Thousands of domain-name registrations have sparked rival claims of ownership, and the value of well-known names has led to cybersquatting, the registration of names in hopes of selling them to the highest bidder. To  ease the burden of proving ownership, and to thwart cybersquatting, the  group that issues domain registrations began a new policy last week for  resolving disputes.

 The group, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, added state and common law trademarks to the federally registered trademarks that already qualify as precedent for determining ownership of a domain name. The expanded trademark databases were added to a policy from August 1994, which gave federal trademark owners the right to prevent anyone from using their trademark in a domain name. 

Now, anyone registering a domain name will not be required to search the trademark data bases of all 50 states. But if a dispute arises, a trademark registration will settle the  issue in favor of the trademark holder.  "A trademark search is not required, but it's certainly the best business  practice," Lynn Tellefsen, marketing director for MicroPatent, a patent  and trademark research company, said. "I think of it as an insurance  policy. You want to see if there any marks close to yours, who the owners are, where they are, what they're using them for. Otherwise you  may get into a situation where you're powerless."

"If there is an infringing domain name, and someone can produce a valid state trademark registration, they can stop the person from using the domain name," she said. "That was true in the past only on the federal level. And now that it's extended to the states, it will increase the number of trademarks that are active."

But it would be difficult for a domain-name holder to research existing state and common law trademarks without help. The trademark database at the Patent and Trademark Office contains only federal trademarks, and at its World Wide Web site, the agency warns that the database is incomplete; it does not contain applications or registrations that are temporarily inactive. Additionally, many states have conflicting methods for keeping records. 

"Theoretically, you could make telephone calls to all of the states, or try and physically go to all the states and check the records," Ms. Tellefsen said. "But the records are haphazard. There's no uniform search system for the state trademark files. The amount of information is different within the states: some states retain certain information, some don't,some states maintain clean renewal information, some don't." The alternative is to pay commercial trademark databases like MicroPatent, Thompson & Thompson, or Trademark Research. 

The new policy also states that until a domain-name dispute is resolved, the Internet address in question will remain active.  "DomainMagistrate.com will supposedly have capability to resolve disputes within 57 days," Ms. Tellefsen added. DomainMagistrate is an online dispute resolution service offered by Network Solutions, the oldest and largest domain registrar.