For the protection of your domain to trademark claims play a major role. Our own brand provides for protection against free-riders and confusingly Domians other site operators. But their brand can also help to fight successfully against warnings or demand for surrender with respect to the own domain.
Protection by registration of a trademark
Brand Legal protection resulting from reliance on an entry by the Patent and Trademark Office in Munich, §4 para 1 No. 1 MarkenG. Be registered as trademarks mostly company names or descriptions for products and services. A trademark registration usually refers to certain categories (classes). For other than the respective category, the brand is not generally protected.
Reputation with the public/notorious reputation
But protection of the trademark may also come to the Patent Office considered without registration. These cases 2 and 3 MarkenG in § 4. Regulated. This is partly the case by the use of a sign in the course of trade, by which the sign has acquired secondary meaning as a trade mark. Secondly, it can be considered Trademark protection by obtaining a notorious reputation. Such a notorious reputation example, generally takes trademarks used in other countries consider that enjoy outstanding reputation in Germany.
Business names/titles Protection
Also, business names can enjoy trademark protection. These are corporate ID and work titles, such as names of movies, magazines, games or software. These names can be used as business names after MarkenG can be protected. When this work titles have distinctive character and the domain with the same title work is confusingly, the use of this domain may be prohibited. For this, there must be a likelihood of confusion, see below.
Copyright protection is to achieve faster and cheaper than brand protection, is within its range but less extensive.
