Trademark (Legal Subject)

Los Angeles Trademark Attorney Cheryl Hodgson explains trademark registration for related goods. Brand owners can extend their rights to related goods, and also prevent others from registering for related goods.

Clients and marketing professionals believe registration of a domain name is sufficient protection and there is no need to register a trademark or service mark. So, here goes. This trademark attorney explains domain names and how they relate to trademarks.

Much of the misunderstanding arises from advice given by early Internet marketing experts who advised clients that descriptive search terms are all that are needed, since they afford instant search engine ranking. While a descriptive domain may garner high ranking in search results, most of them stink as trademarks!

Trademark lawyers Bill Finkelstein and Cheryl Hodgson discuss the difference between an active website and a passive site for purposes of establishing federal trademark rights. What are the requirements to establish rights on the Internet for both services and when selling goods?

Domain names are much like a street address, only the identify the virtual location of your website and business. Domain name availability is best searched through a domain registrar, or directly through the Whois Lookup. Securing a domain after searching domain availability is only the beginning since a domain does not provide protection for use of any distinctive terms contained in the domain as a trademark for the goods and services you sell at the URL.