A domain name is basically the address of a person or organization on the Internet. Its primary function is to help users find websites and the organization to direct the users email traffic and establish an online identity.

With the significant expansion of the Internet, the use of domain names is essential for consumers to be able to, for example access the products and services o companies on the Internet.

Domain names are composed of two parts: the characters preceding the dot and the characters following the dot. The part that follows the dot is called the top-level domain (TLD). Top level domains are .com, .net, .org, .es, .it, .fr, etc.

The part to the left of the dot is called the second level domain or label. This is the part that users associate with your website or an email address and therefore constitutes the company’s identity in the digital world.

It is logical to think that there are controversies between domains and trademarks since both, in practice, relate business to their corresponding offer of products and services in the market. For this reason, most trademark owners tend to acquire identical domains or at least domains containing their trademark. However, despite their similarity, these two figures are different, and so are the rights deriving from them.

For example, domain names are not distinctive signs in the sense that the law usually assigns to such Intellectual Property rights. In fact, domain names are not Intellectual Property rights as such.

The protection of a domain name prevents others from using the same domain name and it constitutes part of the property of its holder. It can therefore be transterred, disposed of and seized. However, the registration of a domain name does not necessarily imply a right to use the sign of which it is composed, nor the right to prohibit others from using confusingly similar signs in the market, a prerogative that in our system is attributed to trademarks and trade names (and to a certain extent, to geographical indications).

As a consequence of the above, the registration of a domain name as such does not have legal effects under intellectual property law, but merely technical effects.

However, the continued use of the domain name over time may eventually give rise to such rights, for example, as a well-known unregistered trademark or as a trade name of the owner company merely used under the Paris Union Convention for the Protection of Industrial and Intellectual Property. At the same time, considering its identifying function, it is pertectly possible that the registration and use of a domain name may infringe third party trademark rights, so it is essential to verify whether its use and registration may conflict with prior rights.