Use a Trademark Domain Name? – Not a Good Idea!
The domain name industry is a great area to be involved in, but as any other one, it has its ups and downs. The biggest downs are ownership conflicts for some domains.
Copyrights and trademarks are something you should respect, otherwise you might end up in countless court hearings and spend a lot of money until the dispute gets solved. What is it all about?
a) You Are Not the Trademark Owner
If you’re going to register a domain name that is exact copy of some trademark, let’s say – Coca Cola – you might register it, but it’s a question of days until you get a letter from some high class lawyer. Don’t fool yourself; you will have a chance to give up the domain name and maybe get some small fee for your good will, or you will get sued.
This is not the scenario where you are the owner of some public domain name which everybody wants. Trademarks and copyrights can get you in big trouble, so be careful with your domain registration motives. Similar domain names (CoocaCola) might also get you into trouble.
It’s not just the trademark that matters – if you have a product with a a name similar to the popular soda drink, how will people ever get to your site? You might get them confused with some other products. The only way to keep your domain name which is under some sort of a trademark conflict is to actually have some business running as well as some strong arguments.
b) You Are the Trademark Owner
On the other hand, you might be the trademark owner, but the domain you want is already registered. You open up the site and see nothing other than a bunch of ads; contact the owner and inform him of your rights on that domain name. If that doesn’t work out, you should contact ICANN who governs copyright issues in the domain name industry. Eventually, you’ll have to take some legal actions.
The one thing you shouldn’t agree to is blackmail, or to be more precise – the efforts of the domain owner to get some extra cash from you. You are the trademark owner.
Learn From Mistakes
If you’ve ever had some problems because you owned a trademark protected domain name, you should know enough not to do it again, right? On the other hand, if you are a trademark owner, think about investing in more domain names, with different TLDs and maybe even misspelled ones.
