The best way to make a mark distinctive is to make it up. Some examples include chumbo.com (an
online software store), kagi.com (a payment processing service for e-commerce businesses) and
pandesic.com (an e-commerce company). The keys to a coined domain name are making it easy to
spell and appealing to both eye and ear, or at least suitable to the image you want to project for
your product or service. To avoid coined words that may evoke unintended images (for example,
runslo.com for software that is supposed to speed up your Internet access), run your choices by a
variety of people and note their responses to the sound and appearance.
Wholly new, made-up words have no meaning and probably not even any connotation, other than
the ones you will create with your marketing activities. That means they require extensive, often
expensive, marketing efforts to get established as product or service identifiers in the first place.
Without that, your domain name won't mean anything to the general public. That's a major
drawback for a small business with limited capital.
Opting for a coined word has a second drawback. New combinations that sound and look good
that is, ones that are marketable and not already in use are becoming harder to develop. Despite
our rich Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Latin linguistic heritage, with over 200,000 new
trademarks being registered each year, the well of coinable words is fast being drained.
Names That Suggest, But Don't Describe
In general, marketing folks favor suggestive names because they evoke an image or idea that
customers are likely to associate with the product or service being marketed. A name is usually
considered suggestive when you need to take at least one more mental step to figure out what is
being suggested. Here are some examples:
•ask.com, the domain name for the Ask Jeeves search engine, effective because it suggests
answers, just what you want a search engine to do
•peapods.com, the domain name for the Pea Pods baby things site, suggests maternity things
•peapod.com, a website featuring online grocery ordering
•Salon.com, an online magazine, suggests a place for the exchange of sophisticated commentary
•eHow.com, information made available in a crisp "how to" format
•Travelocity.com, a travel services website, suggests travel and speed
•nextMonet.com, an online contemporary art gallery that suggests undiscovered great artists
•Gazoontite.com (for allergy information and supplies) that suggests the ritualistic and widespread
use of the German "Gesundheit!" (health) when someone sneezes
•Getsmart.com, a debt consolidation and loan service, suggests the quality of savvy, something
that folks who have debt problems may aspire to, and
•wingspanbank.com (a national online bank) suggests a far-flung presence, something innovative
in the banking industry.
Although suggestive names may require some marketing to become broadly identified with a product, they are usually easier to promote than coined names because they already connote
something you want to associate with your product or service. Some name consultants argue that
suggestive names are the most useful because the images they evoke make them very effective
marketing tools. But it may take lots of thought to come up with one that's appropriately evocative,
suits your customer base and hasn't been taken. Again, test your ideas out on a number of people
to see if they get the message you hope to send.
Fanciful Words
Fanciful names are fun to invent because you can use any term, or combination of terms, that do
not in fact describe your service or product in any way. The trick is to think up a term that is
interesting, memorable and somehow appropriate, without literally describing some aspect of your
service or product. For example, Yahoo.com and ragingbull.com (stock market and investment
information site) are both fanciful names that would be easy to protect as trademarks.
Clearly, consumer responses to these types of names are subjective and intuitive. If you create a
fanciful or arbitrary mark, try to consider all the possible evocations that the name may have and
make the most of them.
Arbitrary Words
Words that are descriptive or ordinary when associated with one product or service can be very
strong for another. For example, Apple.com is distinctive and legally strong as a trademark because
apples have nothing to do with computers, but Swingsets.com for a site that sells children's play
equipment is weak because it literally describes the product. Similarly, Facets.com is a distinctive
name for an online clothing store, but would be mundane, ordinary and non-distinctive as the name
for an online gem store.
Common Terms in Uncommon Arrangements
Ordinary words, in unusual arrangements, can make distinctive names. For example,
Magicaldesk.com has weak components magical and desk are both common terms, but combine
them for secretarial services, and the entire name becomes more distinctive and therefore more
easily protected.
When evaluating a phrase to see whether it's a strong or weak trademark, it is the overall
impression that counts. The fact that some of the elements are ordinary won't matter if the phrase
as a whole has an original ring to it. For example, Speedy Turtle Delivery Service is memorable for
the contrast of speed and turtle. This makes it distinctive, despite the fact that Speedy Delivery
Service without the Turtle would be purely descriptive and so a weak trademark. Especially if you
shortened the entire business name to speedyturtle.com, you would have a very distinctive domain
name.
Names to Avoid
There are two categories of names to avoid when selecting your domain name:
•Names that the PTO will refuse to register as trademarks, and
•Names that will be in legal conflict with existing trademarks.
Names You Can't Register As Trademarks
If you want to protect your choice of domain name as a trademark, you'll want to register it with the
United States Patent and Trademark Office. The PTO will not register
any of the following:
•Names that contain immoral, deceptive or scandalous matter (essentially, four-letter words)
•Names that disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons (living or dead), institutions,
beliefs or national symbols
•Names identifying a particular living individual (unless his or her consent is obtained) or a
deceased president of the United States
•Names that have been taken by an organization that has been granted the exclusive right by
statute to use the name, such the Boy Scouts and U.S. Olympic Committee
•Names that are misleading or just plain false
•Names that are primarily a geographic name or a surname, unless they have acquired a
"secondary meaning," as has, for example, schwab.com.
Names That Will Conflict With Existing Trademarks
You should always keep an eye out for possible legal conflicts when choosing your domain name.
Even if you already have a business and have taken the necessary steps to register your name with
the county clerk (for sole proprietorships and partnerships) or Secretary of State (for corporations or
limited liability companies), you may violate someone's trademark by making your business name
your domain name. Thousands of business owners have been stunned to discover that they can't
use their chosen business name without running afoul of another business's trademark rights.
As a general rule, avoid domain names that are:
•Close to an existing domain name that is both distinctive and used on a competing website.
•The same as or very similar to a famous commercial name used online (Amazon) or off
(McDonald's, Disney). Truly famous names get special protection even if use by someone else
wouldn't confuse customers. Under laws known as "dilution" statutes, courts can stop any use of a
famous name that is intended to trade off the strength of the name, or that has the effect of
tarnishing the trademark's reputation for quality.
•The same as or confusingly similar to the name of a famous living person such as Michael Jordan,
Julia Roberts or Hillary Clinton.
In addition, if all of the following four statements are true, you run at least some risk that you'll end
up on the wrong end of a dispute over your domain name:
•Another business is already using your proposed domain name as its trademark.
•The other business's mark is distinctive, even if marginally.
•The other business started using the mark in actual commerce before you started using your
proposed domain name, and
•Either the proposed domain name itself, or the products or services to be sold on your website,
would create a likelihood of customer confusion. | 
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