Your domain name: intellectual property?
According to the law, a domain name is not an intellectual property title like a trademark. Nor does a domain name necessarily identify the company that registered it. For example, a company called Jansen can register the domain name deliciousfruit.be.
It is different when the domain name contains a trademark, for it can then be considered as protected intellectual property. If you have a registered trademark, others may not register your trademark as a domain name. If they do, you can take action to have that domain name blocked or reclaimed. There are various dispute procedures for going about this.
Protect your domain name by registering variants too
Have you chosen a nice-sounding domain name? Be smart and register variants too. These could include:
Alternative spelling
homeshop.be en athomeshop.be for instance, or wellness.be and welness.be, of plumberjansen.be and plumberjanssen.be
Alternative domain extensions
In addition to .be, .brussels, .vlaanderen you can also choose.eu (for Europe) for instance, or one of the many other domain extensions. A bike shop can register bikejan.be alongside its bikejan.bike. There are more than a thousand possibilities, from .app to .tech and even .xyz.
When you do a search at a domain registrar to register a particular domain name, that registrar will usually suggest several alternative domain extensions.
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