Hi, we are going to launch family portal and we are wondering which name for company to choose. Do you think it should be same as domain or different? Could company name protect us toward competition which can take same name if we don't have registered brand? 2nd question: If we don't register brand is any dangeour that somebody register it and say we can not use that domain anymore? Thank you
If you own the domain name and are using it before they register their company there is almost no chance that they will be able to seize it or prevent you from using it (in law there is never any certainty) If you do go for an alias domain you should also buy the company name as a domain too as inevitablly some people will remember that you are "HM Tool Supplies" and type that in rather than your alias "DIY.com" Not knowing where you are from, in the UK/ Europe it is a pain having a different domain name to your company name if you are selling anything as you legally must state "HM Tool Supplies t/a DIY.com" on the website, customer documents etc
That's interesting, in the US you can register with the state a DBA (Doing Business As) of your company's name, which can be a domain name, but you certainly don't have to.
In general, if you were the first one to start using it for commercial purposes then the branding/trademark rights are yours based on the common law even if the trademark is not registered. Unfortunately even if you do have your brand registered/trademarked, somebody still can get the domain name. You will have to go through expensive and rather long arbitration process such as UDRP to get it back. So if you have a unique brand name then you should register the domain ASAP
It is recent Europe legislation to bring things in line and to ensure that the customer knows who they are dealing with. If you are a sole trader you would have to put your own name on the site which has resulted in a few sites having the persons name trading as their company name trading as their online name... obviously most skip the middle and simply have persons name trading as their online name.