Thanks!
There are many variables in each domain name situation and each one may or may not apply in any particular case. Certainly your trademark or service mark registrations enter into the, as well as how long you have been actively using the marks. But those are national standards, and the web is international.
If you're serious about protecting your Intellectual Property, you do need your own legal counsel.
[icann.org...]
I love companies that call themselves things like InternetMarketing, Inc. - or name their enterprise by adopting as their title some industry's generic operative phrases - thinking that will give them the right to claim exclusive use of the phrase in a domain name. Geez, I think I'll call myself Landscaping, Inc. or FuelAdditive, Inc. or UsedCars, Inc. or CarPart, Inc. You get the picture? Try Googling the "company name" and if the search results are in the 1000s you might anticipate trouble based upon prior art, so to speak. (Again, run it past your well paid IP lawyer.)
I swat the occassional ill-advised or misguided souls, who approach me with such ridiculous contentions, like flies. (I own a few domains - all generic - and I've practiced law for 20+ years, which usually comes as a surprise to some wannabe bullies or buffoons.) There's plenty of precedent for the award of attorney fees or money damages for what is called "reverse domain hijacking" (abuse of process, frivilous claims, etc.) where someone files a claim for a domain that is obviously a generic word or phrase.
Take a look at the WIPO domain arbitration decisions for a bit of guidance.
Take a look at the WIPO decisions. Most are about either someone plainly latching onto an obvious mark (Pepsi, Disney) OR about some company attempting to gain control of a generic word or phrase, such as "lending".
So, yes, talk to a competent lawyer and expect to pay easily $500-2,000+ for a formal (introductory) analysis and, while you're pondering laying out that kind of money there's plenty of qualified reading you can do online - like reading the WIPO domain decisions. The principals articulated in the written and published online opinions aren't entirely beyond the ken of intelligent laymen. Take a look.
You can do a lot to educate yourself before committing to spending a good deal of money and the best education you will get is not by reading opinions posted in forums, except perhaps, when those opinions point you towards more legitimate sources of self-education, such as WIPO opinions, law reviews, government websites, etc.
Heaven forbid I should deprive my legal colleagues from making their coin.
Equally, heaven forbid I should convince someone that answers to complex legal questions can be resolved without speaking to competent counsel.
However, a well self-educated AND circumspect and deferential client is often the very best client to be and to have.
