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<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP" /> <title>Domain Names and Trademarks :: Topics :: Lumen</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/application-edf3ba94297288ba21dcd7d7f08d7b53fed070a91204df553802ab78eb5b7a75.css" media="all" /> <meta name="csrf-param" content="authenticity_token" /> <meta name="csrf-token" content="MsedV2VuiI-svrXkZQl5K3SWIxfLyES60DhWbnuYTHCGfgATfZM38ZvAJjUNc7Q22aNuMnK1GUv_LcjjuyvOQA" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico">  </head> <body class="topics topics-show"> <div id="flash"> </div> <header class="app"> <div class="nav-wrapper"> <div> <a id="root" href="/"> <img src="/assets/logo_2x-4827576148b1dd2ca23c3cd316e93121ad0364ce6722fe7e70cd2927b200249a.png" width="265" height="64" /> </a> </div> <div class="flex-end"> <nav class="main-nav"> <div class="nav-item search"><a href="/">Search</a></div> <div class="nav-item topics dropdown"> <a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">Topics</a> <div id="dropdown-topics" class="dropdown-menu" role="menu"> <ol> <li class="dropdown-submenu"> <a href="/topics/5">Copyright</a> <ol class="dropdown-menu"> <li class="title">Subtopics</li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/12">Anticircumvention (DMCA)</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/22">Copyright and Fair Use</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/16">Derivative Works</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/29">DMCA Notices</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/14">DMCA Safe Harbor</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/25">DMCA Subpoenas</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/11">Piracy or Copyright Infringement</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/15">Reverse Engineering</a> </li> </ol> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/40">Counterfeit</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/28">Court Orders</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/8">Defamation</a> </li> <li class="dropdown-submenu"> <a href="/topics/34">EU - Right to Be Forgotten</a> <ol class="dropdown-menu"> <li class="title">Subtopics</li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/36"> El Derecho Al Olvido</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/37">O Pravu Osobe Da Bude Zaboravljena?</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/35">"Recht auf Vergessen" </a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/38">Recht Om Vergeten Te Worden</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/39">锌褉邪胁芯褌芯写邪斜褗写械褕蟹邪斜褉邪胁械薪</a> </li> </ol> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/3">Fan Fiction</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/33">Government Requests</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/26">International</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/13">John Doe Anonymity</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/32">Law Enforcement Requests</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/18">Linking</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/1">Lumen</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/30">No Action</a> </li> <li class="dropdown-submenu"> <a href="/topics/20">Patent</a> <ol class="dropdown-menu"> <li class="title">Subtopics</li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/24">E-Commerce Patents</a> </li> </ol> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/21">Responses</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/31">Right of Publicity</a> </li> <li class="dropdown-submenu"> <a href="/topics/6">Trademark</a> <ol class="dropdown-menu"> <li class="title">Subtopics</li> <li class="dropdown-submenu"> <a href="/topics/2">Domain Names and Trademarks</a> <ol class="dropdown-menu"> <li class="title">Subtopics</li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/10">ACPA</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/19">Documenting Your Domain Defense</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/9">UDRP</a> </li> </ol> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/17">Protest, Parody and Criticism Sites</a> </li> </ol> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/23">Trade Secret</a> </li> <li class=""> <a href="/topics/27">Uncategorized</a> </li> </ol> </div> </div> <div class="nav-item"> <a href="/media_mentions/search">Research and Media Mentions</a> </div> <div class="nav-item"> <a href="/pages/about">About</a> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="container header-bar"> <h2>Topics</h2> </div> </header> <section class="main app"> <div class="main-inner"> <section class="topic-description"> <h1>Domain Names and Trademarks</h1> <article> <p><p>.</p> <p>Does this sound familiar?</p> <p>Your registration of this domain name, which is essentially identical to our client's trademark, is likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception, and hence constitutes infringement of our client's trademarks and copyrights, as well as constituting unfair competition. Your offering the domain name for sale constitutes "cybersquatting," and violates our client's trademark and copyright rights. In view of the foregoing, we demand that you immediately cancel your domain name registration and provide us with copies of the executed cancellation documents.