The .com being free doesn't mean the name is

An unregistered .com feels like permission. It is not. It tells you one thing: nobody has paid ten dollars for that string. It tells you nothing about whether you can build a brand on it. ## What a free domain does not rule out A live trademark. Trademarks are granted on use in a class of goods or services, not on domain registration. Somebody can hold a mark on the exact word, ship under it for years, and never register the .com. An app already in the stores. App names are not unique and are not tied to domains at all. An established web presence. If a company ranks for the term and you do not, you will spend years being the second result for your own name. ## What a rename actually costs The domain is the cheap part. The expensive parts are the ones already pointing at the old name: the logo, the app store listing and its reviews, the inbound links, the integrations, the customers who bookmarked you, and the search authority you spent a year accumulating. That is the bill for finding out late. ## The useful question Not "is it available" but "can I defend it". A name where the .com is taken by a parked page and everything else is clear is often a better bet than one where the .com is free and there is a live mark in your class. The first is a negotiation. The second is a rename.