Apparently my domain contains trademark words. Gee...

You actually want to check trade names, not trademarks. They are two different things. You can learn more about it here: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

1&1 dont care about trademarks. Host with them.

I have lots of trademarked domains with them and not had any problems. Was a reseller for Microsoft before and had lots of domains with "Microsoft" in and never got any probalems. Even Microsoft called me about my terms and conditions one day but never even mention my domain name.

That's strange, I've never encountered that problem - register them with godaddy and repoint the dns to hostgator, that's what I've always done

The whole subject is not only extremely complicated but as far as I am aware the only true resolution to dispute in this area is through the courts - and it seems they are not that good at getting a satisfactory resolution.

Dennis has only muddied the water with his comment about 'trade names v trademarks'

If you look at the USPTO website as he suggests you will find the flowing quote

What is a trademark or service mark?
* A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
* A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout this booklet, the terms "trademark" and "mark" refer to both trademarks and service marks.

And according to Wiki
A trade name, also known as a trading name or a business name, is the name which a business trades under for commercial purposes, although its registered, legal name, used for contracts and other formal situations, may be another.
Trade names are also used in retailing to make oddly named articles more appealing to customers, or to make it easier for customers to recognize a product with a technical or difficult to remember name. Trade names can be informal, public domain terms, unlike trademarks. Pharmaceuticals have trade names (e.g. "Aspirin") which are often dissimilar to their chemical names ("acetylsalicylic acid").
Trade names may sometimes be registered as trademarks and be regarded as brands. Conversely, trademarks and brand names can slip into the public domain and be used less restrictively as more general trade names.
So trade names can also be trademarks and trademarks need not be registered to be 'valid'

Read this article as it gives the real underlying problems in this area and the results of actual legal claims.
Domain names and Trade marks:What's in a name? by Charlotte Waelde Lecturer in Law. University of Edinburgh - Law and the Internet: Domain Names and Trade Marks

It seems that the courts have been no real help in setting precedence, the domain authorities are little help when you understand that InterNic (who is responsible for all IP addresses and domain names) registration policy states:

'Domain names are registered on a first come first served basis. No investigation is carried out to determine whether the applicant is entitled in any way to the name which he seeks to register.'

oggobis ,
I assume you meant that Hostgator declined your use of the domain name. Not sure what criteria they use to decide that but you can be sure it's arbitrary. Like the warrior commented above, not all hosting companies are so restrictive. I use Bluehost and have a couple of domain names that could arguably contain 'trade names/marks'

Until a clear policy on the use of trademarks in domain names is set down in law and/or by the domain authorities (and I can't see that happening any time soon) then hosting companies and other will simply apply (or not) their own rules.

There is a tardemark register search at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?...001:a1l3tk.1.1
but that is for people who are looking to register their own mark and I don't think it will be much use when deciding a domain name. In fact I think you will find it quite difficult to come up with a (english readable meaningfull) domain name that doesn't have/look like/sound like some trademark (registered or unregistered) within it.

Tony

@Dennis
You know what I meant. Thank you for the link

@GuerrillaIM
@fryerben
@Tony Marriott
What I meant was not the hosting nor registrar, sorry for being ambiguous . It's the affiliate program. The hosting and registrar are fine.

There is a grace period of a few days during which you can return your domain to the Registrar and request a refund. I am not sure whether this is still current but if so, you can request a refund.

Derek

Hello,

Before you keep your domain name you require confirming that nobody possess the trademark on your preferred web domain name.