Saturday, 23 January 2010

Significance Of Trademark In Cyberspace

By Alex Finn

In this time of extensive internet use, trademark laws gain special significance in cyberspace, particularly with respect to trademarks for domain names. This is quite crucial in light of the fact that the domain name that you have communicates your identity as well as signifies your services to the consumers.

A registered domain name helps you in making legal claims against any individual, who infringes your trademark and attempts to induce people into thinking that their goods and services actually are sourced from you and that you are affiliated to their website.

However, you need to do a thorough search for similar domain names in cyberspace before filing your trademark application, in order to avoid any violations. Your investigation must confirm the fact that your trademark is unique and does not resemble others in sound, meaning or spelling. You must apply for registration only when you are sure that your mark is distinct enough to avoid any possible violation.

For achieving this, it is preferable to engage the services of a cyber law practitioner, who can guide you in your online trademark related issues. This will protect you from serious trademark infringement action that may be raised in future.

You must also remember that the domain name that you are seeking to register should be capable of serving as an identifier of your goods and service and should not be just an online address to draw people to your website.

Besides domain name violation, there is a new menace of keyword infringement one the web. It basically means infringement of trademarks and their unlawful use as keywords through posting of online ads through advertisement services like Yahoo and Google, with the purpose of confusing the consumer.

If the promotional ads help in boosting the sales of the trademark owner, it is not an infringement but the problem is created when the advertiser starts making use of such ads for marketing his own product for an economic advantage.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment