Buyer Beware
So I was just about to finalize my purchase of a domain name for my first website - one that took a long time to decide upon and I thought was just perfect - and my eyes landed on the box to check that I agree to the Domain terms of service”. My initial reaction was that I didnt really need to read it first before checking the box but then I thought I should and am glad I did.
I learned something that never had occurred to me. I inferred from one of the sections that basically I could be in a world of hurt if my domain name infringes on another’s legal rights and that it is my responsibility to know if it would or not. Hmm 🤔. The saying “buyer beware” immediately came to mind. So I jumped off the purchase page and began to ascertain if my perfect domain name would be clear of the possibility of legal rights infringement.
The name I wanted to use had 2 out of common words that another site was using so I wanted to be sure I wasn’t infringing. I looked up their site and wouldn't you know - there was a trademark symbol after the .com title on the home page! Dang! So I continued to do research, consulted with a couple of members (who were tremendous help, thank you!), searched the topic on WA and ended up on the US Trademark Electronic Search System (the place to go to if you want to look up trademarks and such). I searched that trademark and luckily for me it showed the trademark as being "dead" and gave a cancellation date. That was a relief!
Another good thing I learned is that the actual domain name I wanted to use (minus the .com) is not trademarked either. So I went ahead and purchased the domain name I wanted to use. Finally!!
It’s important to know this when deciding on a name. Take that extra step to be sure. Better safe than sorry!
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This is very good advise. Something that it is not commonly discussed. Yet, I have encountered people that purchased domains that violated trademark infringements. As result, they had to abandon their domains that they purchased and start their websites over on a new domain name.
The companies and organizations that have trademarked names do tend to aggressively pursue violations.
Yes very true.