Most of my clients are Irish and American, would you recommend the Irish & US or EU & US trademark?

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.

The Federal Supreme Court ruled that the gold-coloured foil-wrapped chocolate bunny from Lindt & Sprüngli can claim trademark protection against the competing product from Lidl. Lidl is no longer allowed to sell its rabbit because of the risk of confusion and must destroy existing copies of the product.

Intellectual property of a brand does not end with its name or logo, but can also cover domain name. If you want to reinforce your brand name and ensure visibility of your business online, you should consider trademarking your domain name.