Domain name
registration and copyright infringement
By
Stanley Spencer
A very important
question arises in the early stages of development of a web
site - what would be the most appropriate domain name?
Domain names are representative of the address for a web
site, and there is a rising trend of incidents of disputes
over domain name registration with increased usage of
Internet.
There are numerous factors that have led to a crisis of
domain registration disputes and this, in turn, has led to a
rapid increase in the reported cases of infringement of
domain names. Several companies have taken legal action
against other companies or individuals over alleged
copyright violation on the domain names.
There are some basics that you should understand before
choosing a domain name registration:
1. Use of two similar trademarks should not confuse
customers about the products or services.
2. If there is a legal conflict over use of similar
trademarks, the first user is likely to win the case.
3. The later user would to give up his claim if he cannot
proves his point and may have to pay the first owner
damages.
You should apply these principles to your domain
registration selection process:
1. The best method to avoid conflict of trademarks is to
search the trademark database of the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov. It provides you with all
registered and pending trademarks. Try to search for your
proposed trademark as well as other similar names and
variant spellings. 2. You must be able to justify your
reason for using the name. Your domain registration should
principally consist of a name you are using as a trade name,
trademark or corporate name.
3. It is better to select more than one name since you are
not sure about the availability of the required domain name.
If on searching for the desired domain name, you find that
the name has already been registered but there is no content
being displayed at the domain, try to find out the details
of the owner of the domain registration. It is possible that
he/she may be genuine and have yet not published any
content.
But it is equally possible that the owner does not plan to
develop a web site and is willing to give you the domain at
the original price. You must confirm that the seller has
ownership rights for that particular domain name
registration.
The regulations governing copyright issues for domain names
are governed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN).
It is very likely that you would lose right of your domain
name registration if you have intentionally chosen a name
similar to another domain name so as to confuse potential
visitors to the site. For example, if your site deals in
consumer electronics goods made by a Samsung competitor, do
not choose the name "samsungbusiness.com" since a court is
most likely to pass a verdict that you selected this name to
divert attention of Samsung customers.
There could be others reasons of losing a domain
registration:
1. You have never carried out any business under that name
2. There is no person in your company similar to that name
3. You are planning to sell that domain name to your
competitor for financial gain.
If your domain name is same as your name then you may be
allowed to continue to use it, despite of the fact that it
is similar to someone else's domain name. But the usage of
such a name is governed by certain condition set by court.
For example, Mr. Suki Nokia, who runs a cosmetics business,
may be allowed to use the domain name "nokia.kr" but he
would barred from using his site to demonstrate any
electronics-related information or advertising.
A very useful tip to buy all three of the top level domains
- .com, .net and .org. You should buy all possible
misspellings of your domain name before anybody else takes
advantage of this fact.
If on searching, you find similar names, ask yourself the
following questions:
1. Will the products/services on your site compete with the
products/services on similar domain names?
2. Will your distribution channels for products be same for
products being sold under the similar domain names?
3. Will your site distract business away from the site with
the similar name?
4. Is the other name quite famous?
If you get negative answers to all these questions, you can
feel confident to go ahead with your domain name
registration without any worry of a legal hassle.
About the Author
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