Brand protection and intellectual property issues are concerns for domain resellers across the world, and here at Domainbox we would always advise that when you are starting a business you register as many of the TLDs and ccTLDs that are available to you. It might be the case however that someone else already owns the domain, and this is why the domain back order service is such a valuable tool. This will allow you to keep tabs on the ownership of your chosen domain, and let you know when it is dropping, potentially snapping it for you should the current owner not renew.
If you are not in possession of one of the domains under your company name then you aren’t the only one; large companies have this problem on a daily basis. And Google are one of the companies who have issues with this, with people registering related names in the hope of making some money from them.
Google have recently be awarded three related names; kilogoogle.com, kilogoogle.net and takeagoogle.com after filing a complaint with the intention of getting the domains in their possession. The search giant own a selection of trademarks on Google terms, and it was awarded to the company on the basis that they are a household name and the registrant could simply not have known that there were trademark rights on the name. Google claimed that the terms were ‘confusingly similar’ to their brand, and felt that the addition of descriptive terms made it no less confusing to the end user. The registrant of the domains claimed that they were not registered in bad faith and he made no money from them, but in the end the arbitration service ruled in favour of Google.
"Complainant contends and Respondent admits that Respondent had actual notice of Google’s rights in the disputed domain name due to the mark’s relative fame. The GOOGLE mark has garnered enough recognition and notoriety so as to make it impossible for Respondent to not be aware of Google’s rights in the mark. Complainant’s mark is so popular and well known as to give
Respondent actual notice of Complainant’s rights in the GOOGLE mark, and therefore supports a finding of bad faith registration."
If you have any questions about our domain back order service then tweet us @domainbox for advice.