04: Protecting your name on the internet

If you want to market your goods and services on the internet, you will most probably want to register your company name or trade mark as a domain name. Having a trade mark does not give you an automatic right to a domain name that incorporates it, because someone else may have registered that name.

To register a domain name, you first need to check whether it is available. There are a number of places you can do this. For domain names ending in .uk, you can search the Nominet website, and for domain names ending in .com you can search the Network Solutions website.

You may be able to take legal action if you think someone is using a domain name to ‘pass off’ their goods and services as yours, or if someone has taken out your trade mark as a domain name just to sell it back to you. Many domain names are also subject to the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. This allows for arbitration that may assign you the domain name.