</p> <p>Sounds threatening...but is it true? Is your use of the domain name a trademark infringement (Likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of goods? Diluting or tarnishing a famous mark? A domain registered in bad faith?) or is it protected free speech (Product criticism? News reporting? Non-commercial use?). What is a cybersquatter? What is the UDRP? To understand the differences, to see how others might respond to a cease & desist letter, to locate attorneys who handle this kind of case, we invite you to read the materials collected on this web site which is maintained by the clinical students at the [Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.</p> <p>Follow these links and then add your letter to our database.</p> <p><a href="%22%3C!--GET">">What to Expect When You're Expecting To Be Sued for Trademark Infringement</a></p> <p><a href="%22%3C!--GET">">Trademark and Domain Name FAQ</a></p> <p><a href="%22/topics.cgi%22">What Else Should I Worry About? (links to modules on copyright, defamation, etc.)</a></p> <p><a href="%22%3C!--GET">">What Information Should I Collect for My Defense?</a></p> <p><a href="%22/input.cgi%22"> Submit Your Letter Here</a></p> </p> </article> </section> <section class="topic-notices"> <h4>Recent Notices</h4> <ol> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/16377629">Court Order Complaint to Google</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/14892008">Ph谩t L峄檆 - C峄昻g game may m岷痭 tr煤ng Vcoin</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/57071">Abuse trademark & copyright</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/57100">Abuse trademark & copyright</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/14341068">Claim to google related to duplicate and falsified internet sites</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/13534084">卮丕鬲丕賱賳禺賷賱</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/13464261">sbihomeloans.co</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/13456414">Your Use of Welsh Government Trade Marks</a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/13351752">Deceptive Website </a> </li> <li class="notice"> <a href="/notices/13334244">Use of the RCT CBC Logo</a> </li> </ol> </section> <section class="topic-faqs" id="topic-faqs"> <h3 class="title">Frequently Asked Questions</h3> <div class="wrapper"> <article> <div class="question">What are the UDRP and ACPA?</div> <div class="answer"><p>Follow these links for Frequently Asked Questions on the  (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) or  (Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act).</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">How do I identify the owner of a domain name?</div> <div class="answer"><p>The quickest way is to use the global lookup tools such as <a href="http://www.geektools.com/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi">Geektools</a>, <a href="http://www.samspade.org/#TOC1">SamSpade</a>, or <a href="http://www.uwhois.com/cgi/domains.cgi?User=Default">uWhois</a> multi-registrar WHOIS services. These are not authoritative directories, however, because they merely link to the databases of other directory services.</p> <p>To verify actual registration data of a particular domain name, use the Whois tool hosted by the registry for the top level domain in question. UniNett keeps a list of links to all <a href="http://www.norid.no/domreg.html">top level domain registries</a>.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What civil and criminal liabilities may be imposed for trademark infringement?</div> <div class="answer"><p>Under federal law (Lanham Act Section 32), an infringer shall be liable in a civil action by the registrant for certain remedies provided in the Act. </p> <p>One such remedy is an injunction, where a court orders a person who was found to violate the Act to stop its infringing activities. </p> <p>A trademark owner/registrant may also be able to obtain lost profits or damages against a defendant in a civil action only if the acts were committed with knowledge that such imitation was intended to be used to cause confusion, mistake, or to deceive. The trademark owner can recover (1) the domain holder's profits from use of the mark, (2) the trademark owner's damages resulting from harm to the value of mark, and (3) court costs as "actual damages." In determining the award to be paid, the court can choose to award up to three times the amount of actual damages. Instead of having to prove the amount of "actual" damages suffered as above, the mark owner can instead request payment of "statutory damages" from $1000 and $100,000 per domain name.</p> <p>Attorney fees may be awarded in exceptional circumstances, such as when there was a willful and malicious violation. </p> <p>The court can order the cancellation or transfer of a domain registration.</p> <p>In the case of a willful violation of Lanham Act section 43, a court may order that all labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles, and advertisements in the possession of a defendant bearing the registered trademark shall be delivered up and destroyed.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">Can a trademark give someone rights in common words and letters?