Let's say I'm starting a new (hypothetical) business (in the U.S.) named Geezak Aerial Tours, and the following things are true:
(1) There is no registered trademark that has anything to do with "Geezak"
(2) An Internet search does not turn up any active websites or businesses with "Geezak" in the name
BUT
(3) There is a domain name registered (with no active website on it) called geezakaerial.com
If I register the domain name geezakaerialS.com (with an S on the end) would the owner of geezakaerial.com (which was registered before I started my business) ever be able to make a viable legal claim to take over my domain in any of the following cases?
(a) They had no business license under that name or business activity or website
(b) They had a business license under that name but had no significant business activity (no services provided or revenue collected) and no website
(c) They had a business license and business activity under that name (before I started my business) but no website or registered a trademark for that name
If I register the trademark and have business activity under that name, could I make a claim to their domain even though they registered it before I started my business but didn't have business activity under that name or a website on that domain? Can simply registering the domain be considered business activity? The WHOIS is private It seems maybe I need to find a search function that will search all U.S. STATE Business License databases because they could have a business license under that name in a state and just have not launched their website yet?
(1) There is no registered trademark that has anything to do with "Geezak"
(2) An Internet search does not turn up any active websites or businesses with "Geezak" in the name
BUT
(3) There is a domain name registered (with no active website on it) called geezakaerial.com
If I register the domain name geezakaerialS.com (with an S on the end) would the owner of geezakaerial.com (which was registered before I started my business) ever be able to make a viable legal claim to take over my domain in any of the following cases?
(a) They had no business license under that name or business activity or website
(b) They had a business license under that name but had no significant business activity (no services provided or revenue collected) and no website
(c) They had a business license and business activity under that name (before I started my business) but no website or registered a trademark for that name
If I register the trademark and have business activity under that name, could I make a claim to their domain even though they registered it before I started my business but didn't have business activity under that name or a website on that domain? Can simply registering the domain be considered business activity? The WHOIS is private It seems maybe I need to find a search function that will search all U.S. STATE Business License databases because they could have a business license under that name in a state and just have not launched their website yet?
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