Something I always wanted to know...let's say it's 1999 and you own educationcorp.com (but you don't get a registered trademark). Later in 2006, someone somewhere else in the country trademarks/creates/incorporates a company named EducationCorp, which is in the educational field. After that happens, the owner of educationcorp.com, the domain name, decides to put up a website within the educational field. Which one gets the ultimate right to that company name? Also, would the company from 2006 have any right to make it impossible for the domain owner from 1999 to ever use that domain name within the same business category?
Trademarks are a race to the marketplace. One cannot claim a trademark and not use it in commerce. So, in your example the company who started actual business under that name would have the rights. Assuming the company that you say "trademarks/creates/incorporates" actually does some sort of business, then they would have the rights to the trademark. The first one to use the mark in commerce would have the stronger rights to the name. If you just buy the domain name kljhflwehf.com and do nothing with it. I start a t-shirt company by that same name a year later and actually makes sales under that name. I could keep you from using that domain name for anything related to clothing. You would probably have the rights to use the name for some unrelated purpose.
Thanks! I see exactly what you mean. So, basically the domain owner would keep the domain but be forced to use it under another business category. In regard to "first use" or implied trademark, couldn't the domain name owner say that he is the rightful owner of that phrase, and use his WHOIS record as timestamped proof?
Rights are disputed every other day. That's what lawyers and courts are for. Although understandable, your example is rather flawed in the sense that one generally can't use a word or so as a trademark for its generic meaning. The one from browntwn's better, but I get your drift of whether one can still claim a domain name after its trademark namesake existed. (the MySpace.co.uk is one example to look up...) To answer your second question, yes if they indeed have a trademark. It's a race, as browntwn also said. No. Registering a domain name doesn't grant any intellectual property right of any sort, and that's stated in your registration agreement.
I think you've got it. You would need to do something other than merely own the domain. You would need to engage in some type of commerce. It does not mean you have to sell a product, but you do have to do some type of business with the name.