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Avoid Trademark Infringement When You Choose a Domain Name
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If the answers to all these questions are no, you can feel reasonably free to go ahead and use your domain name without fear of creating a legal conflict. If you answer yes to any of them, there will be some risk of a legal challenge down the road. If you aren't sure, take an informal poll of friends. Would they be confused by the simultaneous use of the two names? Might they end up on the wrong website? Another option is to run the possible conflicts by a trademark attorney. Although you can anticipate that the attorney will be more conservative than is actually necessary, you still may benefit from having a trained eye go over your circumstances. For more information about trademarks, see Enforcing Your Trademark Rights.)
| Domain Name Bullies |
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Sometimes a powerful company tries to force a smaller one to give up a domain name that was legally acquired in good faith by the smaller company. Because trademark conflicts are ultimately resolved in court, a business that can easily afford to pay lawyers is in a powerful position to sue the smaller company for trademark infringement (assuming there is any basis for doing so, which there usually is). When the smaller company realizes that it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to defend the suit, the big guy proposes a settlement under which the small company parts with the name for a relatively meager sum. In other words, the powerful company ends up getting what it wants simply because the court system is manifestly unfair to those who can't afford attorneys.
There are strategies to fight this sort of bullying. If the small company has the resources, of course, it can mount a defense and actually win. In addition, the Internet community has been extremely hostile to online bullies, and out-of-court campaigns sometimes make them back down. For more on this issue, visit the Domain Name Rights Coalition at www.domainnamerights.org
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