How business domain names work

A domain name is the address people type to reach your website and the part of your email addresses after the @ sign. You register it through a registrar, a company that sells and manages domain names. You do not buy the name outright. The registrar licenses it to you for as long as you keep paying for it.

What registering a domain gives you

Registering a domain gives you control of that one address and nothing more. Anyone can register a name that nobody else holds. When you register, you confirm to the registrar that, as far as you know, the name does not infringe anyone else's rights, and checking that is your responsibility.

A domain name is different from a registered trade mark. A trade mark gives you exclusive rights to your brand for the goods and services you register it for, across the UK and the Isle of Man, and lets you take legal action against anyone who uses it without permission. A domain does neither.

Not every ending is open to every business. A business established only in the UK, and not in the EU or European Economic Area, cannot register or renew a .eu domain.

Why the order matters

The Intellectual Property Office publishes your trade mark application on GOV.UK as soon as you apply. Anyone can then see your brand name and buy the matching domain before you do. If you register the domains you need before you apply for a trade mark or announce the name, nobody can take them first.

How businesses lose domains

Every domain has an expiry date. If it lapses, you lose access to manage it and another organisation can register it. Control can also be lost if someone takes over the account you use to manage the domain with your registrar.

The National Cyber Security Centre recommends that you:

• set every domain to renew automatically
• pay for renewals with a business payment method, not a personal card that will expire
• turn on 2-step verification for everyone who manages your registrar account
• give more than one trusted person secure access
• use the registrar's domain lock, if it offers one, for your most valuable domains
• keep your registration records, so you can prove the domain is yours
• find out how your registrar recovers a hijacked domain before you need it

If someone else registers your name

You can try to agree a transfer with the holder, take court action, or use a dispute procedure. Registrars accredited by ICANN, the body that oversees generic endings such as .com, must follow the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP). To win under the UDRP, you must show all three of these:

• the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark you have rights in
• the holder has no rights or legitimate interest in the name
• the domain was registered and is being used in bad faith

Registering a name mainly to sell it to the trade mark owner for more than it cost is one sign of bad faith. If you win, the panel can cancel the domain or transfer it to you. It cannot award money. As the complainant, you pay the provider's fees.

The UDRP covers generic endings. For a country ending such as .uk, ask the registry or your registrar which dispute procedure applies.

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