Usage of a third-party registered trademark in a "blaming" domain name (with "anti" prefix) - is this legal?

Question

Hello.

Suppose, there is a hypothetic software product "ExampleProduct" on the market with BAD quality and BAD support. But the company selling it, does not care. "ExampleProduct" is a registered trademark (I hope it is not, actually. This is just a name taken to make an example, if you get me ;))) ).

Is that legal to create www.anti-exampleproduct.com website and place there criticism about this product? If that is not, will www.anti-ep.com website with criticism legal? Or, if not, what legal possibilities of criticism a customer has except "money voting"?

I saw some of such websites around: http://www.paypalsucks.com for example. It does not criticise software product, but it's close to what I mean. I also doubt it's existence is legal.

By legality I mean primarily US or EU law restrictions.

Answer 1

Yes, it's legal, but not civil - the state won't sue you but the company may, and it may well win, depending on what you write exactly. (IANAL.)

Answer 2

There are at least two problems: - Whether you can use the name of the product in such a context (trademark law) - Whether you can register a domain by that name.

I am not a lawyer, so don't take anything I write here as more than a very limited understanding - by going to these three wikipedia pages.

1. the use of the trademark (or at the very least, of the company's name), is possible under what we commonly call "Freedom of Speech". Of course, you must be wary of your website content - the risk is that you can be sued for defamation if they can prove that your accusations are false.
2. The second problem is a problem between you and the registrar for the domain root level. You will have to read the specific terms.