At the end of 2009, there were an estimated 192,000,000
registered domain names (source: ICANN). If you were the registrant
of one of these, you might think you own your domain name. Not
so.
Personal property right
When you register a trade mark, you obtain a personal property
right in that trade mark. As the owner, and as long as you pay the
necessary fees, you have the exclusive right to use that trade mark
how you want. You can authorise others to use your trade mark, and
can assign ownership of your mark to someone else.
Use of your trade mark registration also provides you with a
primary defence if the owner of an identical or similar registered
trade mark alleges you are infringing their mark by using your mark
in relation to identical or similar goods or services covered by
their registration.
