If you have or are about to buy a domain name, YOU could be in trouble and you don’t know it yet…
See, what domain sellers won’t tell you is that the domain name you are buying or have purchased may possibly infringe trademark rights and you may lose that domain name or even worse.
Trademark and service mark laws apply not only offline but online as well and even apply to domain names.
Now, a trademark generally applies to goods while a service mark applies to services. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to trademarks as the same rules apply.
A trademark can be a word, name, symbol, or device and is used to distinguish and identify the products and services of one person or business from those of another.
The purpose of a trademark is to avoid confusion in the eyes of the consumer in relation to particular goods and services. Basically, they exist to prevent unfair competition.
So, with that said, just because you’ve purchased a particular domain name doesn’t necessarily mean you have exclusive rights to it.
If there is a trademark on your domain name, the trademark owner has the legal right to send you a “cease and desist” letter and possibly take away that domain name.
If you don’t believe a word I’ve said so far, I offer myself as proof because it happened to me. I recently lost one of my domain names in this very circumstance.
For legal reasons, I cannot tell you the domain name as I have agreed not to refer to it further, but there were two words in my domain name that were associated with a trademark.
Now, I wasn’t aware of this when I bought the domain name. And I definitely wasn’t aware of trademark laws.
Don’t be ignorant on the subject like me. You can avoid any potential problems by educating yourself and thus preventing the same thing from happening to you.
Don’t make the same mistake as me!
Do your research before purchasing a domain name and make sure there is NO trademark associated with that name.
There are trademark search engines where you can type a word or phrase and it will tell you if it is a trademark.
You can visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website to perform a trademark search:
http://www.uspto.gov/
Now, in my case, I opted out of fighting the trademark dispute and voluntarily relinquished my domain name. I felt it just wasn’t worth the time, money and heartache to throw a fight over this.
If this ever happens to you, you have rights and there are appropriate channels to resolve the dispute. Contact a lawyer who specializes in this field.
And don’t think for a minute that this kind of thing can’t happen to you. Trust me. If you have a trademark on your domain name, it’s only a matter of time before you get that letter in the mail like I did.
There are numerous cases on the Internet related to disputes over trademarks and domain names.
Do not be one of them…
If you would like more information on the subject of trademarks and domain names, I recommend that you visit this website:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain
This article and the links associated with it are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal advice. As always, speak to an attorney who specializes in this field in the event of a dispute.