Obtaining trademark for website - Is it possible and if yes how

To start with...let me just give a brief background....

I am operating a website which is mainly information collected from various sources over past many years about examinations in India.

The site well has severeal thousands pages now.

Is it possible to obtain a trademark for my website name or something of that sort in India or is there a global trademark possible.

It would be great if anybody can relate or has gone through the process and can share his experiences.

Also any particular reference or direction or source where i can get more info or help would be extremely appreciated.

thanks

 

You can obtain a trademark on the company name, or maybe even part of the domain name but you cannot obtain a trademark on the url itself. For example, assuming it isn't already trademarked, you can get a trademark on "xyzindia" but you cannot get a trademark on "www.xyzindia.com" because this is only a convenient way of representing the univeral resource locator number, e.g. "145.0.0.67"

 

I have several Federally Registered Trademarks in the United States. I do not know about International protection or classes outside of the US. I do know some nations do not recognize them at all or look the other way. i. e.China is a huge source for knockoffs of trademarked goods.

You don't need a registered trademark to own the rights to the name. You need to have been the first to use it. You can't see someone else using a name, decided you like it, then rush out and get a trademark to claim it. The first one to use that name, for that use, has rights to it.

A Trademark establishes when you started using it and also allows for you to collect tripple damages. It is a good way to advertise that the name is being used.

I am not sure what you are asking.... if you already own the domain name, what are you trying to protect, someone from using it somewhere else, like a brick and mortar store?

To get broad trademark protection (all classes) you are talking about spending a huge sum of money. A trademark also takes about six years to be fully established in the US. During this period, someone else can come forward and say they used the trademark first. If they can prove it, you lose the trademark. After 6 years (1 year recording, 5 years waiting) your right to the trademark becomes incontestable.

After you get your trademark, you must defend it or you will lose your rights if you allow others to use it without taking action against them. It becomes genericized.

You must first determine if anyone else used the trademark in the same way before you? If so, you cannot trademark it. There are also names in the common domain that cannot be trademarked.

 

Great advices above. If you're talking about trademarking a site name and if it's the same like your companys name then it is suficient to protect your company name and the protection will extend to your website name.

 

You have to be careful with that statement. It depends on the name of your company. Trademarks are given by classification, and your protection extends only to that use.

I have trademarks on a four letter tradename in several classifications, however I do not own the four letter domain name, nor do I have any right to it because the company that uses the four letter domain has nothing to do with the type of business I have.

For instances, say someone had the trademark on "Apple" for a clothing line they produced and they had registered www.apple.com. Apple Computer could not do anything about it or have rights to the name if they didn't hold the trademark for "apple" clothing. If "Apple Clothing" started advertising computers, then they would be infringing upon Apple Computer's trademark.

You can spend over a million dollars getting a trademark in every classification-- and of course that would offer the broadest protection - but isn't feasible for most.

If you had the trademark "Apple Clothing" and that was also your domain name, then you would be protected.

 

thanks everybody for sharing their valuable knowledge,

i think i will go ahead with the trademark stuff as its the only legal protection which seems feasible right now.

let me see what are the requirements here in india to actually do that.

 

This is all news to me. Last I looked you could not "trademark" just a name. You could "servicemark" it. You get the same protection, but it is a different term. I thought you could only "trademark" a product. Something tangeable. See http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmfaq.htm . Then again, I am not a lawyer so I know diddle squat about such things.

 

by looking at the application, you have to actually submit samples of your products...

I do not see anything about any domains/urls being covered as part of a trademark, but
if you are using your trademark name in your domain, then of course you would be
protected regardless, so why would it matter....

 

Hi,
Do you know if your name is even capable of being trademarked for example is it descriptive, "The Vegetarian burgers company" Have you done a check to see if another business has a very similar name. For example, if you were selling burgers Mickdonalds would be extremely hard to trademark.

Cheers Don