Should I trademark my website name?

If I own trademark to a name, can I stop someone with the .com website from using that name?

• For instance, if I owned "Whazzup" as a trademark, could I stop the person who owns "Whazzup.com" from using the name? If so how? And is there any way I can ...show more

• Answer:

  I believe that this will depend on where you are, the laws vary from country to country. IANAL, but I believe that if you had the trademark before the domain was created then you might be able to force the other entity from using it, especially if the other entity started using it after you did. However, I believe that it would be much more difficult, if even possible, if the domain existed before your registered the trademark. And it would also depend on how much overlap there is between your businesses - this is related to how likely it is that somebody might confuse their products with yours. I have read, for instance, of at least one case where a small business owner had a domain name that a big company wanted. The small business was able to keep the domain name because they had registered the name first. This helps keep the big companies from successfully bullying the small ones. On the other hand, if you can show that whoever registered "whazzup.com" simply to have it registered and to demand money from somebody with a legitimate claim to the domain name (cyber squatting), that would work in your favor, This is a question that you really need to talk to a lawyer about. The subject is simply too complex for us to answer with any degree of reliability.