Comment by arp242

3 years ago

If this takes off you may very well get a letter from Stack Overflow lawyers over the name. It's your choice if you want to take that risk, but just FYI.

(And to be honest, I think they would be justified too; I initially assumed it was related to Stack Overflow based on the title. but turns out it's not – this is the sort of confusion trademarks are intended to protect).

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arp242

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rhyssullivan1  3 years ago

Under their own guidelines it's fine https://stackoverflow.com/legal/trademark-guidance

> Do name your application with something unique. Including one of the terms, "Stack" or "Exchange" or "Overflow" in your product name is generally okay.

It's a different enough product that I feel comfortable with it - Stack Overflow is only for programming while Answer Overflow is for all topics. Along with that Overflow is a pretty generic word and if you wanted to get super technical with it, the context I'm using the word in is "I have so many answers they're overflowing" while theirs is a reference to a programming term.

We'll see and I'm not a lawyer but given that their trademark guidelines allow it, I feel comfortable

  • arp242  3 years ago

    That part specifically refers to things built on the Stack Overflow API. And "generally okay" is of course hardly a guarantee. "Overflow" as a word is fine, obviously, but it does sit in the same "get answers" space – I can name my restaurant "Best Apple", but I'll have more problems if I named some piece of electronics "Best Apple".

    It's your site, you can do what you want with it and you're free to ignore my comment – that's fine! But personally, I wouldn't have named it Answer Overflow.