Is Registering Your Domain Enough, or Do You Also Need to Register a Trademark?

Question from one of you:  Once you get a business logo made and have a domain, do you still need to register the service or trademark?

Answer:    Yes.  Registering a domain name is only one step in protecting the name of your business.  Yes, you should register the name, and name mis-spellings of your business ASAP after you decide on the name.  For that matter, researching potential domain names is part of the choose-a-name process, because you would not want to pick a name if you can’t get a logically related domain name.

But just because you have the domain name registered does not mean you have dibs on the name of your business.  There could be someone who has a pre-existing trademark on that name, and just has not yet registered the domain name - in that case, you may be forced to give up the domain and change the name of your business.  Really sucks if you are doing it after the fact. 

Once you have your business name decided, then you can decide on your trademark application strategy.  You may file now, under the intent-to-use rules, or you may wait until you are using that name in interstate commerce in conjunction with the sale of a product or service.  You may also decide to just fall under the common law trademark rules and forgo registering, for now (dangerous decision, though!). 

Bottom line — the more important andvaluablee the name, the more ways you should protect that name.  That includes both registering the domain name as well as protecting the name under trademark law. 

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