SEO Expert Josh Hoopes Discusses The Value Of Trade Marking Your Name Against Cyber Squatters

Internet marketing and SEO expert Josh Hoopes says that the internet has become so huge that it isn’t uncommon to find out that somewhere in cyber land that someone has a similar name who is coming up in the search results for your name.
If you are protective of your name, especially if you have already put a lot of effort towards building your name as a brand, then you may not appreciate sharing the top search engine results for your name to a totally unrelated person or website that could essentially compete with your target audience’s attention.
Hoopes, who is the founder of CrazyNetMarketing.com, shared an actual incident involving him and his client, and a well-known personality recently. His client, who is a 3rd generation general contracting firm for residential homes based out of Utah and happens to go by the last name of Trump, requested him to create a website in order to promote their business and generate leads. So he created the website according to his friend's request, and performed SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for the site right off the bat. Having been involved with Search Engine Optimization for well over a decade, Josh Hoopes knew exactly what he needed to do to market his client’s site and make it rank well in the search engine results. In no time at all, the site jumped to the top of the search engine results while at the same time inadvertently bumping off some of the sites and properties of 'The' Donald Trump from their lofty perch along the way.
Apparently, this little incident reached the attention of 'The' Donald right away, who was none too pleased about the whole thing, and decided to communicate with Josh Hoopes on the matter. In their letter they demanded that Josh Hoopes and his client should never mention the name Trump ever again in whatever communication and that the site should be taken down immediately and the URL given to them, otherwise Josh Hoopes and his client will be taken to court for cyber squatting infringement, since they maintained that Trump is a registered trademark of the Trump Organization.
Josh Hoopes was well aware however that in order for the trademark owner to take their domain name or have it cancelled, the law states that the following conditions must first be satisfied: 1.) That the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to the trademark
2.) That the registrant doesn't have the right or a legitimate interest in the domain name, and 3.) That the domain name has been used in bad faith.

Josh Hoopes was convinced that it would have been very difficult for the Trump Organization to prove items 2 and 3 in such a way that they would be able to build a strong case versus his client. However, his client decided to act on the side of caution by not fighting the case, and promptly gave in to their demands. The client surmised that should the case be filed in court, a long drawn out court battle will surely put an unnecessary strain on their modest company's resources, and the Trump Organization will still ultimately win in the end.

Despite the fact that his client did not have any malicious intent of damaging any other existing businesses when they started their website, and was only looking after their own business interest, the Trump Organization was still able to force their way towards making his client give up the domain name because they have made the right move of trademarking the Trump name all along. This alone gives them the audacity to anyone they deem as violating their perceived trademark rights, and force them to either fold or face the threat of a court litigation. To this end, Josh Hoopes commends the Trump Organization for doing the fundamentally sound thing of trademarking their name for the necessary protection of their brand and vast business interests.

In closing, Josh Hoopes says that the moral of the story is that it is always a sound business practice to trademark your name in order to protect against incidents of cyber squatting.