When registering domain names on the internet, I've been apprehensive about registering domain names which already seem to exist like chefs.com (say I'd want to do chefs.eu). While chefs.com can be a trademark, it seems unreasonable that a word such as chefs could be trademarked. After all, it's simply a word and what is to stop someone from trademarking "door, printer, telephone, or air". I'd like to register some domain names, but due to litigation concerns, am fearful to do so. Any opinion on the this subject about trademarks?

Thank you in advance!

Well, yes & no is really the only way to answer your question. Trademark law is full of grays & not much in the way of concrete answers. The basic function of trademarks is to provide the applicant the exclusive rights to the name (or logo or slogan) within their particular industry.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

NO: The likelihood of an applicant being able to trademark the word DOOR if they're selling doors or COMPUTER if they're selling computers & so on and so forth is slim to none. The reason being is that those words are merely describing the intended products/services.

YES or MAYBE: Now say that same applicant is using the word DOOR for his restaurant services or the word COMPUTER for her clothing line. Now, the chances of obtaining that trademark just went up because the intended products/services have nothing to do with the name itself. In other words, when the average consumer hears the word DOOR or COMPUTER, they're not automatically going to associate it with a restaurant or a clothing line, respectively.