Trademarking a domain?

[domainacrobat]

I won a great name from an expired auction about 6 months ago. Next day I had an offer for 5x what I paid, luckily it fell through as a month later I had 2 endusers emailing me direct from whois. I was never able to come to an agreement so I really want to develop this name. I know if I start developing now I will have more leverage, alot more the next time another enduser knocks on my door. So I did some TM searches on the term, it is a 2 word domain, the words had been TMed several times in the past and all claims are now dead. Good for me.

Here is where it gets tricky. I may only have a small window of opportunity. All viable extensions of this name are taken. I do not own the .COM. The .COM is medioric site that serves as a simple affiliate site with no real content of its own. Not really my concern. But, there is a site going live within the next 30 days with a "the" in front of it and in .com. They will be serving the exact same type of content, essentially a very very similar name, and very very similar intent for use. I am fearful that they will TM the name once the site launches with the same word mark as my domain. This could result in companies looking elsewhere for names to market themselves with as they would not be able to use the TMed name. As I have had $XXXXX range interest in this name it would be a big loss if I am unable to sell it to a large company due to this new site being launched/tmed.

Is this a possibility?


I wish to develop this name over the next week and launch. I also want to TM it asap. I do not want their domain. Nor do I want to impede them from developing. I do not want to reverse hijack their domain. I do however wish to preserve my equal right to sell this name in the future. Also some leverage against major companies would be helpful. Please help or send me in the right direction. Any advice or suggestions are welcome. If I am in the wrong here let me know and set me on the right path.


thanks!

 

[Domagon]

If you don't own the .COM, perhaps unloading it for big bucks asap and buying a quality .COM instead is the way to go...

Perhaps consider buying the .COM version with the mediocre site on it that you mentioned.

You face a double-whammy here - the "the" prefixed domain you're speaking of and also the .com version identical to yours that you also don't own. Sounds like a recipe for confusion...

Legally, you may be ok, if you develop your domain asap, but from a practical standpoint, you'll likely be wasting a lot of money / goodwill in that many people will likely hit one the of .com versions instead.

I'm guessing, based on your sig, the domain you have is in .TV? ... if so, you're likely better off selling it anyways, since ccTLDs tend to be unstable - difficult to brand / protect ccTLD domains longterm, since they are ultimately governed by the laws, customs, etc of the country (ie. Tuvalu controls .TV) to which they are assigned.

Ron

 

[labrocca]

Great post sir.

Here is my input. It seems the name might be rather generic for use am I not right? This might make it hard to TM for the usage. Take for example searchengine.com. You can't actually TM the name for search engine usage.

If the domain is not generic in nature to the usage then you might want to speed up some development or a sale.