Infringement? What Can be Done?

We have a domain that ends in .us and have had it and been doing business with it for over a year.

It was brought to our attention earlier this week that someone has used our business name with the .com

We have been told this is trademark infringement, and we have added the TM behind our name on our site and have the copyright notice on the bottom.

Can someone tell us what we can do about this .com?

Thanks
TBA

If you're referring to the site in your profile, I doubt there's really much you can do.

Did you register it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? Simply putting TM behind your name does not in and of itself confer ownership. You would have an uphill (and likely expensive) legal battle to prove it is "distinctive" to your site and that the .com owner intentionally infringed on an established trademark.

There's a good chance it's entirely coincidental and the .com owner has never even heard of your site.

Overview of Trademark Law

Nice post, Jerome

To echo Jerome:

Although very unfortunate I also think that there is little you can do if you've failed to protect your identity, brand, trademarks etc.

I'm not saying that you don't take your business seriously but the fact is that if you didn't do all that is reasonable and prudent then you're likely SOL. This is the type of case that attorney's love because it's gonna be expensive and complicated.

Since the .com was apparently available when you registered the .us, this makes a good argument for buying up the various flavors of a domain name while you can if you really wish to protect it and prevent someone else from having it.

While it may seem an unnecessary expense when you're just starting out (though domains are pretty cheap these days) it's something you may not be able to do later on down the road.