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Ok, I think I'm going to give up my company name (see here: Trademark infringement - does it really sounds that bad?)

Given my situation I need to make sure:

  1. Nobody will go after me again (it is not my intention to copy after someone)
  2. I will be able to get the trademark for the name.

I found a pretty unique name. It's actually a latin word, it has good abbreviation, it sounds like the previous name, it will be somewhat memorable. It is 100% unique in the trucking/transportation industry, which is what I need. Even parts of it have not been used.

Issues:

  1. .com domain is taken (of course because it is short) but .net is available. I don't see this as a problem because the .com domain is not used for a website by whoever holds it and the name does not come up in Google searches.

  2. There is a police department in one of the states that has this word as part of their name. Their name is 2 words and trademarked. I'm planning to use 1 word.

Can you imagine a problem trademarking such a name later on? My lawyer says it should not be a problem because businesses are different and there's no correlation, but who knows? Do you see a problem with using the .NET domain name?

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Since .com is not used - try to buy it NOW, before you launch anything on .net. – user9982 Dec 13 '11 at 21:29
It is not used but not available either. Someone holding it. It's not available to register but I'm sure it's one of those "available for sale" – katit Dec 13 '11 at 21:52
I understood that part. Just because they are holding it, doesn't mean they are not willing to sell. If your product does well, they will ask for more and they will be getting some of your traffic. – user9982 Dec 13 '11 at 21:55
Right now it's not a problem. If I decide to go with name itself - I will try to get .COM for reasonable amount. But if not - I'm not that much concerned. I learned that my customers sill come in via link of via google. – katit Dec 13 '11 at 21:59

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I primarily work with US companies and in the US it's instinct to add .com after anything you type in as a web address. You could have just heard the person say www.whatever.net and you'll type in www.whatever.com - it's that ingrained in our behavior. SO - I only buy .com's.

So... I would suggest adding something to your domain. So if your company is Lorem and you can get Lorem.net but you are in the trucking business buy LoremTrucking.com or LoremApp.com

The App after the name is getting pretty common for software and mobile companies.

Like 37signals wanted something simple for their product name 'Basecamp' so they got BasecampHQ - not a big deal... they still call their app something one word but their domain is a little bit longer.

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up vote 0 down vote

Your second issue, regarding the trademark, should be addressed sooner rather than later. Apply for the trademark once you have decided you are going with the new name.

If you are worried about infringing on the police department (which seems unlikely as you are probably in very different marketplaces) why not call them up and ask if they are likely to object? It's not legally binding but it might save you some money pursuing a course of action that's going to be actively blocked later on.

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