Covering Your URLs (part 1)
by SmartSamantha
So you have your great new company name and you’re ready to register your domain. But do you have all your URLs covered?
I recently received an on-line offer from a female entrepreneur to buy one of my registered domain names. She had started a business using the plural version of one of my names. It was hard to say no, but I love this term and have the trademark on it pending.
With that request, the light bulb went off. How many entrepreneurs fail to cover their URLs?
So, I called Laurence “Larry” P. Colton, my intellectual property attorney with Smith Gambrell & Russell, in Atlanta, about this issue.
Before you buy, Larry recommends doing these free searches first:
- Do a domain search at www.whois.net to make sure it is available as a domain name.
- Check with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm) to see if your proposed name is already trademarked. Even if you only plan on using your domain name as a domain name, if someone else is using it as a trademark or company name, this could cause big problems for you. About the last thing you want to happen is to have the domain name taken from you in a UDRP proceeding or to be sued for trademark infringement. (UDRP stands for Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and consists of a set of rules which help decide who ought to own a particular domain name in the case of a dispute over ownership.)
- Google your proposed name and see what comes up. If it is very popular, there goes your uniqueness.
You want to see if anyone else is using your proposed domain name in any way first, before you spend a lot of time and money on a domain that you just might not be able to use.
If you have questions during your search, or if you do come up with someone else using your proposed domain name, talk with a legal expert. Then, if you feel comfortable that your domain name is unique, start getting your domain “wish list” together.
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