Staffing Bit of an odd situation...

[Tired Old Soldiers 10]

So I've found myself in a bit of an odd situation.

 

I've had a domain name for quite a while [April 2014 or so], and at the start of this year I revamped the site that I'd been hosting there and changed it to an entirely different setting when the old one came to an end. I'd been working on this WIP site for quite some time and was close to opening when another site in the same genre [but not a crossover like mine] opened up using the same exact name. 

 

Now, I'm not sure if they happened on mine and liked the name/basics or just came up with the same idea, but I'm not sure what to do. I have several people eager to join and I've already put off opening because of this other site. I recently moved us from self hosting to jcink premium since I needed a break from the self hosting stress - I picked bad hosts apparently - one was bought out by EIG and the other failed to communicate when they caused issues that broke things until I reached out. Anyway, I have people asking about the site again and I'd really prefer to keep the name the same - I do own a .com domain for this after all and have had it long before the other site came about. But they opened first and it IS the same genre. I really dislike drama and don't want to deal with it, but I did purchase this domain and have everything mostly ready to go.

 

What do?

[Morrigan 1,826]

Open it anyways. I had startrek-rpg.com it had been open for over a month when another site, that was named something different, renamed themselves to the-star-trek-rpg.com or something like that and overall they were completely different sites and the members will choose the one they want.

 

Don't let the name of the site define it. Make the content of the site.

 

If you need to (or if drama comes up) then get the whois for your domain and prove to them that it's older. The other proof you can likely get is webtimemachine link to the domain as you've had it.

[Elena 546]

Open it, I second @Morrigan! <3 Good luck!

[Tired Old Soldiers 10]

Thank you for the responses! I'm going to get the last few things wrapped up and open it soon. I've just been very, very nervous b/c of the issue and the person who opened their site isn't someone I've seen around places much so I don't know how they'll behave re: 2 sites in the genre with the same name.

 

I think what bothered me the most is the name's not even one you'd really think of for a site in that fandom, but I'd figured out how to tie things in. 

 

I can definitely pull up the whois if necessary. Unfortunately the wayback machine doesn't show anything besides the older site that was re-purposed, though I'm fairly certain google cache probably has something...

[Morrigan 1,826]

I'm going to be honest? I've seen a million places with the same or similar names. I mean, no offense to Once Upon a Time sites? A lot of them just change Time to something else? It's not particularly original but people don't mind as long as it's not plagiarized.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

I think I know what game you're referring to~ Even so, I wouldn't worry too much. You've got an original game, yeah? I think it'd matter if it was a fandom game, and two fandom games have the same name. I'm not sure how that works, but it does, in a way.

 

Like another user said, there's countless 'Once Upon A...' games, be they OUAT fandom or original. There's lots of Potter sites that have the same phrases/words/lore, after a while they all tend to blend together.  I assume that if anyone has a problem with two games sharing a name, they keep it to themselves. So long as your game is vastly different upon first impression, guests shouldn't have an issue! e.g it'd be another story if two rpgs were identical in practically every way, from the plot to the member groups, etc.

[VirusZero 176]

Open it anyway.

 

There's nothing they can do really. It's just a name. And if push comes to shove, you've had the domain (for that name) for a year before them.

 

As an aside, I don't know if this will happen to you or not... but in case it does... They cannot legally force or compel you to use another name unless they have a registered trademark and your name infringes upon their trademark. If they have a  registered trademark you can look it up to check validity.

(I mention this because a friend of mine ended up getting contacted by another site, with a similar name, when he rebranded with a new url. They threatened him with trademark infringement. Though they had no actual trademarks registered. He decided not to fight with them on it simply to preserve peace. Though if had he decided to keep using the name he wanted he could have and there wouldn't have been anything they could have done. At nothing legal anyway.)

 

Though most sites won't bother registering their trademark since they aren't big enough or they're fandom based in which case they can't (because the creator of that property likely already owns it). 

[Tired Old Soldiers 10]

Thank you for the feedback, everyone!

 

I am going to go ahead and open things soon. I decided to tweak the setting somewhat, since I've had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth ever since this happened. It is a fandom game, unfortunately, though mine's a crossover of two rather than strictly the one. That's really what had me head-tilting about it is that I'd never considered the name fitting a site for this particular fandom and had taken quite a while to figure out why it worked [I tied it in with the other fandom that crosses over]. I had the domain and software and didn't want to waste it [software ended up being wasted anyway since I went back to jcink for premium but eh, that's another tale entirely].

 

We're currently working out a few of the kinks and getting set back up on Jcink. ^_^