Is my website name legal?

[Jake]

I have just purchased a domain as my first website, I recently turned 19 and don't have too much knowledge over the legal information involving the name of the site. My new website is http://www.seonorthsydney.com.au. I checked and don't think that "seo north sydney" is trademarked. So am I at risk of any legal action? I'm just starting out so this frightens me quite a lot. I don't think you can actually trademark a place or a broad term like "seo". So any info about whether I'm at legal risk would be great.
Cheers
Also its not like I am just cyber-squatting, I have the up most intention in maintaining and improving this website.

[Good4Businesses]

Im from UK, and I wouldn't be to worried about that name! It tends to be names like WordPress,Google,Yahoo etc etc etc that you need to be worried about and like you said you can't trademark a place.

Hope that helps.

[G-Man]

name is fine, but if you're both engaged in the exact same business and the other guy is huge in the market, they can make life difficult for intentionally misleading the public that you're the same company. It can cause legal expense you can't afford.

I have been down this road, so I know what I'm talking about. Hurts to have a name, generate some business, then have to change the name. You can still keep that address and redirect the traffic to your other name. Thats what I ended up doing.

If you think the name doesn't matter, open up McDonalds.au and try to sell hamburgers and see what happens.

[livewyre]

OK, I had a look at the site and sure enough SEONORTHSYDNEY is actually their name (note that your company name and domain don't have to be the same), so from here on in it gets tricky.
If their name was North Sydney Trading and they used the same domain (seonorthsydney.com.au), you would not have any problem, but I think because this is their actual trading name, you should be careful about it.
The separate terms 'SEO' 'NORTH' and 'SYDNEY' cannot be protected, but when you put them all together, it is unfortunate that two separate people were thinking along the same lines.
Personally I would drop this domain name and get another one - if nothing else you risk really pi$$ing off the owner of the other domain because it is going to look like a classic cyber-squat scenario even though unintended.
Hopefully you didn't pay a lot for the domain - you could even ask 'Brian' if he would like to take the domain over from you, but don't try and make a profit and fully explain that this was a genuine unintentional error on your part. Those in the game of SEO are naturally suspicious because of the nature of the business - I don't think it makes sense to go down this route. Seems to me Brian thinks a lot of himself and would not take kindly to your encroaching on his territory!
In a nut-shell...buy another domain, they are not expensive - it could save you a lot of needless hassle. Who knows, you might end up working with or for him one day..but not if he thinks you are trying to steal his business.

[bcnu]

Now you know why people do a "clearance search" before they invest in a company name, domain name or trademark; if someone else in the same field is already using something similar, then they have "priority" over your later use in any related field.

If the SEO NORTH SYDNEY name is already being used as a trademark in any business or marketing channels that COULD overlap yours, you are taking a huge risk of legal troubles.

As you may know, under Australian law (like USA, Canada, UK), there is no obligation to register a trademark; the non-registered rights are enforceable from the moment they first USE the brand on their goods or services.

Bottom line, if you intend to offer SEO services, which are already being offered under the same brand, they can argue that it creates a likelihood of confusion among customers and ask you to stop doing that. If you do not comply, they can (in theory) sue you for an injunction if not also damages (if they have any),

Add: Because you didn't mention what goods or services you're planning to market, nor whether you are marketing anything to anyone in Australia, this is all guesswork.