Protecting Your Business Name on the Internet
People either find your business on the Internet or they find
your competition. Your business likely has some presence on the
web. Usually it is a website that uses your business name as its
"domain name" such as ABCcompany.com. The term domain name simply
describes the characters that identify your website.
The slight difference between a domain name ending in ".com" and
".net" is very significant. A competitor could register
"ABCcompany.net", use similar spelling such as "ABcompany.com" or
small variation such as "AB&Company.com" and divert potential
customers to their own website instead of your company website.
If that occurs, you may be able to force your competitor to give
up the similar domain name. You would either need to go to court or
use a special arbitration process called the Uniform Dispute
Resolution Process ("UDRP"). Although this dispute process is often
much faster and more efficient than a lawsuit, it is likely to cost
several thousand dollars, with no guarantee of success.
With some advance planning, you may be able to avoid the cost,
trouble, and risk of the UDRP process or a lawsuit. Registering
multiple domain names is typically less expensive than the cost of
even one dispute. The most basic planning technique is to register
your business name under each of the generic top level domains,
such as ".com", ".net", ".org", ".biz", ".info", ".name", and
".pro".
If you work internationally, you may want to register your
business name under the country codes that are most important to
your business, such as ".US" (United States) or ".UK" (United
Kingdom). The next technique to consider is registering variations
on your business name, such as common misspellings or logical
variations. You may also want to protect your business name from
common hate names, such as "Ihate[your business name].com".
If you don't protect your domain names, you may discover that an
opportunist has registered it as a domain name and is now offering
it for sale to you! Registering someone else's established business
name, to then sell for a profit, is commonly called
"cybersquatting." Pursuant to Internet Corporation for Assigned
Domain Names rules and the Federal Anticybersquatting Consumer
Protection Act, people are not to use a domain name with the bad
faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging
to someone else. However, as a practical matter, it happens. Rather
than face the risk and expense of arbitration or lawsuit, some
businesses simply buy the domain name from the cybersquatter.
You don't need a separate website for every domain name as
various domain names will be directed to your business website. For
example, if you type "Jabergwilk.com" or "JWbusinesslaw.net" into
your web browser, you will land at our website at "Jaburgwilk.com".
This is something that your web provider can easily set up for
you.
There is one exception when you will want a separate website.
This is with the domain extension ".mobi" or "dotMobi". It is a
special domain designed for viewing the web through your mobile
phone or PDA. DotMobi websites are more streamlined and simplified
than regular websites, so the content can be quickly loaded and
viewed on a small screen. These are likely to be the next wave for
on-the-go accessibility. Real estate agents could take advantage of
dotMobi technology to draw weekend house hunters to their listings.
Imagine a house hunter seeing one of your signs, and then entering
your name into their PDA or mobile phone and seeing not only that
listing, but also your other listings. It would be prudent to
register the domain, "yourbusiness.mobi" now, even if you are not
planning on immediately building a PDA friendly website.
As the Internet continues to evolve and advance, business owners
must give increased attention to protecting their business name and
reputation as well as increasing their presence and accessibility
online. Make sure the domain names you want are yours before your
competitor takes advantage of your goodwill and hard-earned
reputation.