I need your creative minds (synonym for entrepreneur)

[Jeremy]

So I am launching a new site that is primarily targeted at entrepreneurs, and sure enough today I came across this article. The current domain I am going to use has the word "entrepreneur" in the in the URL. There's actually lots of info on this mess all over the internet.

Anyhow, I'm not sure I want to get into a legal battle with Entrepreneur Magazine, even though most would agree having a trademark on a word like "entrepreneur" is certifiably bullshit. That's as absurd as if someone owned a trademark for the words affiliate, inventor, webmaster, golfer, firefighter, etc.

Anyhow my struggle is that to my knowledge there is no synonym for the word entrepreneur. So hypothetically say I was going to launch a forum called EntrepreneurForum.com or Entrepreneurxxxxxxxx.com(<------------ just examples) what the heck am I supposed to call it now if my target market is entrepreneurs?

Any brilliant thoughts or ideas on synonyms? I'm stumped

[NewPokerGirl]

How about enterpriser? I read a couple months ago that some guy is trying to trademark "seo" lol. Its all pretty retarded if you ask me.

[Sebastien]

Good question,

I think a good person you could ask is Yaro Starak, he is one of the most successful bloggers/entrepreneurs on the net.

His domain is http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/.

Shoot him an email, he's a cool guy.

Hope this will help

-- Sebastien

[punchtheclock]

"Nobody can use it as apart of a domain name, a publication name, for entertainment purposes, or for radio and TV programs."

This statement is not true. Last I knew, courts were using the phrase "If a reasonable person would be led to believe that there was an association between the two names"

From the cases I read in your link, it looks like the people that have been sued were from the same industry or related.

[Jeremy]

Okay I'll just cut to the chase..... I am developing EntrepreneurRadio.fm and I am not sure using that domain is going to work since I don't feel like dealing with a C&D once I'm a few months into it . After all it really comes down to how you build the brand anyways. For example I could use a domain like ThinkBig.fm or BigIdea.fm with a tagline "Radio for Entrepreneurs"

Anyhow thanks in advance for your thoughts....very frustrating.

[Ozpoker]

I am going through something similar at the moment with trademarking.

We've trademarked a single word term that is a readily used in language and is in the dictionary, it is however fall in to this category

Suggestive marks do not describe a category of goods or services but instead suggest a characteristic about them. Suggestive marks require the consumer to make a leap of imagination, thought or perception to reach a conclusion as to the nature of the goods. An example of a suggestive mark is “Greyhound” for bus services (suggesting speed of bus service). Suggestive trademarks are by definition distinctive and are afforded a high degree of protection.

My limited understanding is the trademark is only enforceable in relation to the good or service it relates to and you have to nominate this when you file the trademark.

BTW how about working round entrepereneurial, entrepreneuristic, entrepreneuria anmd afew made up words that are very similar or part of the original word.

[ThePokerBank]

Being an entrepreneur has strong connotations with making money, so any domain orientated around the word 'money' would probably make a lot of sense. In fact, if you get a good enough domain I think one with 'money' in it would turn a lot of heads, possibly more than one with 'entrepreneur' in it. I would go for something with money in it, or possibly those other ones you have suggested so far, unless you want 'entrepreneur' in the domain for SEO purposes.

As far as legalities and trademarks go, I have no idea.

[PPP]

Entrepreneur usually means "unemployed", but I don't think that is too helpful here....

[Andy Poker.Vg]

I think its bullshit that anyone can claim TM on "entrepreneur"+word.com. There is no way you can TM a generic word. Its basically saying, we are the only people who can have entrepreneur in our domain. If its true.. then its gay and a good way to pwn a niche.

I would just register it and ignore all TM complaints lol. Any judge would side with you. Most people just use scare tactics to get there own way.

[Jeremy]

Originally Posted by PPP

Entrepreneur usually means "unemployed", but I don't think that is too helpful here....

LOL, good point PPP.

Yea Andy, I thought about just launching with the original brand and having a back-up in place and ready to go. This way if I did get a C&D I could use it as a publicity tool. On the other hand though, it sounds like a big pain in the ass and they have already won a case and collected $700K+ from a guy calling his PR company EntrpreneurPR.com

I think I can call my show Entrepreneur Radio, however it probably needs to be hosted on a domain which doesn't contain the word. For a company like EMI (Entrepreneur Magazine) whose core business revolves around entrepreneurs, it's amazing how bad they fu** us by trying to pwn the actual word.

Here's an entire website on it....

http://www.entrepreneur.net/

I'm debating if I should roll the dice on this one. What would you do?