Owning the Domain Name Doesn't Mean You Own the Trademark

You found the perfect name. You raced to GoDaddy, grabbed the .com before anyone else could, and breathed a sigh of relief. Your brand name is secure, right? Not quite.

A domain name and a trademark are two completely different things, governed by two completely different systems. Owning one tells you almost nothing about your rights to the other.

Domain registrars don't check trademark registers. You can buy almost any available string of characters, including one that infringes someone else's registered trademark. The registrar won't stop you. A trademark office, or a court, might.

In Canada, trademark rights arise from actual use of a mark in connection with goods or services, and/or registration with CIPO. Buying a domain isn't "use" of a trademark on its own, and it's certainly not a trademark registration.

You can own the domain and still be an infringer. If "YourBrand" is already a registered, or well-established common law, trademark belonging to someone else, owning yourbrand.com doesn't protect you. You could be required to stop using the name and even hand over the domain through a UDRP/CDRP dispute process or a court order.

You can own the trademark and not the domain. Conversely, if someone else grabbed your brand name as a domain (sometimes deliberately, i.e., cybersquatting), having a registered trademark gives you a real path to get it back. Without one, your options are much weaker.

Securing a domain is a smart, necessary business step, but it's a marketing decision, not a legal one. It does nothing to establish, protect, or prove your rights to use a name as a brand.

Before you build a business, a website, and a marketing budget around a name, clear it for trademark conflicts and consider registering it as a trademark. Otherwise, you might end up with a beautifully designed website for a name you're not actually allowed to use.