Use trade marks in your business

Trade marks and domain names

If you have got a trade mark it might also make business sense to register a domain name incorporating that trade mark or business name as your website address (domain name) - for example, www.mycompany.co.uk.

Registering a domain name incorporating your trade mark as a website address could mean people searching the internet find you with greater ease and it could help strengthen your branding.

However, having a trade mark doesn't give you an automatic right to a domain name incorporating your trade mark. Someone may have already registered the domain name you want for the same or different goods and services.

But you may be able to take legal action if:

• you think someone is using a domain name to pass off their goods and services as yours
• you think they have taken out your trade mark as a domain name just to sell it back to you

If you have a dispute for domain names ending '.uk', read about the dispute resolution service for the UK registry on the Nominet website - Opens in a new window.

For other domains, eg '.com', find out about the domain name resolution service on the World Intellectual Property Organisation website - Opens in a new window.

Simply having a domain name doesn't give you a right to register that name as a trade mark. It will still have to meet all the normal criteria of trade mark registration. And you must ensure the domain name doesn't infringe anyone else's mark.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is a trade mark?
• How to register a trade mark
• Registering a trade mark outside the UK
• Defend your trade mark
• Respect other people's trade marks
• Trade marks and domain names
• Here's how I deal with trade mark infringements
• Here's how I protected my idea with a trade mark (Flash video)

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