Stake out your domain name turf to protect your trademark

By Scott S. Havlick and Kristin M. Miller

Domain names serve as a directional address, identifying the address of a particular computer on the Internet. Domain names consist of two levels, each separated by a period. Top-level domains (TLDs) are identified by their Internet zone designation, such as the generic TLDs or .com, .org and .net, or by their country code, such as .de (Germany). Secondary TLDs are located to the immediate left of the dot. It is these secondary TLDs that can be registered.

The domain name system is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names…