Trademarkia adds domain name searching to its lineup.
Trademark search engine and online service Trademarkia has entered the domain name business with a unique service.
The service allows you to search for domain names and then use the site’s trademark searching tools to find out if there are existing trademarks on the same terms. (Oddly, these don’t seem to be connected. If I search for VerizonWireless and start to register one of the available VerizonWireless.tld domains, it doesn’t warn me about a trademark.)
But it does more than that. It’s actually a pretty slick domain search tool.
When you search for a domain it shows you what top level domains are available. You can quickly see thumbnails of the content on all registered domains. Trademarkia also offers an acquisition service for already registered domain names.
In an interesting twist, you can click on a registered domain to hire an attorney to send a cease & desist letter to the owner for $185. I fear that the typical person using this service won’t understand all the nuances of domain names and trademarks and start sending uncalled for cease & desist letters, though.
If nothing else, Trademarkia’s service will help small businesses realize the importance of choosing a domain name at the same time they select a company name. That will help them avoid a costly mistake.
Jp says
I would hope the C&D letter thing at least asks them why they feel justified sending a C&D so the lawyer putting their name on the C&D can review it before supporting some sort of malpractice.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jp – yes, it appears you have to provide the facts of why you think it infringes.
Tom says
Great. Just what everyone needs, an even easier process to send an utterly worthless and unjustified cease & desist letter! Yay. Still a good marketing idea though. Bet they do pretty well with it.
The “perfect” time to present an offer like that is indeed when someone is emotionally vulnerable and prone to make an impulse buy. Finding out that someone already registered the domain you feel entitled to or that someone really has registered a domain involving your trademark will surely prompt people to reach for their credit cards with vengeance in their hearts.
“Stand and deliver!”
“Not on your life!”
John Berryhill says
They should work both ends and have another button that tells the person who pressed the first button to bugger off for $185.
Colette Pierre says
Read about Raj Abhyanker’s legal troubles here:
http://www.fppc.ca.gov/agendas/08-10/AbhyankerEx.pdf
Colette Pierre says
Abhyanker’s response to any criticism to his tawdry legal representation website.
“your just a jealous ex-employee!!!”
Boris H says
Yes, pay some bottom tier attorney $185, shoot off a cease and desist letter and get sued by the receiver in federal court four states away. Loose the suit by default because as a small business you don’t got hundreds of thousands of dollars for a trademark litigation case and ruin your trademark.
Great service there trademarkia. Everyone knows that cease and desist letters are minefields wrought with potential disasters, well, maybe not the geniuses at trademarkia.
William says
To those of you who commented on the viability of Trademarkia’s Cease and Desist service, I appreciate your comments and understand the reasonable concern. I am happy to address them. When a C&D purchase is made through Trademarkia, the customer must provide a valid reason for the C&D request. After which it is sent to the law firm of Raj Abhyanker PC for an attorney to review and compose prior to sending. If the attorney determines that the C&D letter is not justified, a refund is issued. As for hiring “bottom tier attorneys”, that could not be further from the facts. Raj Abhyanker PC is the top trademark filing law firm in the United States https://www.cscglobal.com/img/marketing/pdfs/2Q2010-TMI-FINAL.pdf. One of the main goals of Trademarkia is to give small businesses a chance to defend their IP rights against any potential infringement regardless of the size of their business.
We welcome feedback and questions. I think most of the other responses with respect to Trademarkia and its practices can be found on our CEO Raj Abhyanker’s blog :
http://abhyanker.blogspot.com/
Kind Regards,
William
Trademarkia Customer Service