Another call came into my office this morning while I was filling in for a sales staff member. I have been running Worldprofit tech department for so long I had forgotten just how bad these MLM/Affiliate/Network Marketing companies can make a distributor's life. Here is what they tell you.

"You MUST use site that we have and are not allowed to use any of our materials on your own site, and that's final!"

I think this statement is fine if you want to take up residence on loser street. Get it? This company you are with is making you fail right from get go. Here's how. You are assigned an Internet address or URL to their site that guarantees that anyone going there who orders is traced back to you, fine. But you spend all your time, perhaps even years, marketing their url only to find after some time that you want to start another business. Imagine your new business does same thing. So you promote them. Are you starting to see picture? If you are most people you won't get it yet.

How about we look at how a professional Internet businessperson would handle MLM that won't let you have your own site.

First off, you purchase a domain with design and some tools like:

Sales Manager for automatic follow-up for leads Listserver for managing your own newsletter Design for a profession look to your website

Traffic (this is an option that Worldprofit only provides)

-->my plug for your business

What is purpose of this domain? Well, you are going to generate leads, leads and more leads. You are going to now own what we like to call a generic business site. What are benefits to you?

1. You own site and use an email address that looks professional like:

dave@davesdomain.com

instead of dave@hotmail.com or some other free account

Using a free email account to do business is telling your prospects that you have no money. It simply looks unprofessional.

Free email is for people who are doing personal messaging to friends NOT for business communications!

2. You direct traffic to your URL not some company url.

What looks professional here?

www.davesdomain.com or

www.somemlmthatwantsyourcash.com/distributoronemillion?link=100000345.345

=> Domain Name Registrations Generally

As a general rule, you can register any domain name that is not already registered (subject to trademark considerations discussed below). If your domain name is sufficiently distinctive, for example, jtdbizopps.com, bit before .com may also be a common law trademark (unless, of course, it’s registered and then it’s a registered trademark). If you DO have a distinctive domain name, then discussion in next section applies to you.

If you don’t have a distinctive domain name, however, and by this I mean a name that is “descriptive” or in general usage, for example, “home-business.com”, then this name will be neither a common law trademark nor a registrable trademark.

In this case, once you’ve lost your domain name registration, you are, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed. You don’t have much in way of recourse other than for “generic” legal avenues which may well be too expensive for you to pursue. These avenues are discussed below.

=> Domain Names and Trademarks

On other hand, if you have a distinctive domain name (i.e., one that is not in common usage), then that name is also likely to be a common law trademark (unless, as stated above, you’ve registered it, in which case it’s a registered trademark. And, if you do have a common law trademark, I would recommend that you register it. Registration can only strengthen your position.)

The law generally sides with pre-existing trademark owner over domain name holder. In addition, U.S. has enacted federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”). Under Act, you can sue a cybersquatter to get back your domain name and sometimes damages to boot. So, what’s actionable under Act? Here’s an extract from Act itself:

“A person shall be liable in a civil action by owner of a mark, including a personal name which is protected as a mark ... if, without regard to goods or services of parties, that person ­

(i) has a bad faith intent to profit from that mark ...; and (ii) registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that ­

(I) in case of a mark that is distinctive at time of registration of domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to that mark; (II) in case of a famous mark that is famous at time of registration of domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to or dilutive of that mark; or (III) is a [registered] trademark ...”

In terms of what constitutes “bad faith”, Act provides that court may consider factors (among others) such as:

“The person’s [i.e., alleged cybersquatter’s] intent to divert customers from mark owner’s online location to a site accessible under domain name that could harm goodwill represented by mark, either for commercial gain or with intent to disparage mark, by creating a likelihood of confusion as to source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of site; and