Domain Names can be trademarked

Admin · Apr 12, 2005

According to this article from the The UK Patent Office, domain names can be trademarked:

http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/reference/workman/chapt6/sec28.pdf

.co.uk · Apr 13, 2005

I was a bit naughty and stuck a small TM on my site name logo www.DomainsShop.co.uk.

Today I got an offer £200 +VAT for one of my domains.

Not sure, but I reckon the TM may have led him to offer VAT on top of the price.

retired_member27 · Apr 13, 2005

If your site was in use then putting up a TM is perfectly acceptable, just don't put up the Registered trademark symbol.

You can only charge vat if you are vat registered. If he's going to pay you £200 + VAT then I expect he would want a receipt from you with your vat number on it so that he can claim the vat back later, if you haven't got one then I suggest you charge him a straight £200 as advertised on your site.

.co.uk · Apr 13, 2005

Hi Apd,
I wasn't going to charge him vat.
In fact it's www.TaxForum.co.uk which I plan to develop and I've been contacting accountants etc, asking for their input into the forum in return for free banner ads etc.
He agreed and then realised it was for sale and offered the asking amount.
I haven't taken it down from DomainsShop yet (a mix up with dreamweaver). :-x and www.taxforum.co.uk was still pointing to DomainsShop.co.uk

Proves one thing though, proper advertising gets them sold! :razz: