Is Your domain Name Legal?

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When you went and researched for a domain name did you do a TESS search prior to purchasing a domain name? Do you know even if you purchased your website’s URL through a certified Domain Name Registrar (DNR) there is still a chance it is illegal!

Say what?

You say: "Well, how can they sell me an illegal domain name?"

That’s not right!

It sort of works the same way a bank can’t legally stop you from trying to rob it. They can, however, prevent or stop you in the act of a robbery them, or prevent you from leaving after you have robbed them. And the videorecorders are there to provide evidence, so if you do rob them they can get restitution in the criminal case or sue you in civil court to get their money back.


Prior to purchasing a domain name a person should do a search through the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to assure that the domain they want is not at risk of infringing any trademarks or service names that are registered and protected under certain trademark laws. So if your name is James Smith (which by the way is the most popular full name in the world) you may be out of luck if you want to register your name as a trademark name for your website or business

When you purchase a domain name through a DNR it is certified through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) well guess what that protects the website address and not the wording of the address, unbelievable right! Now the ICANN does provide protection against another person claiming the same domain name or website address (the URL), but not is actual wording.

But say a company like IBM (now owned by Lenovo) they have a product called the Thinkpad and of course they have the product's name trademarked, is registered, and certified through the USPTO. Since it is registered with the USPTO it is covered under trademark infringement protection laws.

So, if you come up with this brilliant domain name of https://www.Intelluctialthinkpad.com, and you’re going to blog about the latest and greatest software, on improving your mind, on it and try to make a little side money from it at the same time. You have the website up and running for over a year, have over 150 pages of content, over 25 different affiliate program links embedded throughout that content, and you are happily making $1,500.00 a month you are proud of what you have created with your hard work.

Then one morning, you go and check your emails and you receive this odd looking email from your website hosting company and it notifies you that your website was taken down the night before because they received a DMCA take down notice (Google it if you don’t know what that is). So you get in touch with them right away and they tell you, that Lenveno issued a takedown notice request of you website citing trademark infringements as the reason why.


You hang up with your website hosting company and start researching at the United States Copyright Office’s website and the USPTO’s website and find out that the law reads that if your domain name is close to, has their name within it, or can cause confusion of distinguishing you from a trademark certified party’s protected trademark name and if any or all 3 conditions are met you are in violation of trademark infringement.

You can be ordered to immediately surrender the domain name to the courts until a final decision is deliberated (most cases are filed in the Federal Courts) and can costs tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, take years until finally settled, and you could ultimately be facing a sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment and including up to a $500,000 fine for a first time offense -- according to DMCA guideline infractions.

And on top of all that you lose the rights to your money maker and, if you don’t go to jail have to start all over again. Now I was explaining this to a buddy of mine and he said well why not just sell them the domain name I’ve heard plenty of people selling domain names for millions of dollars.

And I told him you could have, if this had happened before 1998 when the DMCA was signed into law by then-U S President Bill Clinton and 1999 when the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act went into law. This new Anti-cybersquatting law protects famous or trademark protected names from people trying to buy up all the possible domains names related to a phrase or word and forcing someone to pay outrageous prices for it later.

So when it boils down to the nitty gritty it is best to do a TESS search prior to purchasing a new domain name and after your website starts to gain SERP and popularity it would be wise to apply for your own trademark name for your website this will protect it from any possible duplication or copy cats trying to suck your traffic from your website to theirs for monetary gains.

Now strangely this also applies to business names/license as well. When you file for a business name it is only giving you the right to do business under that name it does not protect that wording of the name. And it only protects you up to the boundaries of the office it was issued form, in other words, if it’s a county business license it only applies for that county and if applied through your state it only applies for that state.

But if you register your business name through the USPTO, you are now because of the DMCA, protected on a global scale so ponder on this: Is the USPTO’s application fee of $400.00 US worth global protect against trademark infringements? If done correctly you could protect your domain name, and business name all with one USPTO application your domain name and business name has to be the same for this to work and could reduce your cost for protection drastically much like Amazon.com – it’s there domain name, business name, and in Amazons case also their logo.

At the time of writing this lbog, it cost anywhere form $125.00 US to a maximum of $400.00 US to file an application for a US trademark certification registration on a name or design. When you have the certified registration for a trademark filed through the USPTO this provides you will federal protection from trademark infringements and also grants you global protection under the DMCA and the intellectual property protection provided in those treaties.

To find out more information you can go to

https://www.USPTO.gov

https://www.copyright.gov

https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

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Recent Comments

128

.... and a meteor could hit my house tomorrow at 3:48 and 32 seconds while I walk under a latter, dropping a mirror as a black cat crosses my path... in that order.

don't want to sound cynical, and I appreciate your post, but i think I have a better chance at being sued by the music industry because I used napster in 2001.

That said, it is always best to cover your bases and hire legal counsel if you ever feel uneasy about purchasing a domain name or any aspects of your business for that matter.

There is always some storm coming that will end life as we know it as affiliate marketers... yet we are still around. Don't dwell on what "could" happen and concentrate yuor efforts on what yuo can control

Hi Chris,

I could not agree with you more. And a simply search in the database eliminates all doubt prior to purchasing a domain name the post was not to dwell on what could happen, but rather how a simple search could help avoid a problem all together.

Yes we are all business owners here and it is our sole discretion to be concerned what we fell could have an impact on our business.

With that being said if there is a way to avoid a possible cause of hardship, I for one would like a heads up on the information.

Thanks for the comments,

Calvin

Has anybody queried top officials at WA about this?

Hi Tom,

I am not sure what you would ask them about?

Go to the USPTO website and read for yourself they even have a 40 minute video that explains in great details of everything I just said in the blog above. (I think they actually have 5 videos in total)

Hope this helps,

Calvin

Hello, can I ask you for more detail a little bit?

I click on the copyright.gov link. For us, if we register the copyright, we should choose the categories: other digital content plus photographs?

The website's logo and the designed pictures are belong to "virtual reality environments" of the category "other digital content" and the 'personal' of the category "photographs"?

You said it depend on the copyright, it's $125 until $400 for registration. Do you know how much for one designed picture? and then for the website logo? and also for the content's niche of the website? how about I live in a foreigner country and want to register the copyright for the global protection-> where I should contact and seek more info?

Do you know those? or I should contact directly to copyright dot gov?

Thank you for sharing.

If I where you I would contact the USPTO because you are talking about logos and such and it is my understanding that would fall under the USPTO jurisdiction and not the copyright office's.

I did not really look that fare into it to see if a foreign company could register with the USPTO.

But I would image they would allow for it because of the global aspect of the situation. And the fact if someone infringes on my trademark rights I have to file the law suite in their country of residency not mine.

I would suggest further investigation into the different situations that could arise form this and you might find your answers there or simply contact them directly.

Hope this helps,

Calvin.

oh, I see. USPTO and the copyright are two places I need to dig more info. Just want to make a little clear.

For example, I travel to one foreign country. I take one picture there on my cell phone. It could be landscape or people with landscape or animal -> I want to register the copyright of that picture-> where should I go? USPTO or the copyright dot gov?

Thank you for a reply so far.

Hi Thong,

If you are wanting to protect an image it would be the copyright office.

The USPTO is for trademarks names, logos, and designs; and of course patents on physical inventions.

Hope this helps,

Calvin

oh I see...thank you for a reply

YW glad to be able to help!

hmm...thank you for sharing there Calvin...when the cops comes knocking we can all blame WA because they approved out purchase...lol

hey Gus,

Sorry it does not work that way, the DNR that you buy your Domain name from is not responsible for the legality of any Domain name you purchase from them. Read your purchasing agreement it will state that they except no responsibility of the domain you purchase from them.

So if the cops coma knockin you better start a runnin LOL

Nice try,

Calvin

Hi Calvin

A lot of information there, something many of us had no idea of. Thank you for taking the time to inform many of us out here who have not a clue about legal domain names

Karen

Hi Karen,

I am glad to hear that it may help you in the future, when you plan on purchasing another domain name then.

Thank you for your comment it is appreciated,

Calvin

Thank you for the information.. didn't know anything about this. Good to know

Hi Yoko,

Yes it can be very helpful.

Here's to your success,

Calvin

Thank you

https://www.uspto.gov/#

Hi Calvin that was such an informative post, and something that we should all bear in mind when it comes to creating and registering domain names some companies vigorously defend their intellectual property.

Thank you very much for sharing, very helpful.



Hello,

Thanks for catching the typo Alexander, it was an obvious one but never the less needed to be corrected.

I'm really surprised that Kyle does not mention this aspect of a domain name when he talks about domain names in the training.

Thank you for the kind words as well,

Calvin

Great article mate!
Many people fall into the traps thinking if they have a business name registered then they are okay. There are people out there that hunt potential businesses and will trademark that business name and screw the person(s) who own that name. Many people think because they have registered a business name they are protected. WRONG. Trademarks are a must when you start to expand an empire, otherwise it will be stolen away from you.

Hi Brad,

I agree with you, it is not something we hear about in the evening news but it does happen often. More than one would think, that's for sure.

Glad you enjoyed it,

Calvin

Yeah! There are people out there that hunt names through IP searches for successful businesses that don't have a trademark on their name. Then it becomes a game of ransom.

Great article, and well placed here, thank you for bringing this up. You need to change the first link and change the c in a g.

Stefan

Hi Stefan,

Yes mistake was duly noted and correction has been made. LOL

Thanks for your comment,

Calvin

Hi Calvin,
Interesting story! And you are so right! Many years ago, when I first started looking for ways to make money, I was coerced into buying 32 domain names for a scammer that was going to build me 32 sites. I was dumber than dirt back then! I knew absolutely nothing about nothing related to the internet. Anyway, I purchased a domain from GoDaddy called: australiaugg.us. I was so excited and thought I could sell Ugg boots on it and make a lot of money. This was shortly after Ugg boots became so popular.

So the scammer set up my websites and I was making about .32 cents every few days on several sites. (Yes, .32 cents!) I just thought my sites needed more time. Low and behold, I got a "Cease and Desist Notice" from Ugg Boots threatening me with all kinds of legal action. Scared the crap out of me! To make matters even worse, I had no idea even how to take down the sites since they had been built by the scammer. As it turned out, my sites were all hacked (I believe by the scammer) a few days later and the matter, more or less, was taken care of!

I was very upset! I called GoDaddy and asked how they could put me in this position by selling me the site. They said they could sell me any site and were not responsible for any action taken against me on said site, but it was my responsibility to make sure it was a viable site. I was outraged, angry and scared to death. I decided right then and there I would never work with GoDaddy again. I cancelled my account and let the domain renewal expire.

So everything you say is true! I did not know how to check for the sites as you have suggested above?? I am just very careful with the names I choose for sites now. I will mark your information here, though, and when I have time, I will do more research. Thanks for all of this information! I am sure it will be an eye opener for many! Take Care.

Hi Connie,

I hate to hear stories like yours, but it happens often.

Hopefully by sharing this information with others we can get the word out to help others avoid so tragic circumstances from happening to them.

Thanks for the comment,

Calvin

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