Dot Com Trademarks on the Rise - Brief Article

Information Outlook, Oct, 1999

Dot Com trademarks filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are up 572 percent in the first six months of 1999. The USPTO reported that there were 2,436 dot com trademarks filed during the first six months of 1999 compared with 362 the same time last year. The increase can be attributed to businesses wanting to protect themselves by securing their domain names as trademarks.

Even though recent numbers suggest that there is a positive increase, Network Solutions, the global registrar of domain names cites that there are more than five million web sites and web addresses currently registered, many without trademark protection. Current laws do not protect a domain name from infringement, only trademark owners. Most businesses on the Internet without protection are at risk using unprotected domain names. The proper procedure would be to complete a trademark search before selecting a domain name to ensure availability and secondly registering the name as a trademark.