Domain Name Litigation
Domain Investments
Trademark Protection
UDRP
Domain Name Lawyers
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Domain Name Lawyers
700 - 12th Street, NW Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20005-3945
Trademark Law & Domain Names
The Internet is a global community comprised of individuals and entities
from many countries; trademark law varies from country to country and therefore
presents an Internet slippery legal slope. Trademark owners understandably
claim their rights to a domain name based on trademark law. The registrant
of the domain name may want to claim “first-come, first-served” applies
to domain name registrations. The trademark holder’s concerns center
around dilution of their trademark and confusion that may result when customers
look for the company’s name
or product.
First Domain Name Dispute Policy
Network Solutions Incorporated (NSI), the first 
entity selected to control
the registration of .com, .org and .net domain names, developed a domain
name dispute policy in 1995 which required each registrant to agree to
prior to registering a domain name. The International Trademark Association
proposed litigation was a more appropriate than NSI’s arbitration
solutions.
Domain Name Dispute Classifications
Most domain disputes involving trademarks can be classified into two issues. First those who purposely register domain names to confuse potential customers of an entity holding a trademark, often referred to as cyber-squatters. The second case includes entities with the same or similar names (such as AAA American Accounting Association, AAA the road and travel service, AAA the American Arbitration Association) all who would probably like the domain name AAA.com.
UDRP - Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
UDRP was passed in 1999 and recognized that businesses could have trademark claims without a registered trademark. Trademark claims could be made based on business usuage or a famous name. You can read more about UDRP here.