Trademarking a name - when you don't own the domain.

Possible?

[benflux]

Legal question here:

We own widgets.co.uk - we want widgets.com that is owned by someone that is not using it and wont sell it to us.

If we register Widgets as our trademark, can we take it off of them?

Thanks

Ben.

[Webwork]

If it was as simple as that you would probably know the answer since it would be a wildly popular (well known) method of snatching valuable domains.

What you're contemplating is actually complex: It's fact sensitive, may involve conflict of laws issues, likely implicates questions of international jurisdiction, Hague Convention issues, etc. What is recognized as a trademark in the UK may not be recognized as a trademark elsewhere. Soverign nations are not eager to surrender their citizen's rights or interests to the laws or rulings of other nations that may be at odds with their own laws.

Careful you don't find your company on the wrong end of a lawsuit couched in terms of malicious abuse of process, tortious interference, reverse hijacking or otherwise.

Heck, you might even find yourself losing your own brand in the right scenario. How so? Well, if it works one way it just might work the other way in the right circumstances. You sue and find yourself on the losing end of a countersuit.

Pandora's box. That's what litigation is.