My Name is my Domain

Nowadays, it seems to be a “must” to have a professional and with increasing frequency also a private Web presentation. Of course, you will need an address on the Web, a domain. Would you like to use your own name? That is generally the best choice, because §12 BGB gives the right to bear a name. This implies that you are protected against the misuse of your name.

Don’t wait too long to register your name, since only the early bird catches the worm. Nevertheless, it may happen that a company claiming to have prevailing rights will try to use your name or your domain. They cannot claim such prevailing rights by arguing that you are using their name, and they happen to have the same last name as you – unless it is a famous name such as Burda, Siemens or Benz. Usually, it would be considered a prevailing interest if you are using a brand name. Do you wish to attach your city’s name to  your own, to localize yourself? Something like Smith-munich.com or Jones-in-Frankfurt.de? Go ahead and do so. But don’t even think of registering something like berlin.eu. You will never win a suit against the city of Berlin, when it comes to using the city's name.

Are you thinking of promoting your favorite artist with a webpresentation using his or her name as a domain? Forget it. That will surely get you into a lot of trouble, and all your well-intentioned work will be negated by infringing on the artist's right to the name. The best idea in such a case would be something like beatles-fans.org.

Would you like to use something like cookers.com, potatoes.de, or eating.eu? The BGH ruled these general wordings to be in the public domain, so that you can use them without any prevailing rights.




Published on the old CMS: 2007/2/3
Read on the old CMS till November 2008: 34 reads