Domain Names: How to Choose and Protect a Great Name for Your Website (Quick & Legal) [Paperback]

Stephen Elias (Author), Patricia Gima (Author)

Book Description

Series: Quick & Legal | Publication Date: May 2000

With clever (and even not-so-clever) names for websites disappearing faster than you can say "Internet Start-Up," e-entrepreneurs need to know that their choice won't be whisked out from under their ISPs.

This book explains in plain English how to choose, register and protect a domain name that works. Written both for those shepherding an existing business onto the Web and those launching an e-commerce start-up, it explains how to:

* check on the availability of a domain name and register it * check the trademark status of a domain name * register a domain name electronically with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office * determine your rights as the owner of a domain name * proceed if a desirable domain name has already been snagged

Bursting with up-to-date information, including the latest on federal anti-cybersquatting legislation, Domain Names includes a sample dispute notification letter and a sample domain-name sales agreement. Be king of your domain name with this user-friendly guide!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Nolo once again comes to the rescue...concise advice and instruction about how to avoid trademark infringement suits and ... -- Keri Hayes Troutman, ComputerCurrents

Read 'Domain Names'... [to] make sure the name is available and can legally be yours." -- Newsweek

This is an invalubable guide for anyone who wants to grow his or her business on the Web.... -- Small Business Opportunities --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Stephen R. Elias is an attorney, an editor at Nolo.com, and author of many Nolo titles, including: Patent, Copyright and Trademark; How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Trademark: Legal Care For Your Business and Product Name, Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law, and Nolo's Pocket Guide to Family Law. Steve has been interviewed by most major media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, Money Magazine and more. He received his law degree from Hastings College of Law and practiced law in California, New York and Vermont before joining Nolo in 1980. In recent years much of Steve's time at Nolo has been devoted to the fields of self-help legal software and online legal information. He is one of the original authors/designers of Nolo's bestselling WillMaker program, as well as the software version of Nolo's Patent It Yourself.

Patricia Gima graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1992 and has been an intellectual property attorney and an editor at Nolo since 1994. Patricia is co-author of Nolo's Pocket Guide to California Law and The Trademark Registration Kit. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Nolo; 1st edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873375696
• ISBN-13: 978-0873375696
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,481,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen R. Elias is an attorney and former associate publisher at Nolo, as well as the current President of National Bankruptcy Law Project. He is the author of many Nolo books, most recently Bankruptcy for Small Business Owners. Other titles include Special Needs Trusts: Protect Your Child's Financial Future, How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, and Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law. He is also one of the original authors of Nolo's bestselling WillMaker software. Steve holds a law degree from Hastings College of Law and practiced law in California, New York, and Vermont before joining Nolo in 1980. He has been featured in such major media as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Good Morning America, 20/20, Money magazine, and more. Steve's blog on bankruptcy and foreclosure law can be found at Nolo's Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Blog.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the $20, August 7, 2000

By 

Robert Kall "Rob Kall of Opednews.com" (Newtown, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Domain Names: How to Choose and Protect a Great Name for Your Website (Quick & Legal) (Paperback)

This was the second book (there are only two in print<g>) I bought in my quest to understand the domain name business. It does provide some useful information on coming up with your own domain name and it does provide lots of info on trademark considerations in choosing a domain name. It is primarily for the trademark considerations that I give it the three star rating. While the Ronan's book on Domain Names (The Domain Name Handbook; High Stakes and Strategies in Cyberspace by Ellen Rony, Peter R. Rony) does a nice job on covering trademark history, this book does a better job from a "How-to" point of view, which is not surprising since it is published by an interesting publishing house, Nolo, which puts out lots of how-to law books. I expect to order more of these.

By my read, about 55 pages of the book are clearly related to domain names. The rest of the book is more related to trademark considerations. It's almost as if they took a book on trademarks and modified it and added the pages on domain names.

Since, if you screw up on a trademark factor with even a single domain name registration, it could cost you at least the $16 or less cost of a name registration, this book's $20 cost is well worth the investment and time persuing its detailed trademark coverage, to prevent running into trademark problems.

Rob Kall, author, domainnamereport

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick read could save you a lotta headaches, May 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Domain Names: How to Choose and Protect a Great Name for Your Website (Quick & Legal) (Paperback)

With clever (and even not-so-clever) names for websites disappearing faster than you can say "Internet Start-Up," e-entrepreneurs need to know that their choice won't be whisked out from under their ISPs.

This book explains in plain English how to choose a name that works for your business and protect it once it's yours.

It covers the different issues you need to consider whether you're shepherding an existing business onto the Web, or launching an e-commerce start-up.

The book also discusses how domain names and trademark issues relate to one another.

Written by lawyers based in the U.S., it earns minus one star for not addressing non-American-Centric Domain legal hurdles. It is after all the WORLD wide web, not only an American Web.

The final chapter, "Help beyond this book" is in the practice of the Web, a sort of hyperlink to further domain name resources.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars OK for Small Businesses, November 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Domain Names: How to Choose & Protect a Great Name for Your Website (Paperback)

A better title for this book would be "How to Choose an OK Name for a Small Business."

As another reviewer noted, this book was written by lawyers, who seem to know more about law than marketing. Consequently, the marketing advice is rather basic, but correct in my opinion. This is exceptional considering all the bad advice out there on domain names.

But if you are a small business, you don't need a great domain name, and it's not cost effective for you to spend thousands of dollars or many hours choosing a great name. An OK name with no trademark problems will do for most basement, small and garage businesses.

Written by lawyers, this book has good trademark advice. If you are looking for marketing advice for a larger business, look at "The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding" by marketing expert Al Ries, "How to Select & Buy an Elite Domain Name" or other books on branding.