Everything about Domains and Hosting

[Azmah]

Hi everyone,

My friends and I are looking at getting a domain and hosting (at least vps or cloud, minimum). I would like to know everything I need to know before even handing our money over. I really don't want to break any laws in any countries, I want us to be legally protect and ensure no one else can take derivatives of our name. We wish to get a registered trademark soon, to assist stopping people from using our name and brand. I want us to have a scalable hosting solution, a few years down track we will run our own servers. What are the best for them? Regarding domains, is there anyway I can purchase a domain without barely a yearly fee? Mistakes will cost us in court. We especially want to pertain, and be protected, by Australian and US laws - As that's currently our biggest market.
Thanks for everything in advance.

[timetraveller92]

most TLDs come bearing an annual fee. Only some like .tk or .co.cc are free
I suggest you to google the details you need. There is a site howstuffworks. Search for "how domains work", "how webservers work". The video is pretty useful!

You should have done some googling before posting here. this is very general stuff!

[WaltP]

You should be talking to a lawyer. We aren't qualified for legal advice.

[jwenting]

you can't get such protection, unless you register all possible variants of the name you want in all countries that allow domain registration.

And it is probably impossible to not break the law somewhere, as laws can and often do contradict between countries.
But IANAL, just applying common sense here :)

[Azmah]

I've already done the preliminary research prior to posting. I'm asking for the detailed stuff, the stuff big corporations know. So even Google and Microsoft follow the procedures we have to follow. I guess we would have to purchase all the variants.
Thanks thus far.