Avoiding infringing on Trademarks when purchasing a Domain

Okay, you have a great idea for a website. Something hot, new, sticking with the market. Now you need to buy a domain name. However, if you wish to avoid being up to your knee's in some pretty hot water, you might want to know some things first.

Purchasing a domain name is not Rocket Science. However, it does take some thinking. You want something short, Easy to pronounce, and easy to memorize. That way it gets spread across the market quickly. Short, to easy it on your users. Easy to pronounce, so it will spread by word of mouth. Easy to Memorize, so people won't forget about your site. You will also want your main keywords to be in your domain name, so you can optimize your site for search engines. However, in the midst of all this, be careful not to step on anyones toes. They may sue you know!~

In fact, awhile back, the two WWF's where having a fight over the name. The World Wrestling Federation, and the World Wildlife Foundation. You see, the Wrestlers used the domain name wwf.com for there services. But, the Wildlife people had the initials trademarked long before the wrestler's did. So, the Wrestler's ended up being forced into changing there name to the WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment, which obviously took a lot of money. The same thing is happening today, between Cisco and Apple. On May 20, 1996, Cisco used the idea of iPhone. Then, when Apple decided to use it to keep up with there string of iProducts, Cisco got angry. It is an ongoing, unresolved battle between the two right now. Whoever loses is gonna end up losing A LOT of money.

Now, don't let that scare you off of getting your domain name. Your idea is great!~ Why waste it? So, I should tell you that a trademark is a name advertising a certain Service or Product. A conflict occurs when one trademark is pretty close to another trademark, and one will end up confusing anothers customers. Whoever commercializes the trademark first are the ones who get protection. So, the poor sucker who ends up using the idea later on is forced into changing there products name, or ceasing it's production. Obviously very money and time-consuming. The loser may also have to pay damages, but usually only if they used the idea for malicous purposes.

Now, you may be asking, "What is the best way to avoid infringing on another's trademark?" Well, that's simple. Consult a Trademark Lawyer before you put too much money into your domain. That way, you won't have a conflict. Or, if you are too cheap and lazy to do that, Google up the name!~ If Apple googled up iPhone, they would know that it is used. If the World Wrestling Entertainment had googled up wwf, they would know it's taken!~ So, Google will save you.

Written for Wanna Play? By Warsome. Feel free to spread it, as long as you do not commercialize, and you link back to www.indiegaming.org.