Hi all! I have a question about TM right for a certain name. Ok here is the story: I am making plans to start a SEO related internet service mostly targeting customers in the U.S. Now if I would register a firm name in my home country (SWE) and then buy the .com version of the name. (which I already have done) If I would then get my SEO biz site online on that domain with a Swedish firm name and the .com version of the name, could anyone then steal that domain from me. Do I have to register a firm name in the US as well? Do I have to Nameprotect my name somehow or what are the rules? I found a good domain which I registered which I dont want to loose the right of having. The domain name itself is really US and SEO related also. Would be great to hear from you guys with some experience on this Thank u for reading!
Trademarks and copyrights are international I believe. To be better safe than sorry a copyright lawyer should give you a better more educated answer. If there is an on this forum to respond would be great.
Yeah! hehe it sure would be great but I just wanted to talk about it a little bit I am not expecting no one to give me a perfect answer... I am just checking if someone might know a little bit because that would also help me a lot
I am not a lawyer. I have checked on some of the above a few times. If your domain name is not already the same as or very close to an existing trademarked name you should have no fear of losing the domain name once you establish "first use". As an exampe read the thread on this forum about Google not owing the adsense.??? domain name. When it comes to the actual business name, the more steps you take to protect it the better you off you are. In a phone conversation with the registar in my states Sec of State office I was told that using the domain name as the company name and being able to prove "first use" and "continued use" was evidence of a trademark. Doesn't mean you would win but makes a strong argument. The closer linked the business name and domain name the stronger. Your doing business as Acme Widgets Company and have the domain name widgets.com is not as strong as having the domain name AcmeWidgetsCompany.com. Here in the states the trademark chain from lowest to highest is: local registration with a D/B/A (doing business as) state trademark registration Federal trademark usually is enforcable internationally is the civalized world. Hope this helps.
There's no such thing as an "international" trademark, unfortunately. Trademarks are not necessarily enforced worldwide. It is entirely possible to have a trademark in one country identical to one in another country. You won't always win... Your best bet: register the trademark in every country where you plan to do business or want to protect it. The U.S. and Sweden/EU would be good places to start.
Thanks for the answers If you would make a qualified guess on what the prices are what would you say it would be for Name protecting etc. I surfed the web for some info and those prices I found on some websites was extremly high and seems a little bit unrealistic for me to pay such high annual fees. I guess you really can not be on the complete safe side if you got a small budget which means anyone with money seeing you as a threat might just squish you without problems. But I guess this isn´t the whole story because I believe that there must be some plan your goverment (US) have for small business owners on how to protect them. But on second thought I am also foreign if you look at it from a (US) perspective, which might mean that I dont have the same rights as american citizens would have in matters like this.
I am with Colbyt, if your only concern is the .com domain name then there is nothing you really need to do. The situation falls into one of two categories: 1) Either there is an existing US trademark on that name but they never registered the domain (in which case nothing you can really do except hope they never want it) or 2) There is no existing US trademark (in which case if a company decides to TM that name in the future then they would have no right to your domain as you had it prior to their TM) This is not to say that a company TMing the name might not try to take it from you but I would think they would have little ground to stand on.
Let me clarify thewindmaster's post just a bit...in scenario #1, you definitely are out of luck. In scenario #2, you don't necessarily win. Here, the battle is over who has the earliest commercial use. If another company decides to trademark and can show that they were using the name before you in a simiilar/comparable area where there would be confusion between the marks, you'll lose. Even if your concern is just the .com, I would still file the trademark application. You can look at other companies in your space to see how they have filed THEIR trademarks and you can follow the on-line form pretty easily. The USPTO charges roughly $300 (maybe higher now?) per mark.
$300 is the going rate still at the USPTO but in my limited experience it is usually best to have it filed by a professional to get it accepted (usually $500 to $1000 fee to the lawyer) It really depends on how much you want to spend in trying to secure the domain name. I would think any firm in that industry that has any tie to the TM in question would have already registered the domain name. If someone does want to challenge you. It would generally be much cheaper to pay you a hefty some for the domain rather than deal with a costly court battle. In that scenario you could come out on top as well.
It costs $300 to trademark a name. You can get the info. at uspto.gov. You can file online, it is very easy to do, I have done it many times. It will take about 1.5 year before, you get the trademark but you are protected in the mean time. You have to apply for all the categories that you want to protect (each category costs) and you are only protected in that category. Citizenship is no problem, as a foreigner you can file for both patent and trademark.