Domain names and common law trademarks?

[tradingnames.org]

Hi folks, I am a newbie so please excuse any ignorance in this field, but I need to clarify a couple of things in regards to domain names and trademarks, firstly is it true that all plural versions of a domain name are automatically a trade mark infringement of the singular, if they are registered afterwards, I read something about if you are a US citizen that as soon as you register a name you are automatically protected by the common law trademark and that any other registrations are infringements. So are loans.com or creditcards.com automatically an infringement, if the singular was registered first by somebody else? If so does this also apply the other way if somebody registers the plural first?

Also how does this apply to different extensions of either the plural, singular, or even the exact same word, assuming it’s a generic term and not obviously an infringement in any extension like “microsoft windows” would be, is creditcard.net an infringement of creditcard.com if it too was registered by somebody else afterwards? Also is all this internationally legally enforceable? I live in the UK, would somebody been protected by a US common law trademark be a problem for me?

Many thanks in advance

John

[Cartoonz]

...I read something about if you are a US citizen that as soon as you register a name you are automatically protected by the common law trademark and that any other registrations are infringements. So are loans.com or creditcards.com automatically an infringement, if the singular was registered first by somebody else?..

Completely false.

[tradingnames.org]

I see, I have just been getting a bit freaked about stories of people getting emails from people who registered either the singular or plural version of their domain before them, saying it infringes their trade mark and was wondering how much of a problem this issue was.

[tradingnames.org]

I have looked into it a bit more and it seems descriptive terms are very hard to trade mark and generic terms you can’t TM at all, any trade mark even under common law has to be earned and in the case of a descriptive term would require significant public recognition, even if you put a website on it and engage in some kind of business related to that field you have to be relatively significant to qualify.

This is my understanding of it thus far, if anybody else thinks differently feel free to correct me.

[domaingenius]

I have looked into it a bit more and it seems descriptive terms are very hard to trade mark and generic terms you can’t TM at all, any trade mark even under common law has to be earned and in the case of a descriptive term would require significant public recognition, even if you put a website on it and engage in some kind of business related to that field you have to be relatively significant to qualify.

This is my understanding of it thus far, if anybody else thinks differently feel free to correct me.

Wrong im sorry. You can register pretty much any name, simply depends on knowing what to claim Plus you can register a trade mark BEFORE you have used the name, then you have 5 years before need to prove use.

DG

[marcorandazza]

I have looked into it a bit more and it seems descriptive terms are very hard to trade mark and generic terms you can’t TM at all, any trade mark even under common law has to be earned and in the case of a descriptive term would require significant public recognition, even if you put a website on it and engage in some kind of business related to that field you have to be relatively significant to qualify.

This is my understanding of it thus far, if anybody else thinks differently feel free to correct me.

You have this *mostly* right, but be careful that you understand what "generic" and "descriptive" mean -- in a legal sense.

"Apple" is a "generic" term, isn't it? Well, only for fruit. Not for computers. Not for a record company.

What you need to understand, and what few on DNforum refuse to believe, is that words are never "generic" nor even "descriptive" unless you consider the CONTEXT in which the term is used.