Registering a domain takes a minute and gives you an address. It gives you no right to the name. These are two separate systems, and confusing them is the most expensive naming mistake there is.
What each one actually gives you
- A domain is a rental of an address, first come first served, with no examination of who else uses the name.
- A trademark is a right to use a name for particular goods or services in a particular territory, examined and published before it is granted.
- A company registration is neither: it lets you trade under a name, and does not stop a trademark owner from objecting.
How the conflict usually happens
Someone registers a free domain, builds a brand on it for two years, then receives a letter from a trademark owner in the same class. The domain does not help: trademark rights are decided on similarity of name and overlap of goods, not on who registered a web address first. The rebrand costs far more than the search would have.
The checks, in order
- Search your national trademark register for the exact name and close variants, in the classes you actually sell in.
- Search the register of every country you plan to sell in — rights are territorial.
- Search ordinary web and marketplace results for unregistered users of the name; in many countries prior use creates rights too.
- Only then register the domain and the handles.
- If the brand matters, file the trademark yourself before launch, not after the first good year.
What our tools do and do not do
Our generator checks domain availability live against the registry. It does not check trademarks, and no name generator does. Treat every suggestion as a candidate for the checks above — that is the whole reason this page exists.
Next: the business name checklist.