Trademarks Three simple words are key to protecting your brand online: Trademark, Register, Monitor… First and foremost, the best way to protect the name of your product or service is through the process of obtaining a trademark. A basic trademark rule of thumb is to register what you use and use what you register. You may apply for a trademark or service mark, word, phrase or image, and obtain registration after you use the mark to identify a product sold or a service performed “in commerce”, which means you used it for advertising and/or sale to customers. While trademark rights may arise upon use in commerce without registration, national registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office expands and protects your trademark rights providing your company a presumption of first use of the mark in association with particular goods or services. Once you’ve acquired, via either registration or common law rights, a trademark in your brand, you should register that mark in the form of a domain name. It is a wise idea to consider registering spelling variations of your trademark as well registering in all levels of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), including .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us. If you find that the domain has already been taken and is being used in a manner which might create confusion, we can help you to assert your rights. In some cases, legal action either through the Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP) or the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) may be appropriate. Additionally, there are other ways in which infringers may try to take advantage of the value of your trademark, including infringement occurring in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine spam and email spam. In any event, we can assist you in ending the infringement. Finally, like trademarks, it is important that brand owners vigilantly monitor their domain names. We use a service which has the ability to monitor and alert us when someone registers or even deletes a domain name with any term or phrase in it, including parody sites and misspelled domain names. This is another manner in which we can assist in protecting your valuable assets. We invite you to submit details of your matter to us via email, or by calling us directly at +1-610-228-4195. Deborah A. Logan, Esq. | Phone: 610-228-4195 | Fax: 610-300-5852 Email: DLogan@DomainLegalCounsel.com | Domain Legal Counsel™ ©All rights reserved. 2008

Trademarks

Three simple words are key to protecting your brand online:

Trademark, Register, Monitor…

First and foremost, the best way to protect the name of your product or service is through the process of obtaining a trademark. A basic trademark rule of thumb is to register what you use and use what you register. You may apply for a trademark or service mark, word, phrase or image, and obtain registration after you use the mark to identify a product sold or a service performed “in commerce”, which means you used it for advertising and/or sale to customers. While trademark rights may arise upon use in commerce without registration, national registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office expands and protects your trademark rights providing your company a presumption of first use of the mark in association with particular goods or services.

Once you’ve acquired, via either registration or common law rights, a trademark in your brand, you should register that mark in the form of a domain name. It is a wise idea to consider registering spelling variations of your trademark as well registering in all levels of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), including .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us. If you find that the domain has already been taken and is being used in a manner which might create confusion, we can help you to assert your rights. In some cases, legal action either through the Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP) or the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) may be appropriate.

Additionally, there are other ways in which infringers may try to take advantage of the value of your trademark, including infringement occurring in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine spam and email spam. In any event, we can assist you in ending the infringement.

Finally, like trademarks, it is important that brand owners vigilantly monitor their domain names. We use a service which has the ability to monitor and alert us when someone registers or even deletes a domain name with any term or phrase in it, including parody sites and misspelled domain names. This is another manner in which we can assist in protecting your valuable assets.

We invite you to submit details of your matter to us via email, or by calling us directly at +1-610-228-4195.