Legal issue: Trademarks in URL (not domain itself)

[Mike26]

Hello everyone.

As a new affiliate , I'd like to ask a basic legal question.
Is that allowed to use trademarks in review sites?

For instance I have a Digital camera review site, I'm using the name of brand + the name of the product in the URL + in the Title, H1, description etc etc..

Is there any problem with it?

When I started to build my site I asked a few people and they all said that it's not a problem, now when I want to join CJ, I see this in the Code of conduct:

"Publishers may not use any advertiser trademarks, service marks, branded terms, URL, etc"

As an example the URL might be something like

"xxxbestdigitalcameraguideblahblah.com/products/sony/alpha-a300"

I'd like to add affiliate links (from that page) to some online stores that offer this product.

Is there a problem with it?

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

I think what they are saying is that you can't use their trademarks in the root of the domain. So if the merchant was Sony you could not use bestsonyproducts.com or sony4u.com as a domain. When in doubt though ask the merchant to be sure.

 

[Anomaly]

I'd completely agree with Linda ... even google doesn't like people using domains that have brand names in the url (i can't remember exactly where I saw that mind you) but yeah, anything after the .com should be fine - afterall, it's what your review/post is about!

 

[Shawn Barkley]

Be careful with trademarks in domain names and keywords as they are not allowed in either format and are strictly prohibited by Google and the Affiliate Network. If caught using a trademark/brandname and you made a commission on sales, your commission can be revoked due to a violation of the affiliate agreement. This is especially true of Linkshare, where they represent high profile brand names such as Wal-Mart and Macys. Also, most of the these high profile companies do no allow direct linking. It is not worth the risk.