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Registering a Domain Name For Your Business Website

Actually registering a domain name is the easiest part of naming your website. To register a domain name you simply fill out an application form at one of the many registration sites online, pay your fee - as little as $1.99, and you own your domain name.

Some registration services do nothing but register domain names and keep track of them. Many others provide web hosting, web design and other services, in addition to domain registration. If you have already done your research and you have picked a web hosting service, you may simply want to register your domain with that service as well. If you haven't picked a web hosting service, you can price shop for a domain name registration service using any search engine.

As mentioned, registering a domain name is impressively simple, and fool proof. All registration services are overseen and regulated by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). They must all follow the same procedure to register a domain name. Hence, your domain name is equally protected and substantiated no matter which registration service you use.

What registering a domain name does not do is grant you trademark protection for your domain name. For example, if you registered the domain name tinfoilearplugs.com you would be able to use that address for your website. But, if there is already a company in business using the Tinfoilearplugs name, you have a problem. If that other company has actually trademarked the name tinfoilearplugs, because it is the actual name of a product that they sell, that Tinfoilearplugs company can force you to surrender your domain name, if they can prove that they were in business using that name before you registered your domain name. (Note: You cannot trademark a company name, unless it is the name of a product or service sold by the company.)

Even if the existing Tinfoilearplugs company had never trademarked their product name, but they had been in business longer than your company, common law will still award them ownership of the company name, as well as the domain name that you registered.

If you have already trademarked the name you plan to use for your domain name, you need to do nothing more. But, if the domain name you are using is simply the name of your company, and if you have never performed a search on your company name, you should do so before you become attached to your domain name and begin building the website for it.

What may have never been a problem - when two companies unknowingly share the same name in two different states - becomes a big problem, if both of those regional companies attempt to assume a national presence by posting a company website that uses the company name for its URL.

If you are registering a domain for your business website, and you have never performed your due diligence by researching the status of your company name, don't put it off any longer. See the "Trademarks" article on this site for more details about either trademarking, or researching the business name that you want to use as your domain name.


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Want more information about registering a company? Visit our Guide. Check out incorporation fees by each state.

Tip: Did you know that Delaware and Nevada are top two incorporation states?

Ready to register a company? Choose one of these great online incorporators:

 Business Filings
 The Company Corporation
 My Corporation
(Intuit®)
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registering a domain name for your business website