Trademark protection for Internet domain names.

Should the domain name be considered key real estate to be locked in along the "superhighway" or is it more akin to a telephone number?' While the telephone number is a series of alphanumeric characters, the domain name is more sophisticated as it serves as an indication of source as well as a means for contacting an individual. More and more commonplace today, domain name strategy is being integrated with your trademark strategy. On the Internet, they can often appear one and the same.

What is a Trademark?(2)

The term trademark "includes any word, name, symbol or device or any combination hereof adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his/her goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others."(3) The law is very protective of your rights here. For example, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who served from 1939 to 1962, once commented on the importance of trademarks to the marketer in our economic system:

"The protection of trademarks is the law's recognition of the psychological function of symbols. If it is true that we live by symbols, it is not less true that we purchase goods by them. A trademark is a merchandising shortcut which induces a purchaser to select what he wants, or what he has been led to believe he wants. The owner of a mark exploits this human propensity by making every effort to impregnate the atmosphere of the market with the drawing power of a congenial symbol. Whatever the means employed, the aim is the same to convey through the mark, in the midst of potential customers, the desirability of the commodity upon which it appears. Once this is attained, the trademark owner has something of value. If another poaches upon the commercial magnetism of the symbol he has created, the owner can obtain legal redress."(4)

In a society with a high literacy rate, words are the most common and most favored form of trademark. You can use any type of symbol or design for your mark provided that it functions as a trademark. Essentially a trademark is used for three reasons:

To distinguish and identify your goods.

To serve as a guarantee of consistent quality.

To advertise and sell your products.

A product packaged in an unmistakable color and stamped with a famous logo in a stylish script can serve all of the above three functions.