Website Legalities

By Author: Jonathan Steele
Total Articles: 8
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Did you know there are website legalities every internet based business builder needs to be concerned with? Failure to take the time when you start your business can cost you considerable expense and time later. The time lost is complicated in that it is lost twice. The time to create a site is lost and the age of the site could be lost if it becomes necessary to start over. All this for the want of researching trademark availability.

To see the importance of trademark availability, consider the true story of a newcomer to the world of web business. She was building her first web site. An adult learner, she was taking the college course: Building A Successful Internet Based Business.

Susan (not her real name) came into the class excited and eager to build a business around her core concept which was a saying. It was something she had been thinking of for some time. Looking at the saying as a keyword, it had very little value. However, as an idea, she was passionate about it. She believed that it would catch on.

Susan patiently participated in the course, waiting for the day when she could register her domain ...
... name.
At this point in the class, the other students were still researching their best concepts. Susan was confident and self assured hers was a winner.

To provide a little background, you need to also know that her great idea had one big problem. This problem was in addition to the website legalities that she also faced.

The saying and the concept were not of a topic or concern that anyone had searched for. There were not 10 searches a day, or three or even one search a day for her keyword or even the concept for that matter. This unpopular idea was what she was going to build her website around.

She started by looking up her desired domain name. On completing a search of domain names, hers was free for the taking. By the way, it was a great name.

So far so good. Next she started considering the website legalities, conducting a search of trademarks.

Researching the trademark availability prior to registering the domain name is the best protection from getting a letter in the mail with the words cease and desist. So, how would our intrepid pioneer fare?

Trademark registration can cost in excess of $1500. So only the serious business owners will pursue this. Some will start the process and put the TM behind their logo or name. It is not officially completed until the R with the circle around it is there.

The first search turned up a result. The domain name she desired was indeed trademarked. Someone had paid the money to get the ® to put after the very set of words Susan hoped to create a website around.

Getting a trademark is a process requiring the sale of the product to two different people in two different states. They have to be people who are not related to you. It also requires giving a receipt and the trademark being in some way, a part of the transaction.

This last little bit of research saved her countless hours of time, effort and work. She could have built an entire site to find a cease and desist letter in the mail one day. Then, all the time, work and expense would have been lost. Since the age of a site can count for its value, she would have to start the clock that aged her site all over again.

This was not a matter of changing the domain name to a dot org or dot net name. The actual choice of words she wanted to use was the trademark. There was no getting around this

They were protected by law and could not be used in any way to promote her business as a title, name or designation.

So what can you do to avoid Susan's fate. Simply check your proposed domain name against the registered trademarks with a trademark search, both US and abroad. Reviewing this simple website legality, completing a trademark search will save you from this fate.
Free links to check trade mark availability