3 steps for acquiring a domain name
Domain names have become a necessity today. Unfortunately, acquiring a domain name can be confusing, difficult, and time-consuming. Before acquiring a domain name, an online business should consider the availability of trademarks and the availability of corporate names in addition to the availability of the domain. The main steps in acquiring a domain name are discussed below.
1. Trademark availability. What key trademark will the company adopt in the future to identify itself as the source of its goods or services? For the trademark strategy, will the company name be the same as the trademark? Will the trademark predominantly identify the company or a specific good or service? Once those questions are answered, care must be taken to ensure that the trademark is available. Trademark authorization searches can be performed to make this determination. Typically, a search is performed on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Electronic Trademark Search System (TESS). Additional resources for trademark searches may include state trademark offices and Internet searches. For a fee, commercial search services are also available and include more comprehensive search databases.
2. Availability of the company name. In addition to trademarks, many state offices of the Secretary of State prevent the registration of company names and DBAs that are similar. Before committing to the domain name, an analysis should be done to ensure that a matching business name can actually be registered. If not available, the domain can still be purchased and a matching trademark can be adopted. However, it is useful to know the availability in advance.
3. Availability of domain names. Finally, now that the trademark and company name issues have been addressed, the domain name availability search can be completed. If the domain name is intended to be used in conjunction with an application, a fourth step may be required to ensure that the domain name is available in the various application stores.
If the desired domain name is not available (either with a .com TLD or one of the many other TLDs), the online company can acquire the domain name through a transfer from the external registrant. After acquisition, care must be taken to protect the domain from opposing parties who may seek to negotiate the goodwill associated with the brand. Domain theft or hijacking are additional risks. The domain owner must also enable automatic renewal to prevent loss of domain registration due to inadvertent.
While the above identifies a number of Internet and e-commerce issues affecting domain name acquisition, an in-depth analysis may be required. For more information, you may want to contact a domain name attorney with experience in domain name acquisition, trademark authorization, and corporate name authorization.
Disclaimer: As with any discussion of legal issues, this article is intended to be educational only and is not a substitute for legal advice, does not provide legal advice, or form an attorney-client relationship with the reader. Seek legal advice before making any decisions. Also, please note that this article may not be updated, so the law and circumstances may have changed by the time you have read this article.