How many TLD's should you register to cover yourself legally?

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by Woodcs82, Oct 1, 2007.

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  1. #1
    How many TLD's should you register to cover yourself legally?

    I have the .com and .net

    is that enough?
     
    Woodcs82, Oct 1, 2007 IP
  2. bluegrass special

    bluegrass special Peon

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    #2
    Cover yourself legally how? The act of registering a domain does not give you any protection against others registering the same with a different TLD. What gives you protection is either registering a trademark or being the first to use the mark in trade. Even that is limited protection.

    The same mark can be used by more than one company if the second company offers unrelated services. That is assuming that the domain you want to protect is even eligible for trademark protection. If another comapny has already used it for similar services, or the phrase is merely descriptive ("Pink Grapefruit" could be trademarked by a bicycle company, but it could not be registered as a trademark for actual pink grapefruits), then the mark has no merit.
     
    bluegrass special, Oct 1, 2007 IP
    Woodcs82 likes this.
  3. gult

    gult Peon

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    #3


    Yeah, I too agree on this. Only a trademark can become obstacle to the people who try to register other TLD s of a domain name. It's better to register all popular domains if it's for business use :)
     
    gult, Oct 1, 2007 IP
  4. Woodcs82

    Woodcs82 Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Thank you,

    When trademarking the Logo and name, does this cost a lot and is it hard to do?

    Thanks again,
    C
     
    Woodcs82, Oct 1, 2007 IP
  5. bluegrass special

    bluegrass special Peon

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    #5
    The application for a trademark is not hard to fill out or that expensive (less than $500). However, filing registration does not mean you will get it. If they do not approve the application the money is not refunded. The more difficult and costly part of doing this correctly is the trademark search. You can try to do that on your own. There is a database of registered trademarks, but you have to check a different source for pending applications. Moreover, there is no complete database of common-law trademarks. To pay a firm to do the search for you can range from several hundred to a couple grand.
     
    bluegrass special, Oct 1, 2007 IP
  6. ipwatchdog

    ipwatchdog Peon

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    #6
    I have detailed information about how to obtain a US trademark. See:

    Trademark Applications

    I used to have a bunch of alternative domains (i.e., .net .info .org) but I never found that useful. My site is a real niche though, so by not getting the alternatives I am not really missing out on any traffic. I would think that if you are getting heavy traffic you would be much better off by getting misspellings of your domain name, which would prevent a typosquatter from doing the same. I would really only suggest this if there is a common misspelling or typo error that users will likely make.

    I hope this helps. Good luck.

    -Gene
     
    ipwatchdog, Oct 1, 2007 IP