ExpertPreneurLaw℠ Blog

Domain Parking Taken to a Whole New Level

Some ExpertPreneurs with a substantial number of domains under their belt have, no doubt, had experience with domain parking problems.

For those unaccustomed to the practice, domain name parking basically takes common names  or generic terms, and points them to web pages that have little more than a mountain of pay per click Google ads, or the like, which the owners of the site profit from when they are clicked through.

Traditionally, these domain parking websites have had little in the way of actual substantive text or information, usually just enough, if at all, to be crawled by the search engines.

A recent New York Times article by Louise Story sheds light on the new heights to which this practice has been taken.  You might almost call it "Valet" domain parking.   

This raises an issue for ExpertPreneurs who wish to publicize their products and services by the use of easily recognized generic domain names.

First, the name chosen may be close to one used for domain parking by someone else, meaning that a person browsing may draw the wrong association between your site and that of the domain parker.

Second, if the name you pick is too generic, you may find much of your traffic siphoned off your piece of  the information highway and detoured where you don't want it to go.

When can Domain Names be Trademarked?

In yesterday's post, I discussed how important it is for every ExpertPreneur to do some form of trademark search before selecting a domain name for his or her new product or service web page.

While doing a search can help avoid possible liability or even the loss of the domain name to a pre-existing trademark holder, there is a very real question about when, if ever, one can trademark one's own domain name?

Contrary to the belief held by many, a web site's domain name is not automatically eligible to be registered as a trademark.

Among various other requirements, a domain name is only eligible to be registered as a trademark if it is being used in what is considered to be a "trademark sense". 

In simple English, this means that the domain name has to be more than a substitute for an Internet address.  It actually has to be used as a brand resource identifier to distinguish your brand of product or service from that of your competitors and to indicate its source.

So, if your domain name appears nowhere else on the webpage except in the address bar, there's very little chance that the domain name could be trademarked without showing that it is being used in a trademark sense in some other form.

The lesson here is that, when crafting potential domain names, the savvy ExpertPreneur  will pick domain names that will be part of his or her trademark branding strategy and will make sure to use the domain name, both on the web page and elsewhere, as a trademark and not merely as an address.

Domain Names vs. Trademarks

It's not unusual for a starting ExpertPreneur ( or even one that's not starting) to rush out and buy up every domain name for his or her great new idea or product.

So they might go out and immediately register "great idea.com", "great idea.net", "great idea.info", etc.

You'd be surprised how many do so, spending quite a lot of money in the process, without first checking to see whether the domain name possibly infringes upon an existing trademark.

Big mistake.

First of all, before trying to build a search engine friendly website that will point to one's desired domain name, every ExpertPreneur should do some level of trademark search to determine whether the domain name may conflict with another company's trademark since, to the extent it does, the ExpertPreneur is vulnerable to losing the domain name  to the true trademark holder via arbitration or, worse yet, federal lawsuit.

Even if the ExpertPreneur wanted to resist, potentially significant legal fees would be unavoidable.

Secondly, doing a trademark search will help determine whether or not the proposed domain name might, itself, be suitable for trademark protection (think "Amazon.com").

This brings us to the question of whether or not a domain name can be trademarked and, if so, when?

See tomorrow's post for the answer to that question.

Security on Information Products

Ever since ExpertPreneurs discovered digital delivery, unauthorized duplicating has been part of a big debate.

If you're selling an ebook or an Mp3 download, should you be more concerned about the purchaser being able to send copies to his or her friends, or does that only increase the visibility of your message, potentially expanding the market of those who might buy other products from you?

Obviously, there's no one right answer in all circumstances. Lost sales through needlessly lax security on digital products doesn't smell good but the ExpertPreneur always maintains control over the form of distribution of his or her products.

So, less expensive products can be made available by digital download while other, more expensive products can be sent in in forms that take more effort to copy more than a casual amount.

Even more, you can forego downloads altogether, only allowing streaming audio or video once someone accesses a password protected page after payment.

Yes, even that's not foolproof as technology marches, but when it comes to this kind of digital infringement, making it harder reduces the incidence of theft.

And, of course, IP tracking and other technologies do help in monitoring unauthorized use.

Still, we live in an age where information  is harder and harder to control so that the secret to an ExpertPreneur's long term success may lie more in  providing the type of quality product that keeps people returning and buying than it does in preventing every single instance of unauthorized copying.

Keep in mind that one of the beauties of digital delivery is in its "hands off" automatic processes that don't require you to go to the Post Office and package CD's all the time. The more difficult you make it for a customer to download and access digital information, the more customer service calls you will get and the higher your potential return rate.

So, in weighing the ying and the yang of security vs marketing considerations, the savvyy ExpertPreneur will decide on a case by case basis whether it serves he or she better to get the message out or to lock down the message so tight that even people who are allowed to see it have trouble.




Technorati Tags: infopreneur, expertpreneur, online marketing,

Intellectual Property Challenges Outside the US

Last week, I really did have occasion to marry business with pleasure, attending an all day seminar on protecting intellectual property in the Global Marketplace, sponsored by the federal government and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Held on the campus of the University of Vermont, in beautiful Burlington, the seminar drew a large crowd of concerned professionals, business owners and government officials, capped by a keynote address by Senator Patrick Leahy.

Amongst the presentations was a chilling seminar given by Brad Huther, a senior advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, concentrating in the Chamber's global anti-piracy initiative.

Huther demonstrated that a loss of 750,000 U.S. jobs was directly attributable to IP piracy and invited attendees to learn more at a special web site set up by the Chamber at www.thetruecosts.org.

