I've never quite understood this, but there's got to be a ton of trademark issues concerning websites. Usually, there is a common use law, so even if you don't trademark the unique name, you still have rights to it. Now, if you trademark a name how do you establish initial usage rights if others have the same url in the .net, .org? Thoughts?
Owning a domain gives you no trademark rights. First and continued usage of the mark in commerce can give you rights for your particular usage, not exclusive usage to the term. Apple Corp owns the trademark for "apple" as it relates to computers (and other usages) but not exclusive rights to the word "apple". I could use apple.xxx for a site about fruit and not be infringing. Trademarks are granted by classification - and there are over 40 different classifications.
thanks for the advice. but what if you someone is doing appleaccessories.com and appleaccessories.net? will there be an issue, because clearly they're in the same market, yet the name might not be so unique... i'd love to hear what you think.
The name doesn't have to be an exact match. Adding words like "accessories" does NOT get around infringement. Even foreign spellings, misspellings, phonetic spellings can all be trademark infringement.
mjewel - in my example above, you're saying that appleaccessories.com and appleaccessories.net - assume .com provided products or services first - .net is infringing on .com's rights? thanks for the clarification.
If the .net was selling products that were related or similar to the .com AND the .com had trademark rights. It doesn't matter if the .com was first, .com still has to demonstrate it is was the first user of the mark in commerce, in that particular classification (type of usage), with continued use. Hypothetically speaking, the .com could have been before the .net, but the .org holds trademark rights because its usage predated both. Establishing a trademark is not limited to usage on a website, it would be possible that a mail order business with no website had been using "Apple" before the .net, .com, or .org - thus establishing first usage rights. In that case, the mail order business could have an infringement cause against all three. That is why a full trademark search should be performed prior to using a mark. A good search will run at least several hundred dollars.
thanks for the response. my follow on question will be, what is "appleaccessories" is not a unique name? because doesn't that phrase need to be unique? if i owned .net, but .com had first usage rights i would just say that .net is a "generic" name? thanks again for your expertise.
The USAGE of the domain would determine if the name is generic. If "apple" is a trademark for computers or music, then any usage of "appleaccessories" for anything related to music or computers would be infringement, not a generic usage.
...hence the reason the Beatles got very upset when Apple Computers went global with Itunes and got seriously into the music industry.