A Safe Way to Check Domain Name Availability?

[Schema Thing]

Does anyone know how to do this without the danger of having your ideas poached?


I have too many possible selections to simply immediately register every one that is available. The ideas need to go thru a vetting process, but I don't want the principles to be vetting a bunch of names that wouldn't be available as a .com even if chosen.

[bif]

1. Register.com

And if it's taken, you can find out who owns the name.

[SurfingAtWork]

2. I'm not sure, but you should know that I've got dibs on

clownpenis.fart

[montanto]

7. The fuck you do

I already boughted that!!

[begin_within]

3. Can't you just type it in to a web browser and see if anything comes up? Or try WHOIS

Or try the whois search at network solutions:

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

But if you just type in the domain you are thinking of, and the browser says it can't open the page because it can't find the server, it's a pretty good sign that that domain is not taken yet.

[Schema Thing]

4. The problem is

that there is a whole industry out there of highjacking names, and using the searches can potentially trigger the highjack.

Whois now has a mashup before you hit enter that should be reassuring, but since I've heard that the company that runs whois has operated unethically in the past, I'm suspicious. Whois is definitely a commercial site now.

Also, a lot of names are taken that will not point you to a site just because you type it into your URL.


I'm just hoping there is someone who's done a lot of this that can assure me about whois, or show me another way.

[bif]

5. Like I posted earlier

Register.com I've used them for several sites I've registered and have never had a problem. I don't think there's anything that's totally risk free. I guess you just have to trust a company and go for it.

[Schema Thing]

6. Thanks, I'll take a look at their site

[begin_within]

8. Well, the other thing you could consider is registering a trademark on the name

I have the name of my web site registered as a service mark, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It costs money $325 last time I checked ) and takes some time, and it's a little bewildering at first, but you can do it yourself or hire an attorney to file it for you. But the attorney would cost too. Once you get that trademark, if it is specific to a domain name, then nobody else could register that domain name because they would be infringing on your trademark. Or you can try registering a trademark on it in just one state rather than at the federal level, that might be cheaper and easier.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/trademarks/workflow/start.htm

[begin_within]

9. Have you tried searching in Google and see if any links come up?

[Schema Thing]

10. For Those Interested, For Reference:

it looks like http://www.internic.net/whois.html is the highest level, not-for-profit site for searching. It seems to be run directly by ICANN.