How To Avoid Legal Trouble From Trademark
Infringement When You Buy A Domain Name
By Gregg Hall
So you have a hot idea for a website, or maybe you want to
capitalize on a hot new product that has just been released.
There are some things that you will want to know first before
you get yourself in a lot of hot water.
Choosing a domain name isn't really rocket science but it
is very important. You want to choose something that is as
short as possible, easy to pronounce and remember for marketing
purposes, and if at all possible you want to get your main
keywords in the domain name. All that aside, you also have
to be careful that you don't step on the toes of a person
or company who may be inclined to sue you.
For example, judges have ruled against domain name squatters
in every case where they registered a celebrity's name. They
will also rule against companies that infringe upon other
companies. A good case in point would be the case a couple
of years ago between the World Wrestling Federation and the
World Wildlife Foundation. The World Wrestling Federation
called itself the "WWF", put up a website at wwf.com,
and the World Wildlife Foundation filed a trademark infringement
suit against them. The Wildlife Foundation won because they
had been in existence for many years before the wrestling
firm and therefore the World Wrestling Federation had to change
its name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Obviously this
cost them a great some of money to change their name that
appeared on millions of marketing products all over the world
as well as the expense they had put up on their website and
online marketing.
Another more recent issue that is still ongoing is the battle
between Apple and the V.O.I.P. product "iphone"
from Cisco. Apple announced they would be bringing a product
to market called the Apple iPhone to go along with their other
products that start with an "I". Cisco promptly
filed for injunctive relief and as of this writing the issue
is unresolved.
There are a few basic guidelines that will help keep you
out of trouble when you are choosing a domain name so you
don't run into legal trouble from violating someone’s
trademark. Let's take a look at them.
First off you need to realize that a name that is used to
identify a particular service or product is a recognized trademark.
Trademarks that are deemed to be suggestive and memorable
are granted protection by both state and federal law.
A confliction of trademarks occurs when one trademark is
in conflict with another and the deployment of both is probably
going to be confusing to customers or would be customers concerning
the company's products or services. As I illustrated above,
when the legal issue is with a later user of a trademark,
the law rules that the first commercial user of the trademark
is the legal owner and is therefore given protection. The
loser will be forced to cease using the trademark and may
even be compelled to pay damages to the original owner, particularly
if it is determined that they were malicious in their intent.
The smart thing to do is to consult a trademark lawyer and
have them check out your idea for a domain name before you
invest too much in developing and marketing it.
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida.
Find more about this as well as intellectual property attorneys
at http://www.focusonip.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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