Friday, December 15, 2006 Common myths about trademarks By Clint Fabiosa & Andrew Ong I protect
MYTH: The registration of an Internet domain name is as good as trademark registration
Electronic commerce or “e-commerce” is fast becoming a suitable medium of doing business. In fact, most business persons nowadays find the need to go online for maximum business profit or to increase or create a market niche for a certain product or service.
With the Internet providing the platform for worldwide exposure for a product or service, small- and medium-scale business persons go straight to online marketing.
Since an Internet domain name is virtually the window for a business person’s intended market to see his or her product or service online, he or she scrambles to secure the registration of his or her domain name and often forego trademark registration—falsely believing that this is as good as a trademark registration.
This is a costly misconception and can greatly expose one to trademark infringement suits, especially for someone who uses a name both as a domain name and as a trademark.
Domain name registration is not synonymous to trademark registration. In fact, the trademark laws of some developed countries favor trademark registration over domain name registration. Therefore, selecting and securing a domain name and registering it as a trademark will insure that one has taken every precaution to avoid domain name and trademark disputes.
