ExpertPreneurLaw℠ Blog

What's in a Name? Part II

As I wrote in Part 1 of this post, thinking about the name that you will use to set your goods or services apart from those of others brings us to a discussion of trademarks.

Trademarks are so crucial to an expertpreneur’s business in today’s World because they extend their reach across many different areas of law and business.

First, let’s get our terms straight. For our purposes, a trademark is a  word, name, symbol, logo or other device – or any combination of them – used to identify and distinguish one person’s brand of goods and services from those of others and  to identify the source of those goods and services.

This means that, when you are considering selecting a trademark for your expertpreneurial endeavors, you have to think about how you will use it. Remember, it’s not just ownership that’s the issue, it’s also whether and how you use the mark to distinguish your goods and services from those of others. So, you want to make sure you’re using the mark in what’s called a trademark sense, that is, as a source identifier.

Here’s an example of what not to do. Let’s say you register a domain name, that people type in to get to the web page for your product. If, once they get there, they can’t find any mention of that domain name used in connection with advertising, promoting or used in packaging of the product, it will be hard to trademark that domain name, since it’s being used merely as an address to get to the web page, not in connection with distinguishing the source of the goods or services themselves. 

This doesn’t only affect  whether you get a federal registration for your trademark when you apply to register it. It directly affects your ability to even protect the domain name. In the case of cybersquatters, who might hijack your domain, the speedy and relatively inexpensive remedy of a domain name recovery arbitration requires that the complaining party, you, establish that you have trademark related rights in the domain name. If you can’t do that, you’re out of luck.

The same would be true if you tried to go to Court under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act,  the details of which will be the subject of a later post. Here, too, in order to sue a cybersquatter, you must establish your trademark rights as a matter of entitlement to bring suit since the essence of the claim is bad faith intent of the defendant to profit from your mark.

But it still gets worse. Trademark infringement on the Web is everywhere.  Whether you want to take action because a competitor is using your mark as a paid search keyword to redirect web traffic of people looking  for you, or even in meta tags, the lack of a qualifying protectable mark is devastating.

So what’s in a name? A lot.

The Importance of Comprehensive Domain Name Strategies

In their latest typosquatting lawsuit, well known Department Store, Neiman Marcus filed suit against two  domain name registrars, Name.com LLC and Spot Domains LLC, based on the increasingly infamous practice of domain tasting, the temporary "renting" of  domain names that are variants on well known trademarks, to profit from the ad traffic generated when people mistakenly type the legitimate trademark domain incorrectly.

Under the registration policies from which domain name registrars benefit, domain names can essentially be canceled within five days of registration, without fee. These policies have allowed registrars and their steady clients to "taste" the value of the domains for the five day period and only commit to buying them if they pan out.

This, of course, trades off the goodwill of the actual trademark holder, but is done for so short a time, that it's often difficult for the actual trademark holder to find out in time to take effective action.

Hence, suit against the facilitating registrars themselves as well. This most recent suit follows on the heels of another suit by Neiman against another registrar, Dotster.com for the same practice.

For expertpreneurs, these cases illustrate one of the burdens of trademark ownership, namely the responsibility to police your mark. 
 

Foreign Blogger Denied Journalist Status

Breitbart.com  reports today of a Lithuanian Blogger denied status as a journalist by that Country's parliament.

Interpreting it's Country's own Media Law, the Parliament's Education, Science and Culture Committee determined that the blogger in this case, Liutauras Ulevicius, failed to meet the legal requirements of a journalist in that he was neither contracted to "disseminate" information to the media nor was he  a journalist union member, alternative qualifications under the Lithuanian Media Law.

Ulevicius has vowed to fight on, in court if necessary.

Lithuania's position is not unique and refusal to recognize bloggers as journalists is not as unusual as some might think since the freedom of lack of accountability makes them a thorn in the side of those they afflict, as well as an uncontrollable political fringe for governmental authority.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that China's Chief Censor ( scary title, huh?)  announced the Country's intention to increase restraints on its native bloggers, underscoring the decentralization of political thought facilitated by the Internet.

For expertpreneurs, these governmental efforts indirectly underscore two very important fundamental truths of the Information Age. First, that specialized knowledge can be disseminated for wide impact with relative ease, thanks to the Internet.

Second, and perhaps more important, if you don't control your own right to your own information, someone else will be there to try to do it for you ---- or is that to you?

What's in a Name? - Part I

Every expertpreneur builds their reputation around some field, some subject, some body of knowledge that they know more about than their target market. Maybe having expertise about some body of knowledge is where the word "somebody" get its meaning, when used to refer to someone special. Just guessing on that one.

Sometimes, of course, an expertpreneur may know a lot about different fields that are somehow related to each other.

Either way, the result is that it's important for an EP to be known as being associated with some service and to have a reference name or slogan or other means of setting themselves apart from other experts in their areas of specialization.

So, it's really important to think about the image and identifying characteristic that you want to use to set yourself apart this way.

Once you do, you're in the realm of trademarks.

ExpertPreneurlaw?

    First, welcome to the Blog. Unless you've already heard the explanation,  the title of this post is likely the first question you're asking yourself.

    So let me tell you why this Blog is here and what it's all about.

    I'm a practicing lawyer and, after many years of practice, including long hours, weekends, hostile adversaries and growing children, I've been learning about the benefits of helping people in different and bigger ways than just one on one.

    This, to be sure, is not an issue specific to me or to my profession. In fact, based on my research so far, my intuition is strong that there are many more people than might be assumed who would love to find a different way to be of service in the World with the things that they know and learn.

    In any event, I'm one of them. Oh, I'm not dropping the shingle or anything, just looking for another outlet. Maybe you are too.

    So, I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to learn that there are legal issues that come into play in pursuing these types of opportunities.

    Some, of course, are obvious.  Intellectual property for instance. But there are others too. Everything from contracts to advertising to Internet regulation and more.

    Since these all don't fit neatly into one area of the law, I've decided to refer to the various legal disciplines that come to bear on budding and growing ExpertPreneurs as ExpertPreneurlaw.

    As time goes by, I'll be posting on legal developments from a variety of these areas to expose you to the different issues that I think ExpertPreneurs will need to keep in mind as they enter and progress in this field of endeavor.

    I hope you'll visit again and subscribe.