Green-Arrow IP Helping Entrepreneurs Manage IP

 Stop working on the pitch-deck, save and quit your business plan document.  Do this now.

1. Make sure you own all of the top level domains for your company name.  So if you're XYZ corp.  you should own XYZ.com, XYZ.org, XYZ.net, XYZ.info, XYZ.biz, XYZ.us, XYZ.mobi at the very least.
2. Check the USPTO to see if your name has already been registered as a trademark by someone else.

I've Seen it Happen Too Often

Here's the scenario you want to avoid, I've seen it happen three time now, and, as you'll see, it obviously happens a lot.

You've decided on a name you like: "yourgreatname" corporation.  You've checked, and the .com domain name is available (that's pretty unusual in its own right, as I'm sure you know by now).  So you register yourgreatname.com.  And then you run off to other things, like working on your pitch deck, and grinding financials for your business plan.  Then.....

 Something puts your name into the ether.  Either you get funding and your name is listed in a press release (that's good, because you're going to need some of that money to fix what's about to happen to you), or you create a company page on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or perhaps you create a git repository at GitHub (software people will know what this is).  Then.....

You remember that you never registered yourgreatname.org, or yourgreatname.net etc..  Guess what.  It's probably too late.  Why?  Because someone saw your press release, checked to see if you'd registered the .net, .org etc. domain names, and registered them if you didn't.  Squatters.

I've seen the following.  A brand new company is featured in a story on a university tech blog, the headline  "Company XYZ launches to commercialize technology from university professor X".  Within an hour, the .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us and .mobi domains were all snapped up by others, and in this particular case, by several others in different parts of the country.  It's a cottage industry, and I've seen this happen in cases involving relatively sophisticated entrepreneurs.

Can't I get my name back from these squatters?

Yes, you can, but it will be expensive (far more expensive than registering them in the first place).  Stop reading this, and go register your .net, .org, etc.  Do it now.  

Here's how the economics work.  You can file a objection proceeding with ICANN claiming that the person who bought yourgreatname.mobi is using the domain in bad faith.  Then will ensue a quasi-court like process where they'll object, saying that their use is legitimate, and you'll have to provide evidence about the strange correlation between their registration on April 7th, and your April 7 press release.  You'll hire a lawyer to handle this.  You'll go back and forth a few times, and in the end you will prevail.  How much will it cost?  About $10-20K (for each party you need to go after).

Can't I offer to buy the domain name from the squatter?

Yes you can.  But guess how much they'll want.  They know that it will take you about $20K to pry the domain name from them using the formal ICANN procedure.  So they'll offer to sell for...... $17K.

What about trademarks?

Trademarks cost more to register than do domains (several hundred dollars, versus 10-20 dollars) so there are fewer cases of trademark "squatting."  But if your press release is sufficiently splashy (like you got $2M in Series A financing) and your name is suitably descriptive such that you'll not want to change it, then someone may do the calculation and spend a  few hundred bucks to get the trademark.  

Several different scenes can play out here, since the squatter will have to publish the name for opposition, but remember that opposing is an expensive process, and while you may win in the long-run, you're more likely to negotiate an assignment of the trademark application for something less than you legal costs would be.

It's a bit more expensive than registering your domain name, but it's a good exercise to do the trademark clearance work to make sure you've not chosen a name that someone else also loves, and in fact already owns or uses in trade (which will make it more difficult for you to register the name or variants).

So don't let this happen to you.  Register those names, and let the squatters squat elsewhere.