Domain Name Trademarks

As your Internet business grows, the value of your domain name increases. The issue of a domain name trademark should move to the top of your list. You need to guard against unscrupulous competitors that may try to incorporate your domain name in their meta tags to obtain search engine rankings under your name. If you have a domain name trademark, you can go after these individuals and compel the search engines to remove their listings.

What Is A Trademark?

A trademark is a distinctive item that is used to identify a logo, product, device, package or service. The trademark identifies the item as being provided by a particular firm. To protect these items you can obtain a mark from the patent and trademark office that prohibits others from trying to gain economic advantage from your mark.

Domain Name

The patent and trademark office views domain names in a unique way. The office views the "http://www" element as a part of the file transfer process, not your domain name. The ".com", ".net", etc., designations are considered top-level domain identifiers and are also disregarded for the purpose of a domain name trademark. For example, our domain name is http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com. If we submitted the domain name for registration, only the "sandiegobusinesslawfirm" portion would be considered for a mark.

Locators Cannot Be Registered

A domain name is a locator for file pages. When you type in your domain name, a server locates and displays files. If a domain is used solely for this purpose, it will not be granted a mark. Instead, the domain name must be incorporated into the site. For instance, Amazon is recognized as an online bookstore and the site actually has the word "Amazon" on every page. Since "Amazon.com" is more than a locator, Amazon can apply for and receive a trademark. If Amazon used the domain name, bookstore.com, the company would be able to register "Amazon", but not "bookstore."

Generic and Descriptive Terms

Domain names that are generic or descriptive in nature cannot be registered because they fail to designate a distinctive product or service. For example, "sandiegobusinesslawfirm" is comprised of generic terms and describes who and where we are, to wit, a San Diego business law firm. This domain name cannot be trademarked. The same result would occur with bank.com, book.com, advice.com, etc.

You may be thinking, "What about 'Coke?' "Coke" is a trademarked term because it is a distinctive term for a soft drink product. It just so happens that a brilliant marketing plan has convinced most people to refer to soft drinks as "cokes", even if they actually prefer another brand!

Trademarks are an important factor in protecting your Internet business. Armed with a trademark, you can keep competitors from pulling traffic off the search engines when people search for your site.

Richard Chapo is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a law firm providing legal advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Domain Names Information:

Related Articles

Does the Length of a Domain Registration Affect Your Search Engine Rank?
Does the length of your website's domain name registration affect the search results at Google? This question has come up recently and a lot of website owners have been wondering about it, especially since it was mentioned in a patent awarded to Google in April. According to the patent, "Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains.
.info Freedom Frenzy
Whether you're someone that registers domain names on a regular basis, or you're a person looking to register one domain name for your website or business, then it's likely that you've encountered the free .info registrations taking place at several registrars.
How to Register an Expiring Domain
Understanding the process and options involved with registering an expiring domain can be a confusing task. How, Where, When?This article will explain the basic steps to researching an expiring domain name, and the many different options (or should I say necessary steps to insure success).
Domain Name Secrets Revealed
If internet is about interactivity between websites, domain name is the door for that interactivity. It is your online identity, very much like the name of your best friend, what is his very own personal identity.
Public Domain - Internet Gold Mine
With the advent of the internet and the ease of which information can readily be downloaded and compiled you would think that more people would realize that the public domain is a source of wonderful wealth that can be tapped into for huge profits.I have spent the last 4 years "discovering" little known secrets of this information that is readily available to those who know where to look.
A Guide to Sell Your Domain Name Quickly
Everyday I read this question on different forums "how I sell my domain quickly?" To me earning huge income from domain and selling it quickly are two different things, and you have to select one. Many newbie register a domain in the hope that next day someone will purchase it in two million dollars, which is obviously nonsense.
ICANN Registrar: za-Domains for Anybody
Cologne, 12.10.
Whats In A Name: Selecting the Right Business Name
With all that's written about selecting a domain name, I thought I would address the ART of selecting a name for your business. It's by no means an easy task or one that should be taken lightly.
Know How DNS Works
Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets.
All-time Record of Domain Registrations
The number of registered domains has reached an all-time high of more than 60 million domain names worldwide.Figures show that country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) are the fastest growing market, while general demand for new domains remains strong.
How To Buy And Sell Domain Names Part Time For Profit Part 2
Let's just take a quick glimpse at what we've done so far:We've used www.wehavethem.
Making Money with Expired Domains
There are billions of websites and thousands more popping up each day and they all require a name. As competition on the Internet intensifies, more and more people are actively looking for a quality domain for their site.
Selecting Your Domain Name - Things to consider
Selecting your domain nameSelecting a domain name can be a very frustrating process as a lot of domains have been sold already. With 30.
Making Money from Parked Domains
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired.
Public Domain Works Are Closer Than They Appear
Searching for public domain works can be a tedious job and take several hours just to find one or two good publications.There are hundreds, if not thousands of quality databases online you can use to search for public domain content, but are you aware of the places offline you can visit starting tomorrow morning and walk away with a handful of public domain publications you can duplicate.
Get Your Own Domain Name Or Die Online
Would you buy from someone with an "@yahoo.com" e-mail address? I wouldn't.
ICANN Registrar: Great promotion by is-domains!
ICANN accredited registar Secura is announcing today, that the company offers is-domains to persons and companies outside from Iceland.The is-domains, which are the domains from Iceland, belong to the domains, which become more and more attractive.
Domain Name Registration and Privacy
The internet is a wonderful thing, except for a few small details. When you register your first domain name, you get your introduction to one of them.
Choosing A Domain Name
--About Domain Names--Choosing a domain name for your web site is a major step for any individual or organization. You need domain names that are sticky, short, meaningful, easy to remember and at the roll of your tongue!It is very easy to choose a domain name but difficult to find a good name, simply because of the fact that most of the good domain names are taken up by organisations.
How to Choose the Right Domain Name for Your Company
As the editor of DomainNameWire.com, I'm frequently e-mailed by people asking for domain name advice.