Nooby Question RE: .net doman

[Noober]

Hey everyone,

I am looking to register a one keyword .net domain which means nothing to most people at the moment but i expect will get a load of searches in the coming weeks or months.

imagine if you knew the name of a cool new product and registered kindle.net or something before most people knew what it was.

the word im talking about is probably nowhere near as good as kindle (though it may be), but just for the example.



how much value is there in this?



i was originally going to ask whether i should take .net or .org (both available) but having read around the answer seems to be .net but even better take both?

the .com and .co.uk are already gone (its a uk thing)

having written all the above i guess most of you will point out that theres no way anyone can tell unless they know what the domain actually is...

should i register on godaddy, come back and if the response is bad get a refund on mis-spelling or something? (i read on here you can do that?)




SORRY for the ramble.


Please advise!


Thanks and sorry if ive posted in the wrong place.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Cool new product... Have you looked into trademark issues?

 

[Noober]

was wondering... no i havent.

its not a product but it is a name.

(on a side note, would kindle or ipad.net be definitely infringing trademarks or is it on a more case by case basis?)

 

[HC82]

kindle and ipad are TM names yes - lots of people still reg all sorts of names having to do with them though.

product.net or .org is alright but you might be better off getting productxxxxx.com such as forum, forums, blog etc, names that TM holders likely wont come after you for and that you could develop or sell.

hard to give exact advice without knowing the product.

good luck, and try and stick with .com!!!

 

[m-i-k-e]

A lot of it has to do with whether or not you've registered the domain in good faith. Seeing as that you want to register the name because of the way it is being marketed by somebody else lends itself towards a 'bad faith' registration. How you use the domain also plays a big role.

Domains and TM rules are not totally transparent even when they seem very clear one way or the other. The best chance of keeping yourself safe is to not register any domain with the sole intent of benefitting off of somebody else's hard work.

here is one tool you can use to search for trademarks: United States Patent and Trademark Office

There is a lot more info on this forum. It's worth some research.

---------- Post added at 12:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

(on a side note, would kindle or ipad.net be definitely infringing trademarks or is it on a more case by case basis?)

In the case of ipad - The domain ipad.com was registered in 1997 and isn't owned by Apple.

If you registered Ipad.(random extension) today, Apple would likely have a case against you, unless you have a company the has a history of using the acronym i.p.a.d, unless your company is selling some type of similar products, unles..... It has gets very convoluted. There are domain lawyers that specialize in this type of law.

 

[Noober]

wow thanks guys, really interesting info.

would apple, bmw, anyone, ever realistically come after you if you registered a domain along those lines? (i know the olympics come down hard on anyone breaching their copyrights)


also, any ideas on registering and refunding on godaddy (or other places)?

then i could stop trying to be secretive

 

[m-i-k-e]

A lot of big companies have a history of coming after domain owners that are 'squatting' on TM domains. Usually it's just a letter saying, "Transfer the domain over to us or else", but in other cases companies have sued people for big bucks.

Godaddy has a 120 hour grace period for most major extensions. Grace delete = Delete the domain and get your money back.

 

[banners]

Your questions are making me think that you might not want to go after this name that you are thinking of due to TM issues.

better safe than sorry in my opinion.