Trademark question

[com]

I recently started looking up trademarks and started watching what i register before i snap and i have a question.

I ahve a domain, which i consider to be a truly great name and i would like to buy, but...

I did a search on trademarks and, for the sake of the example, if, say the domain is whitesnow.com, the trademark is whitesnow. I wouldnt have known it was even ever used if i hadnt looked up the trademark search, so t is not a recognized name. Question is, does the trademark apply to the domain? If lets say the trademark does not specify anything about the use over the internet? The reason i am asking is because i saw specific trademarks with .com after the name and those clearly apply, but does that mean that if you want to trademark a domain you have to provide the ext as well or does simply trademarking whitesnow is enough? Also consider that the domain has not been in use for almost 2 years and is about to drop. Should i go after it or stay away?

Thank you.

 

[dtobias]

According to the USPTO, the TLD (.com, etc.) has no "source identifying significance", as it is purely a technical part of the addressing system, so it shouldn't be necessary to register a trademark that actually includes that suffix. The fact that so many companies have registered trademarks for "Whatever.com" is something I ascribe to the idiotic mania of dot-com-itis that seemed to afflict so many people (especially "marketing types") in the late '90s, but thankfully has largely receded after the tech crash.

 

[com]

Yes, i was thinking the same way, the only question that remains is should i go for it?

If the domain has not seen any use for 2 years and the company holding the trademark abandoned it and it never appears anywhere. Will they give me a hard time and try and take it away although they show no interest in it and are letting it drop?