There were several other topics discussed at the presentation, everything from the unique threat posed by foreign knock-offs of well known brands to copyright infringement, to criminal penalties under federal intellectual property theft statutes.

Still, one basic lessons stands out for ExpertPreneurs and that is the one emphasized by Ari Leifman of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In an age of globalization, intellectual property rights are still primarily territorial. This means that, if you intend to sell your knowledge and services in other countries, you need to investigate protecting your IP rights there as well as in the U.S.

While there are procedural treaties that help streamline the process of these applications, they do not excuse the need to make those applications or to comply with the laws of those countries as they may affect your intellectual property rights.

The time to think of these issues is when you are first considering making inroads internationally, as the standards for protection in other countries are not the same as they are in the U.S.

Misquoted by Reporters?

Every ExpertPreneur will grow their business with publicity, the best form of advertising. After all, you can tell people you're great, but it's better when others do it for you.

Sometimes, this can be done subtly when your expertise is displayed by being quoted in the mainstream press or in industry publications.

Of course, this can only be done well when the reporter that quotes you does so accurately. How many times does that happen? Judging from my own personal experience, not as often as you ( or I) would like.

Now even though this blog is about the law for ExpertPreneurs, I thought it might be useful to hear some practical advice on the subject.

I came upon a good post on this subject today by Lou Hampton, the author of the Speak to Lead Blog.
You can read it at http://www.speaktolead.com/2007/08/recently-a-read.html

Intellectual Property Guidelines for New ExpertPreneurs - Part 3

In Part 2 of this Post, I discussed the pivotal importance of trademark for your fledgling information business.

But, of course, there is more to intellectual property than trademarks for the budding infopreneur or  ExpertPreneur.

That brings us to copyrights. This can be the subject of quite a few posts and, in coming weeks, I will have more to say about it, but, for now, let's focus on one early stage aspect of copyright -- who owns the rights to the contents of your web site. 

While a trademark protects a name, slogan or logo that brands a product or service, copyright protects the original expressions of ideas that are set down in a tangible medium, such as the words and images on a web site, among other things. Many ExpertPreneurs are so anxious to get their websites up and running that they fail to carefully check the contracts they enter into with their web designers, logo designers and advertising copywriters.

In particular, they fail to properly insure that they will own the copyrights to the web page design, the logo and the words and pictures on their website. That’s because the copyrights to these things belong to their creators, even if you paid for it,  unless you enter into the right legal agreements or relationship before the work is done.  Even if you write your own copy, take your own pictures and code your own website, you will still need to protect your copyrights so that you can either prevent theft or obtain financial damages from those that steal your work on the Web.

While all of this may sound daunting, you can achieve a real comfort level by addressing these issues with appropriate legal counsel from the very beginning. If your small business lawyer isn’t one who can also address intellectual property law issues, find one that can do so. If you build your business’ brand and protect its ideas from the beginning, your business  will have a real leg up on your competition for a long time to come.

Intellectual Property Guidelines for New ExpertPreneurs - Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote to persuade you about the importance of considering your intellectual property when starting your business as an infopreneur or ExpertPreneur.

But on what aspects of intellectual property should you be concentrating your attention?

The first things to focus on is a trademark, your main branding protection. Trademarks, or service marks in service businesses like coaching and seminars, stake your claim to your product or service in your marketplace by identifying it with your name, slogan or logo in the mind of your potential customers.  Who hasn’t looked at the bright red logo and distinctive bottle of Coca-Cola and not been able to distinguish it from Pepsi, even without the blind taste test?

Product, service or even brand names  must be chosen carefully from the very beginning because not all are capable of qualifying as trademarks. For example,  using “Apple” as a brand name for the sale of apples can’t earn a trademark because it’s considered generic, merely using the name of the product itself.  But, Apple Bank and Apple Computer can be trademarks because “Apple” is  distinctive in those contexts.

Picking a name that can qualify as a trademark is also important because it allows your business to fend off cybersquatters that trade off your business’ good will by registering your mark as a domain name for their own goods or, even to extort you into buying from them at an exorbitant price.

(More on this subject, including copyrights, in Part 3 of this post, tomorrow)

Intellectual Property Guidelines for New ExpertPreneurs - Part 1

By now, most ExpertPreneurs starting a new business know enough to consider whether they should form some type of entity to protect them from personal exposure, such as a corporation or a limited liability company. Most have even thought of a snappy name for their product or service.

Yet, even in the age of all things Internet, surprisingly few have adequately considered what might be one of the most important long term investments that they could make in their company, namely their intellectual property protection.

Like many fledgling small business owners that come to see us, you might think that intellectual property is an issue primarily geared to Internet firms or software companies or even big drug manufacturers, but the truth is that almost no business starting in today’s World, least of all that of an infopreneur or an ExpertPreneur, can afford not to think about and invest in establishing its intellectual property beach  head if it intends to stay in business or to grow it into a thriving enterprise.

The simple reason for this is that you, as an ExpertPreneurs need to have more than a good product or service. You need to be known for and identified as the go-to source of your product or service -- the Expert --, and to be able to demonstrate your goods and capabilities to inquiring audiences on the Internet, and to prevent  your ideas and innovations from being stolen.

Once you realize this, bringing in legal counsel that’s knowledgeable about intellectual property at the beginning of a company’s formation becomes an obvious and inevitable decision for you as a savvy entrepreneur looking for an edge.

( Part 2 tomorrow)