Hi guys,

I'm in the process of getting a website together and have come up with a very generic sounding name but one that suits my website perfectly. I checked the .ie was available and then applied for a business name.

The problem is that since I've applied for the business name I've found that a major US corporation has an unrelated product that goes by the same name. They also have a trademark sign on the logo.

I'd love to use the name as it's perfect for my site and is in a completely unrelated field to that of the corporation. But I fear I may run into legal difficulties somewhere along the line. I also don't want to confuse potential customers in terms of them not visiting the site if they assume it's the corporation site or if there are other branding issues.

Do you think I should just drop the name and pick something else? What if I always referred to my site as "xxx.ie" could that in itself be trademarked if required? Also, if I do drop it I'll still have xxx as a business name, how would I go about unregistering this business name as I'd no longer need it.

Just for the record, there are lots more websites with this name and the corporation don't have the dot com.

I'll tell you all the domain name once I've decided to drop it or register it. By the way, it's been two weeks since I applied for the business name online and still no letter of confirmation. Is this unusual?

Check which classes the US trademark covers. If your products / services do not conflict you *should* be ok, but it might be worth talking to the Irish Patents Office in Kilkenny. They're usually very helpful.

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You can go on Companies Registration Office and see if your aplication was aproved.
If it was , you can use the number from there for registering an .ie domain ( the registrar can check too ) .

Thanks guys for the advice.