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The importance of online stores is becoming increasingly important in times of global pandemic. This has motivated most retailers and entrepreneurs to build their own websites and take their businesses online.
Setting up a website sounds like an easy task, but it actually poses some legal risks that you should keep in mind. It’s important to ensure that your site’s identity is protected. Even though you already have a registered domain, this is not enough to protect yourself from future infringements of your rights.
One of the things to think about after choosing a domain for your website is registering a trademark.
Why register your website domain as a trademark?
Registering a domain name as a trademark gives more secure protection to your overall web presence.
Cybersquatting is increasingly common. Cybersquatters are people who register a domain similar to yours and thus aim to profit.
It is even more advanced practice for a third party to register a trademark of an already established online business that has failed to protect itself legally. This is done to force the owner to pay a certain amount of money to have the trademark or domain transferred to them, which are registered in bad faith.
The solution to this problem is to register your domain with protected status. Before that, however, you need to proceed with trademark registration.
A registered trademark enables you to attack any attempts to infringe your rights. This is extremely important in the online world we live in. Don’t let someone else copy your ideas and the name of your website after you have put so much work into it.
If a person registers a domain with the name “coca-kola.com”, the owners of the “coca-cola.com” trademark will have every reason to attack the infringement of their intellectual property rights.
Even if you don’t currently think your online shop’s name could be under attack, it’s a good idea to think in advance about how best to protect your rights.
What is the difference between a domain and a trademark?
A domain name, like a brand name, is also a type of identifier of the respective trader. However, they have several significant differences:
A trademark identifies goods or services of a particular class with their manufacturer/supplier. A domain name represents the purchase of the right to own a name on the Internet for a specified time.
Saving a trademark and a domain are done with two separate, independent procedures. Trademarks are registered with the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. Domain names are registered by an ICANN-accredited registrar.
A trademark and a domain name have different terms of validity.
Retaining a domain name is not in itself a trademark registration and cannot protect the owner from potential trademark infringement. A domain name can also be trademarked.
A registered trademark (as well as a trademark application) is one of the grounds for registering a protected domain.
Final words
If you want to enforce your online brand and protect it legally, we recommend that you do so by registering it as a trademark.
