Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Why do many startups register very similar domain names to existing businesses?

• posted by: Dan Dascalescu on 2016-08-22
• tagged: business-registration, trademark, domain-name
• score: 4

The .co and .ly TLDs became popular because they allowed registering domain names for which .com was taken. Other startups insert “get”, “try”, “on” or other prefix in order to get the .com.

This practice is obviously quite widespread, despite the advice to avoid it, and existing risks. What are its legal ramifications under US trademark/copyright law? Does it matter if the preexisting company operates in the same industry?

Why do so many startups do this? Are the risks exaggerated?

Answer 10989

• posted by: PV22 on 2016-08-23
• score: 2

I believe you will want to refer to the Anti-Cybersquatting Piracy Act (ACPA) of 1999 for current legislation [LINK]. It is an addendum to the Lantham Act S.43(d) 15 U.S.C S.1125(d).

It seems to put into law the basic premises to equip plaintiffs with a matter of recourse to “bad faith” dealings involving domain names.

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