Choosing and Registering a Domain Name
How to pick, register, and protect your website's unique address.
To do business on the Web, you'll need at least one domain name -- the .com or .net identifier that has become so familiar (and sometimes annoying) in commercials and print advertising. You may want to take the name you use for your business as your domain name, with .com or .net tacked on at the end -- or you might pick a new domain name that you think will draw people to your website.
To help your website, and business, flourish, pick a domain name that:
- is easy for Web users to remember and find
- suggests the nature of your product or service
- serves as a strong trademark so competitors won't be able to use a business name or domain name similar to it, and
- is free of legal conflicts with trademarks belonging to other businesses.
Choosing a Domain Name
The best domain names are often the simple ones -- short, memorable, clever, and easy to spell and pronounce. Nevertheless, you must weigh the sometimes competing concerns of a Web-friendly name with the importance of obtaining trademark protection for the name you choose.
Can You Get Trademark Protection?
Straightforward domain names that describe a business's product or service are more difficult to protect as trademarks than distinctive and clever domain names. Many good domain names -- for instance, coffee.com, drugs.com, and business.com -- are not eligible for much trademark protection because they aren't unique; they identify whole categories of products or services. Likewise, domain names that use geographic identifiers or surnames are less likely to receive trademark protection -- unless your name happens to be Dr. Koop or something equally famous.
Balance Competing Concerns to Find the Best Name
Despite limited trademark protection, ordinary domain names are potentially powerful because of the way people find information on the Internet. For this reason, you should consider carefully whether it will benefit you more to choose a domain name that's easy to find and difficult to protect under trademark law or one that's distinctive and easily protectible as a trademark.
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