This is a great question, which I'd love to know more about myself. You mentioned legal documents. I'd also love to know more about protecting your domain/product name from potential trademark issues. Even if your domain name
doesn't infringe anyone's trademark today, how to prevent it from happening in the future? How to deal with that in a global market? I'm not much worried about people stealing my ideas, but rather worried about people preventing me from developing my own idea. Any book recommendation on the subject would be very welcome.
-Whether the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights.
-Whether the respondent has any rights or legitimate interests in the domain name (for example, the legitimate offering of goods and services under the same name).
-Whether the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith.
So don't try to use a famous trademark to boost recognition or traffic to your site and don't try and squat on other people's domains. If you prefer to be cautious, you can search whether or not the domain name you have (and anything similar) is already a registered trademark.
To protect your company's domain, you can file a dispute with ICANN. I don't think it's necessary to register your trademark first, but having a registered trademark does help in the dispute proceedings. If you do need to register, hire a lawyer to do this.
If it were me, depending on the circumstances, I would probably wait to register a federal trademark until a Series A round, since you have other things to worry about before then.
Disclaimer: This is not a legal opinion, just a personal one.
Comments
This is a great question, which I'd love to know more about myself. You mentioned legal documents. I'd also love to know more about protecting your domain/product name from potential trademark issues. Even if your domain name doesn't infringe anyone's trademark today, how to prevent it from happening in the future? How to deal with that in a global market? I'm not much worried about people stealing my ideas, but rather worried about people preventing me from developing my own idea. Any book recommendation on the subject would be very welcome.
Again, not legal advice, but you can look at how ICANN resolves domain name disputes:
http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/studies/publications/domain_...
What factors guide the panelists' decisions?
-Whether the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights. -Whether the respondent has any rights or legitimate interests in the domain name (for example, the legitimate offering of goods and services under the same name). -Whether the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith.
So don't try to use a famous trademark to boost recognition or traffic to your site and don't try and squat on other people's domains. If you prefer to be cautious, you can search whether or not the domain name you have (and anything similar) is already a registered trademark.
To protect your company's domain, you can file a dispute with ICANN. I don't think it's necessary to register your trademark first, but having a registered trademark does help in the dispute proceedings. If you do need to register, hire a lawyer to do this.
If it were me, depending on the circumstances, I would probably wait to register a federal trademark until a Series A round, since you have other things to worry about before then.
Disclaimer: This is not a legal opinion, just a personal one.