How to stay out of trouble of trademarked domains?

[NeazMH]

Hello friends, This is Neaz. This is my first contribution to NP. I want newbies to know how to stay safe when choosing a domain name. That's why I'm writing.

Even though your choice of domain is brilliant, it may not be so neat from a legal perspective. If your domain name conflict with other company’s trademark, you may receive Cease-and-Desist (C&D) letter from trademark holder or company to stop using the domain. And your all money and sweat you have spent to develop it will go in vain. So, stay out of trademarked domains. Before I show you how to stay out of trouble of trademarked domains, I want you to check following two sources to understand trade mark problems in depth. I personally found following two links extremely helpful; that's why I'm sharing with you.

a) Youtube Interview with a Lawyer
b) A Huge List of FAQs about trademark

How to Stay Out of Trouble?
Are you bit scared? There is nothing to be scared at all. You will be just fine, if you follow the things I show before you register your domains.

The most important place to go for checking potential conflicts is the trademark database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov. To check for registered trademarks in the United States, follow following steps:

• Go to www.uspto.gov
• Now click on the Trademarks link.
• Then click on Search TM database (TESS).
• Click New User Form Search (Basic).
• Ok. Now type keywords from your planned domain name in the Search box and click Submit Query. Bingo!!! It will let you know whether there are any trademarks (dead or alive) for your given term.
• Repeat above process for all of your domains you want to register.

And you should do some Google Search with your domain related keywords which will tell you whether others are using it or not.

Hope this short tutorial helps.

Thanks
NeazMH

 

[leftfielder]

Great resources but you have to sift through alot of uncommon terms to find what you can use. Also, if you paid attention to the video, the lawyers says even if you do a search and there are no trademarks listed, it doesn't mean it's not a trademark.

Trademarks can sometimes be international. You can't always find international trademarks on a United States gov't website, therefore it isn't the most reliable or thorough.

Plus, just because you register a trademark, doesn't mean it's grounds for immediate cease and desist. Squatters purposely misguiding traffic for profit=cyberquatting or they buy domains, do nothing with them and have no interest in starting a legitimate site like "ebayhelpandassistance.com" or even "ebaysucks.com" that help the community.

If I started either site, I wouldn't be sued. I would have to make it obvious you aren't sponsored or affiliated with ebay. But if I were amazon.com and bought domains like that, forwarded them to my site, pretended to actually be ebay or sponsored by ebay, yeah, it's grounds for a cease and desist order.

 

[jberryhill]

a) Youtube Interview with a Lawyer

Ugh, that lawyer is an insufferable windbag, and not very photogenic.

• Ok. Now type keywords from your planned domain name in the Search box and click Submit Query. Bingo!!! It will let you know whether there are any trademarks (dead or alive) for your given term.

Ummm... that type of search will show you all sorts of things aside from trademarks.

It will show you newly-filed applications, it will show you still-pending refused applications, it will show you Supplemental Registrations (which are not marks), and it will show you US federally registered marks which, in the world of potential trademarks, is a subset. Of those first three categories, all will be marked "LIVE", and many of them will not be enforceable marks.

 

[kwok]

Ugh, that lawyer is an insufferable windbag, and not very photogenic.

Looking forward to your own YouTube video Mr. Berryhill. That would be very educational.

 

[jberryhill]

Looking forward to your own YouTube video Mr. Berryhill. That would be very educational.

I gather you missed the humor intended in my comment.

Pay close attention to where the lawyer is introduced.

It's just hard to compete with quality YouTube material like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp9Gm-aRe5A

 

[mdamin76]

Thanks for great tutorial.

 

[NeazMH]

Thanks for all comments . I have compiled a list of Trademark Search Databases. Hope you will like it.

Unites States: http://www.uspto.gov/
China: www.chinatrademarkdatabase.com
Russia: www.fips.ru/ensite/
Japan: www.jpo.go.jp/quick_e/index_search.htm
European Union : http://oami.europa.eu
Spain: http://www.oepm.es/
Australia: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search_index.shtml
Canada: http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/tmSrch.do?lang=eng
Germany: http://www.dpma.de/service/klassifikationen/nizzaklassifikation/suche/suchen.html
Slovenia: http://www2.uil-sipo.si/Que021.stm
Norway: http://www.patentstyret.no/en/english/Preliminary_Search_Service/Trademarks/
New Zealand: http://www.iponz.govt.nz/cms/banner_template/IPTM
Russia: http://www.fips.ru/ensite/dbs/dbs.htm
United Kingdom: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-os/t-find.htm

Neaz

 

[opalxx]

worldmark

Great resources but you have to sift through alot of uncommon terms to find what you can use. Also, if you paid attention to the video, the lawyers says even if you do a search and there are no trademarks listed, it doesn't mean it's not a trademark.

Trademarks can sometimes be international. You can't always find international trademarks on a United States gov't website, therefore it isn't the most reliable or thorough.

Plus, just because you register a trademark, doesn't mean it's grounds for immediate cease and desist. Squatters purposely misguiding traffic for profit=cyberquatting or they buy domains, do nothing with them and have no interest in starting a legitimate site like "ebayhelpandassistance.com" or even "ebaysucks.com" that help the community.

If I started either site, I wouldn't be sued. I would have to make it obvious you aren't sponsored or affiliated with ebay. But if I were amazon.com and bought domains like that, forwarded them to my site, pretended to actually be ebay or sponsored by ebay, yeah, it's grounds for a cease and desist order.

Interesting stuff. I have hornymatches.asia and i was toying with the idea of doing a blog keeping away as much as possible from the dot coms theme of an adult dating site. I found a usa trademark but not an australian trademark. Not sure how i search for an international trademark. How safe would i be doing the blog?

 

[FathomJH]

Great info. rep+