Trademark registration represents effective means for regaining control of your online presence, allowing you to get your hosting back. This benefit arising from a successful registration for a trademark can be observed in two particular scenarios.
First, cybersquatting refers to a deliberate action of purchasing a domain and then reselling it to the target company with a considerable profit. This practice has been relatively common in the past but has been effectively discouraged by the changes in the intellectual property law. Nowadays, trademark registration allows you to issue a “cease and desist” letter to any cybersquatter that is purposefully preventing you from using the domain name that coincides with the registered mark.
Secondly, the use of a domain name of a competitor’s company has also become an attractive way for copycats to infringe upon the good reputation of established brands. Either exact forms of the registered mark or slightly adjusted forms are used to fool consumers into thinking that they are purchasing the products from their favourite brand. A successful registration of a trademark allows you to issue a “cease and desist” letter to any such party, ensuring that the good reputation of your brand as well as the derived profit remain in your hands. A failure to resolve such infringement case through a “cease and desist” letter allows you to pursue a legal case against the perpetrator where it is the trademark registration which reduces your legal costs and ensures a positive result.
Moreover, several web hosting providers (e.g. GoDaddy) have already implemented Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policies, strengthening the level of protection and easing the conflict resolution process for holders of registered trademarks [1].
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[1] GoDaddy (2020), “Trademark / copyright infringement”, available from: https://uk.godaddy.com/legal/agreements/trademark-copyright-infringement
