I was reading the story earlier about the guy who received a C&D from eBay (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1727747), and it got me thinking about a domain I was planning to use for a site I'm (slowly, painfully slowly) building.
I came up with the name while I was listening to a Beatles song, and the song title jumped out at me as being perfect for my site. Well, not the exact song title, of course, but definitely inspired by it.
Now, the site has nothing to do with the Beatles, nor music in general, so I don't think it's a problem, but I don't know enough about the law to determine if this sort of "inspired by / play on the name" sort of name could get me in trouble.
I haven't registered the name yet, mostly because financially I can't throw money at something I may not finish (soon), so I'd prefer not to give the name here.
As an example, let's pretend I'm making a site for apartment hunters, called HelterShelter.com. Would that get me into trouble? This might not be the best example since a normal person would probably make that association, but I don't think they necessarily would with my idea.
I'm in Canada, in case that makes a difference.
Thanks.
I can't speak to your financial situation, but it's $9/year to register a domain. There's a chance your name will get registered while you wait. If your name got registered by someone else, would you just shrug it off, or would it really bother you? If the latter, just get it now.