Do you have ownership of your own name? Do you have to trademark yourself?

Question

I never registered my name as a dotcom. So, I went to a conference earlier this month and presented on some random topic. A guy calls my office today and asks if I'd be interested in blogging for his little consortium. (My partner took the call.) Oh, and by the way he owns the domain name of my name. He registered it today.

I have an extremely rare full name (one other person seems to have it based on searches I've done over the years). I don't want to tango with this guy. Should I have my lawyer handle this or do I have any other options really??

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

I found an article here:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/new_york_domain_name_law/

that says that New York and California have both passed laws to protect you in the case that someone registers your personal name with "the specific intent to profit from such name by selling the domain name for financial gain to that person or any third party."

There's also a reference to similar federal legislation: (15 USC 1129 (http://www.bitlaw.com/source/15usc/1129.html ) and 1125 C (http://www.bitlaw.com/source/15usc/1125.html )).

But I think the key element may be that you'd need to prove that he did it with the intent to force you to pay him.

In 2004, I think I remember a Maryland politician who registered his opponent's name before he got a chance to (or maybe registered the .org or .com) and used it as an attack site, and I don't recall him being forced to give up the name. http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20041018-010549-1080r.htm and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25345-2004Oct11.html

Disclaimer: not a lawyer here, just thought it was an interesting question.