Video 10: Choosing a Business Name and a Domain Name
1. Suppose Caleb and Anna stick with Wizard for Hire and run their online
consulting business. Can they get the domain name wizardforhire.com even if
there is a computer company in California with the business name Wizard for
Hire?
Given the facts, it is not clear-cut. The general rule is first-come first-serve for
real users of business names (cybersquatters who claim names just to claim
them are not real users and lose the names to real businesses with the names).
Here we have two real businesses. This one is smaller and newer than the one in
California, but it is still a real business that was the first to claim the domain
name. It is in Caleb and Anna’s favor that they were the first to claim the name.
Also in their favor is that they are not in the same line of work as the California
company, so there is no evidence of intent to take value away from the name of
the California company or to confuse the public. Also, the California firm is not so
well known that it would have been obvious that they were taking a well known
name, which would have been the case had they been the first to claim
Exxon.com. If the California company made no effort to claim the domain name,
then it may become property of Caleb and Anna since they are good faith users
of the name.
2. There is a magician in the same city who uses the name Wizard. Are they likely
to have a conflict with him?
No. He had not already claimed the domain name, so it is not his. There is no
confusion in the market since one is an entertainer and one is a computer
consultant and both are small operations. The word wizard is commonly used in
many situations, it was not a real and unique name used by an entertainer that
had such fame, such as the entertainer Marilyn Monroe, that another party could
not reasonably claim they did not know the name itself had commercial meaning.
3. Why would a company want their domain name to be identical to their business
name?
It lowers the cost to customers to find them on the Internet and it extends the
power of a trademark. When looking on the Internet, one expects to be able to
type in the name of a company and dot com after it, to be led to the website of
the company of which one is thinking. That has great advertising value. It is a
signal to customers that the business is a significant enterprise. The more a
business name is used and recognized, the stronger the protection afforded the
business name in case of a dispute over trademark, domain name, and other
possible extensions.