-DEC-2005
Registration Advertised: 30-MAR-2006
Entered on Register: 13-MAR-2006
Renewal Due: 10-JUN-2015
Class/es: 16, 35, 41
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Composite
Endorsement
Owner/s: Open Universities Australia Pty Ltd

***************

and with further classes pending from 2012 here

***************
Trade Mark : 1531861
Word: OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA
Image:
Lodgement Date: 17-DEC-2012
Divisional Date: 24-DEC-2010
Acceptance Due: 08-MAY-2014
First Report: 08-JAN-2013
Class/es: 9, 16, 25, 35, 36, 38, 41
Status: Under Examination - Extension Fees Required
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Examiner: Ian ARENTZ
Divisionals:
Divisional Number: 1402084

Owner/s: Open Universities Australia Pty Ltd
********************

Further to this, the word "university" (and its derivations) is a restricted word according to Federal Government policy and when this is applied to domain names it means you need to get permission to use it.

The process of obtaining permission is reasonably straightforward if you know what you are doing, but the decision can be somewhat arbitrary and can be difficult to appeal. In my opinion it would be more likely than not that your application to use the name would be rejected just because the examiner would not like you using this domain name which appears to be an infringement on the intellectual property of the largest online study provider in Australia (disregarding the merits of your application). I could be wrong in this and maybe it would be deemed to be acceptable it can sometimes depends on who examines it.

If the domain name was deemed acceptable it wouldn't matter because you (or whoever you think would purchase this domain name from you) would have absolutely no hope defending a trade mark infringement case brought against you by Open Universities Australia.

 

[snoopy]

$0

 

[FirstPageResults]

Delete the domain

 

[Natasha]

Hello elbranch
thankyou for your indepth explanation on the restricted use of the word university. I did not know that.
I was under the impression that a trademark had to be for the exact word - variations such as plural & singular can change the name and would fall outside of that trademark? do you think?

 

[johno69]

variations such as plural & singular can change the name and would fall outside of that trademark? do you think?

Nope.

Surely you do not think it would be fine and dandy to start a search engine and call it Googles ?

 

[elbranch]

Hello elbranch
thankyou for your indepth explanation on the restricted use of the word university. I did not know that.
I was under the impression that a trademark had to be for the exact word - variations such as plural & singular can change the name and would fall outside of that trademark? do you think?

There is no specific legislation dealing with the precise issue of 'singular' and 'plural' trade marks instead this is covered by terms such as 'deceptively similar' and 'not capable of distinguishing'.

Here are two examples.

*****************************************
TRADE MARKS ACT 1995 - SECT 10
Definition of deceptively similar

For the purposes of this Act, a trade mark is taken to be deceptively similar to another trade mark if it so nearly resembles that other trade mark that it is likely to deceive or cause confusion.
*****************************************

****************************************
TRADE MARKS ACT 1995 - SECT 41
Trade mark not distinguishing applicant's goods or services

(1) An application for the registration of a trade mark must be rejected if the trade mark is not capable of distinguishing the applicant's goods or services in respect of which the trade mark is sought to be registered (the designated goods or services ) from the goods or services of other persons.

Note: For goods of a person and services of a person see section 6.

(2) A trade mark is taken not to be capable of distinguishing the designated goods or services from the goods or services of other persons only if either subsection (3) or (4) applies to the trade mark.

(3) This subsection applies to a trade mark if:

(a) the trade mark is not to any extent inherently adapted to distinguish the designated goods or services from the goods or services of other persons;
*****************************************

In your case you would have absolutely no hope at all of defending a claim brought against you by Open Universities Australia. For the purposes of the Trade Marks Act, Open University Australia would be considered as good as the same as Open Universities Australia.

The restriction on the use of the word 'university' is entirely separate from trade mark law and separate from any claim another entity might have over the domain name according to trade mark law.

The issue with the restriction of the use of the word 'university' is that to a certain extent it is determined arbitrarily, it can depend on how the examiner 'feels' about the application and the use of the word. In general you can explain how you intend to use the word 'university' to abide by the policy and it will be accepted.

In your case I think this is unlikely because even if you intend to abide by the policy the examiner will reject your application because of the arbitrary determination that it seems to infringe on the rights of the Open Universities Australia entity, an entity which already has a relationship with the examining body. The policy itself does not state this as a reason for rejection but because the policy is applied arbitrarily then I believe it would be more than likely (over 50% chance) that it would be rejected for the reason I have outlined.

For the purposes of this policy (not the Trade Marks Act), the words 'university' and 'universities' are considered to be the same in the way they are covered by the policy.

This discussion about whether your domain name would be accepted according to the policy is however rather academic because it would have absolutely no hope of surviving a claim by Open Universities Australia if it was in fact accepted according to the policy.

You should also note that as there is no specific legislation relating to the use of singular and plural trade marks it is theoretically possible to have separate registrations/uses for the singular and plural if other parts of the legislation are not breached. However this is highly unlikely and in your case not applicable because your domain name is very clearly a trade mark infringement.

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hello elbranch
thankyou for your indepth explanation on the restricted use of the word university. I did not know that.
I was under the impression that a trademark had to be for the exact word - variations such as plural & singular can change the name and would fall outside of that trademark? do you think?

This is often a big mistake people make, if a trademark is substantially identical or deceptively similar, there can still be an infringement. Be very careful.

Trademark law is very complex, it is best to get advice before spending any serious effort on a project.