Trademarking a Domain Name

The Internet has allowed not only large corporations to earn a profit via the instant access of the web, but has helped thousands of small businesses to crop up and claim their share of the pie as well. With all of this competition in a wide open marketplace, how does one protect one's business from identity theft?

You've worked hard to establish a market, you don't want someone making a profit off of your name or identity. You want your customers to find you. One of the best ways of protecting your business identity online is by trademarking your domain name. Why go to the trouble of trademarking your domain name and what can a trademark registration do for you?

Trademarking a domain name offers you legal recourse against any entity that registers a similar domain name to yours. If someone steals your customers by utilizing a similar domain name to sell similar goods or services, you may have strong legal grounds to take their domain name away from them if you have a federal trademark registration for your business name.

How do most people find things online? They use a search engine. Search engines are easily manipulated using search engine optimization techniques, so it's not difficult for another entity to steer customers searching for you to a similarly named site. This can not only cost a business money, it can damage a reputation. What if your thieving competitor then rips off your client or gives them shabby goods or service, all while the client believes she is doing business with you? Trademarking your domain name can help mitigate such situations by providing you with federal rights to the exclusive use of your business name.

Trademarking your domain name offers the protection of legal recourse if someone tries to steal your business online. If they manage to fool your customers you can potentially seek damages in federal court to recoup losses, and you can potentially have the infringing domain name transferred to your ownership. Accordingly, if your company relies on the Internet for profit, trademarking your domain name could be one of the wisest business decisions of all.

About the author:
Xavier Morales is the owner of the Law Office of Xavier Morales, http://www.SecureYourTrademark.com, focusing on trademark registration and domain name disputes. He can be reached at 1-866-618-2517 or by email: xm@secureyourtrademark.com