What does this mean for you? Unless you’ve got the deep pockets to fight in court with the trademark owner, you may want to make the decision to avoid using the marks in your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Even if you’re legally right (and that’s not a sure bet), you can still be ruined in a lawsuit that eats up your time and money.

Then again, you could be one of the lucky ones who uses the keywords and doesn’t hear a peep from the trademark owners. Kind of like playing Russian Roulette. Do you feel lucky?

Here’s a related YouTube video that I created for you.

It covers three key domain issues:

1. Registration and trademark infringement.

2. Actual domain name ownership.

3. Registration and hosting.

How does this apply to you? Just a reminder that finding something you like on the Web (such as a photo, banner, or audio), doesn’t mean that you’ve got the legal right to use it simply because you can right-click and save a copy to your hard drive.

Something else to consider. There are now college courses being taught in Second Life, that is, the students are meeting up in the virtual world as part of their classes. If you’re targeting this demographic with your products or services, that’s something to consider.

No matter how this particular case turns out, there’s a key legal issue you remember. If someone owns the trademark, service mark, or registered trademark, you may infringe upon that mark by using a similar word or phrase as your site’s domain name. Simply because a domain name can be registered doesn’t mean it is legally available for use.

Licensing agreements are more flexible than franchises because they are not heavily regulated by the government, are more flexible, and are less expensive to create and control than a franchise. Licenses promote entrepreneurs instead of suffocating them with a one-size-fits-all method of doing business one finds with franchises.

There are two primary ways to grow your business through licensing: (1) find others who are willing to pay licensing fees for what you own and make money by replicating your business through these licensees; and (2) become a licensee for the rights to something that would be profitable for your business to use.

If you’ve invented the wheel, license it and make money. If you haven’t, don’t reinvent it. License it from the inventor.

No longer on the cutting edge, the state now attempts to make itself relevant for something other than HBO’s Big Love.

Utah’s legislature has just passed a law that attempts to restrict the way you do business on the Internet. Called the “Trademark Protection Act,” this poorly written legislation creates an “electronic registration mark.”

How can this affect you?

The law might be violated if you use as an advertising keyword (such as in Google Adwords or other pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns) a mark that has been registered in Utah under the new law.

Imagine the chaos if all 50 states set up such laws and you had to pay annual registration fees in each to protect your mark.

Look for this bill to be struck down as unconstitutional. The state is interfering with interstate commerce. In the mean time, tread carefully when doing business in Utah.

Hat tip to Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com

This scam preys on small business owners looking to protect an invention. The so-called “promotion company” will charge a hefty fee to “evaluate” the invention. The results of the evaluation pretty much hinge on the ability to pay, i.e. if you pay the fee, the company will say that your invention is wonderful with plenty of potential.

Of course, this leads to additional scams. One variation is to charge a large amount of money to get legal protection (patent, copyright, trademark, etc.). Or you could be offered a bogus marketing plan that will take more money from your wallet. If you happen to have a truly worthwhile invention, expect the company to push you to sign over your rights to it for little or no money.

This week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a civil contempt action against four people and eight businesses for alleged deceptive trade practices that include some of the misconduct that I’ve described here.

What this means is that the defendants were already nailed in court but continued to operate.

If you’ve got an invention or other intellectual property to protect, use a reputable business attorney if you don’t know how to do the work yourself.

Hat tip to ConsumerAffairs.com

Just because a domain name is available to be registered, doesn’t necessarily give one the right to use it. If the name contains a trademarked term, one runs the risk of having the trademark owner filing suit.

Hat tip to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.