Ecommerce and Trademarks

[bijan_sha]

Hi,
I have a ecommerece business and I appreciate it ff someone could help me answer these questions:
1) if I put a TM in front of a sentence or a word, it doesn't necessarily mean I have got trademark for it does it? What I dont understand is everybody can then claim a trademark on anything he wants and that would cause problems. 2) What are the benefits of having a trademark for a domain or the name of a domain? (for example, for "google" or for "google.com")
3) If I dont have trademark and somebody goes and takes advantage of my domain name (example "aksflc") to promote something of his own, Do I need to have a trademark to stop him from doing that?
4- Do I need trademark in order to stop somebody from making a logo similar to mine?
Regards, Bijan Shahrokhi

[brucet]

1) if I put a TM in front of a sentence or a word, it doesn't necessarily mean I have got trademark for it does it? What I dont understand is everybody can then claim a trademark on anything he wants and that would cause problems.

No, just putting TM in front of a sentence or a word doesn't mean anything. You might even be breaking the law, because you are claiming ownership of something you don't in fact own. You have to register the trademark with the relevant authority in each country where you want to protect it; and in relation to specific areas. For example, the company I work for owns the trademark 'Actinic' in relation to computer software; but not in relation to medicine, where it has a different and very specific meaning.

2) What are the benefits of having a trademark for a domain or the name of a domain? (for example, for "google" or for "google.com")

The benefits vary from country to country, eg in the UK you can stop other companies taking out Google Adwords adverts using your trademark as a keyword, but in the US you cannot. It does give you control over use of the name, and to a great extent over domain ownership - eg Google were prevented from using the name 'Gmail' in the UK because another company already owned the trademark. Primarily it enables you to build a brand and establish a reputation around that brand and to retain control of it. Toys 'R' Us are a good example - they have trademarked 'R' Us in almost every context and protect it fiercely, so you won't find many imitators getting away with using a similar name.

3) If I dont have trademark and somebody goes and takes advantage of my domain name (example "aksflc") to promote something of his own, Do I need to have a trademark to stop him from doing that?

I'm not sure of the exact rules and they probably vary from country to country. You really need to register the main top-level domains eg .com, .us, .co.uk at the same time as the trademark, and hold on to them.

4- Do I need trademark in order to stop somebody from making a logo similar to mine?

Yes, and you need to register the graphic as a trademark as well as the actual name - they are two separate things.

[Hataish]

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