Reasons Your Domain Name Trademark May Be Rejected

Trademarking a domain name is a smart move in every situation. That being said, many people try to do it themselves and only find to their frustration that the Patent and Trademark Office rejects the application. This raises the question of why are domain trademark applications rejected?

Let’s start with the simplest, but most important thing to understand. The mere fact you own a domain does not entitle you to a trademark. Instead, the mark is only allocated if the name is used to identify a service or product being offered. The mere marking of an address, as occurs with just a domain name, is not going to meet the muster of the Patent and Trademark Office examiners.

Another reason a domain trademark application can be rejected involves a filing that incorporates the suffix to the domain. The suffix is the .com, .net, .org or whatever ending. The Patent and Trademark Office takes a unique view of these suffixes. It believes they add nothing to the mark and are akin to the “800” element of a phone number. As a result, the office generally does not allow the suffix to be included in the filing unless the applicant can identify a very good reason to do so.

A third reason for rejecting a domain has to do with the words in the domain. A trademark is rarely allowed for a word or phrase that is merely descriptive. For example, Google could trademark its name because it is not descriptive and identifies a service [searching]. Trying to trademark the phrase “searchengine” as a domain, however, would be much more difficult because the phrase is merely descriptive of the service being offered.

A similar situation arises with geographic domains. The Patent and Trademark Office does not look kindly on applications for a domain like “sandiego[dot]com”. The domain does not identify a service or product, only a place. This makes sense if you think it through. If someone could trademark “NewYork[dot]com”, they could arguably sue every site that incorporated New York into their domains! That would hardly be just.

Applying for a trademark for a domain is a smart move. That being said, it isn’t as easy as it seems and rejections are common. Understanding why that is the case can help you avoid problems.

By: SD Lawyer

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Richard A. Chapo is with SanDiegoBusinessLawFirm.com - where he will register trademark domain name applications for your site today.