Domain Names

With the explosive rise of the Internet as the ideal forum for promoting a company’s goods and services, it has never been more crucial for business owners to protect their intellectual property online. This starts with your domain name, the address of your website, which is of critical importance and substantial value. Considering the role your domain name plays in  your company’s business, you should contact our team at MAVEN® IP to tackle complicated issues regarding protection and enforcement. With more than 60 years of combined legal and paralegal experience, we have developed sound strategies for registering, monitoring, and enforcing your rights in this unique type of intellectual property.

In general, MAVEN® IP can assist with domain names in three (3) ways:  registrations, transactions, and disputes. Conflicts often arise over ownership of a domain name, since internet addresses are unique. A company that wins the race to registration will be considered the owner, but such acts may constitute trademark infringement. Situations of domain name hijacking and cybersquatting are common, where a company registers domain names that it knows has value to other organizations – and then sells them at a profit.  Whether a company has registered a domain using your trademark or is claiming your website address as its own, our attorneys at MAVEN® IP can assist. Whether you’re in Florida or anyone else in the world, our team is within reach.

Some of the specific policies, organizations, and measures that pertain to domain names include:

• The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organization that registers, coordinates, and maintains domain names;
• ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which works to resolve disputes over domain names; and
• The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) that provides a cause of action against a company that uses bad faith to profit from a domain name.