</div> <div class="answer"><p>Not all identifying names and phrases can be protected by trademarks. Protection depends on a mark's strength, which is determined by how it is categorized. There are four categories (in descending order of strength):<OL><LI>arbitrary</li><LI>suggestive</li><LI>descriptive</li><LI>generic</li></ol></p> <p>An <B>arbitrary mark</b> receives the most protection since the name bears no relationship to the product -- it implies imagination and thought. <I>Kodak</i> is an example of an arbitrary mark because the name itself suggests no connection to film or camera equipment. We learn this association only after the name has been used and becomes associated with the source of that product. A <B>descriptive mark</b> receives protection if it has <b>secondary meaning</b> in consumers' minds. A <B>generic mark</b> rarely receives protection because it is naturally associated with something in consumers' minds. An ordinary description is not special enough to warrant protection. However, if consumers connect the mark and its source in a way that would not exist without the mark's use in commerce, then the mark can be protected.<P></p> <p>Alphabet letters, initials, abbreviations and acronyms may be entitled to protection if they are so original that they constitute an <b>arbitrary mark</b> (e.g., NICAD for nickel cadium). Otherwise, they may be protected only if they had acquired a <b>secondary meaning</b> which means that consumers have come to recognize the mark and associate the goods with a particular manufacturer (e.g., IBM and BMW). </p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What if I used false contact information in my domain name registration?</div> <div class="answer"><p>False or fictitious domain registration information is a basis for finding "bad faith" registration or use of the domain name and this can cause the domain holder to lose his/her domain under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act () and under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Procedure (). See the topic on  for arguments in favor of protecting online anonymity.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What is a trademark and why does it get special protection?</div> <div class="answer"><p>A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name. </p> <p>Consumers reap the benefit when trademarks are protected. By preventing anyone but the actual mark owner from labeling goods with the mark, it helps prevent consumers getting cheated by shoddy knock-off imitators. It encourages mark owners to maintain quality goods so that customers will reward them by looking for their label as an indication of excellence. Consumers as well as mark owners benefit from trademark laws.</p> <p>Trademark owners spend a lot of time, money, and effort to protect the distinctiveness of their trademark. Once trademarks have become diluted to the point where the general public no longer recognizes them as distinctly applying to a particular manufacturer, they lose their value to the trademark owner because they no longer attract customers to his particular goods. For example, ?aspirin? used to be the trademark of one particular manufacturer of synthesized acetylsalicylic acid, but is now used to generically describe that product regardless of who produces it. Trademarks owners must be vigilant to make sure that their trademarks rights are not being infringed and that their trademarks are not becoming diluted or generic. </p> <p>The birth of the Internet and the use of character strings (domain names) to represent Internet addresses has presented trademark owners with a whole new set of problems. It is often too expensive to register every variation of a trademark in every top level domain. Therefore, trademark owners must make sure that the people who register domain names that are either the same as or confusingly similar to a trademark are not using the domain name in a way that infringes on the trademark. One way to ensure that the trademark owner will not lose its rights in the mark is to file a UDRP complaint so that the Panel can decide whether the domain was registered in order to take unfair advantage of the mark owner. The Panel may decide that the trademark owner was wrong and had nothing to worry about, but unless the trademark owner is vigilant and files the complaint, it may never know for sure whether its rights were being abused.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">Isn't the domain name registration process "first come first served"?</div> <div class="answer"><p>In .com, .org and .net, which are "open" to any kind of registrant, the policy is first-come, first-served, as long as you have registered and used the domain name in good faith or have legitimate interests in the domain name. However, you have no right to violate trademark law, or ignore your Registration Agreement, or engage in cybersquatting just because you registered the name first. </p> <p>Furthermore, in the newer domains such as .biz and .name, there are additional registration requirements that must be met because some of these domains are restricted. Trademark owners may also have advance registration rights. Check individual registry requirements. See list of generic top-level domain registries at <a href="http://www.internic.net/faqs/new-tlds.html"><a href="http://www.internic.net/faqs/new-tlds.html">http://www.internic.net/faqs/new-tlds.html</a></a>.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What is "intellectual property"?</div> <div class="answer"><p>Intellectual property refers to the rights one has in the product of one's intellect. This includes copyright (rights in creative expression)and patents (rights in inventions, discoveries, methods, compositions of matter, etc.) which are granted by article I, section 8 clause 8 of the US Constitution which gives Congress the power to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." </p> <p>Related rights include trademark (rights in the names one uses to identify one's goods and services), trade secret (confidential business practices), unfair trade practice, passing off, trade libel, false advertising, misappropriation. Laws protecting most of these rights exist at both the state and federal level. "Proprietary rights" is just a general term meaning "one's own rights." </p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">Does the PTO's refusal to register a mark mean the mark infringes someone else's trademark?</div> <div class="answer"><p>No. Even if the Trademark Examiner <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/tmep/1200.htm#_Toc2665974">refuses registration of a mark on the grounds of likelihood of confusion</a>, that does not mean use of the term infringes a trademark. Only a court can rule as a factual matter that the likelihood of confusion amounts to trademark infringement.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What is a domain name?</div> <div class="answer"><p>A domain name is a name associated with a particular computer online. In the domain name <a href="http://www.lumendatabase.org">www.lumendatabase.org</a>, .org is the top-level domain ("TLD"), lumendatabase is the second-level domain name, and www is a subdomain. Domain names are looked up on name servers in the DNS hierarchy to resolve them to numerical IP addresses.</p> <p>A domain name registration, like a telephone directory listing, is simply a service by which the domain registry agrees to list your domain name and the corresponding IP address in its domain zone file (such as the .com zone file). The routers that forward data bits around the Internet must consult these zone files to know which machine you're using. If the registry removes the domain name from the zone file, then routers (and users) will not be able to address mail or see your website if they use your domain name. They can, however, still reach you by using your IP address. </p> <p>There are over 250 top level domains (like .com, .us and .uk). Each has its own procedures for handling registrations and trademark disputes. </p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">What is WHOIS information?</div> <div class="answer"><p>WHOIS is a searchable database maintained by registries and registrars that contains information about domain name registrations in the com, net, org, edu, and ISO 3166 country code top-level domains. Also, the protocol, or set of rules, that describes the application used to access the database.</p> <p>Registrants involved in malfeasance will often provide false information for their listings on WHOIS. So will registrants concerned with privacy who do not wish to make their home addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses public.</p> </div> </article> <article> <div class="question">Why are they telling me that they monitor the internet for their mark?</div> <div class="answer"><p>A person can gain rights in a trademark merely by using it. If the mark is not an outright adoption of the original mark, but merely close enough to it so that the question as to whether or not the first mark has been infringed is no longer an open-and-shut issue, the second user can sometimes get rights in the mark just because the second user used the mark, and the first user never objected to it. This is called the "unchallenged use" doctrine. If your site has been up and running for a while, and there has been a significant length of time between you using the mark and them contacting you about it, that can be a powerful argument in your favor that in fact your use of the mark does not infringe theirs. For this reason, a Cease and Desist letter will often have a statement in it to the effect of "We found about about what you are doing as soon as was reasonable."</p> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> </section> <footer class="main"> <div class="nav-wrapper"> <div class="nav-item"> <span><img height="16" style="vertical-align: middle;" src="/assets/Cc.logo.circle-e5300412c8b02cb8ba4db0b20bafbc078b7661cb21b155c36253170b61b7f736.svg" /> 2017 Lumen</span> </div> <div class="flex-end"> <nav> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/legal">Legal</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/license">Licenses</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/privacy">Privacy</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/researchers">Researchers</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/blog-archive">Blog Archive</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/pages/lumen-research-sprint">Spring '22 Research Sprint</a></span> <span class="nav-item"><a href="/users/sign_in">Sign In</a></span> </nav> </div> </div> </footer> <script src="/assets/application-8680dd11e43ce5255b4a75a3635a812dd463a91fb238b70e600fa9b3f5fbe5ea.js"></script>  <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; /* tracker methods like "setCustomDimension" should be called before "trackPageView" */ _paq.push(["setDomains", ["flutie.law.harvard.edu","*.www.chillingeffects.org","*.chillingeffects.org","*.lumendatabase.org","*.www.lumendatabase.org"]]); _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="//stats.berkman.harvard.edu/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '3']); })(); </script> <script src="/assets/piwik-3baf1baf98198bf4189c7074b479642a1f7078e67dabdc9b045b463a4e655f59.js" defer="defer" async="async"></script>  </body> </html>