Trademarking a domain name

What are the costs and factors involved in trademarking a domain name

[top5jamaica]

Greetings all .. can someone point me to a site or resource where I can find out more about the costs and factors involved in trademarking a domain name. Thanks a lot.

[toolman]

[uspto.gov...]

Good Luck!

[rcjordan]

>What are the costs

Between $1500 and $2500. A good amount of that is in upfront money, i.e., NO guarantees that the request will be successful.

[pearl]

1. You can trademark the left side of the domain name simply by putting the letters "TM" after it (example MySite(tm) for MySite.com). I suggest doing that now. This puts people on notice that you want to protect your rights in the name. Anyone can do this and it's free.

2. If you want to register the (left side only) trademark with the US government, go to the site mentioned above. (Fees are only $335 though). You can register your mark in US states and other countries as well.

3. In order to register a mark, you must actually be using the name in some way. You can't just buy a domain name, mark it, and never develop the website or related business.

Hope this helps.

(Put "tm" on your name now)

[top5jamaica]

thanks all .. fast and to the point!

[digitalbrain]

why dont you copyright your website including the domain name? it will be a lot cheaper , i think it is around $70

[pearl]

Copyright procedure is similar to trademark.

Simply put copyright symbol and year on each page - FREE. Provides limited protection.

Can register copyrights as well, but I am not sure how you really do that with a living, changing thing like a website.