domains “Anticipatory cybersquatting” It’s an idea that isn’t going anywhere.”

Someone of note once said..."the law is an ass.' I say that sometimes lawyers can be asses too. The law of arbitration states that a domain investor must have registered a domain in bad faith but to many that is a hard concept to prove and many argue that it is just an opinion rather than hard legal fact. Another legal issue which is hard to prove is the matter of 'reasonable', i.e. 'to use reasonable force to defend oneself.

My interpretation of 'reasonable' may be different to yours.

If I agree to buy your car and we shake hands on the deal it is safe to assume that I acted in good faith. However, if I then change my mind and pull out of the deal how on earth could it be proven that I had acted in bad faith. Not impossible I grant you but difficult none the less.

I believe, and it is just my opinion that all sides of domain investing and business in general will eventually turn the law of arbitration on it's head and it will be much more difficult to register a domain name if there is even a hint of trademark infringement.

For example, if Reddstagg Roboxcrypto Corporation want to register www. reddstagg. com they should expressly be warned at the time of purchase that there are other similar domain names available with different domain extensions and they have the opportunity to buy these also. If, they do not buy all of them, then they waive their right to later pursue a legal case against anybody else who may have registered a similar domain name.

Registrars too have a responsibility to invest in software that preempts against registering a name which may or may not conflict with a trademark.

For example, I have registered 130 domain names myself and I have another 1,000 names which I have run through a major registrars software and I only ever, in 5 years received one warning about a trademark issue.

This however, was so far off the mark it amazes me. I registered for example www. examp.le with the 'le' being the domain extension.

The clever computer advised me that there may be a potential trademark infringement as there was already a major corporation with the name 'examp' and I had to expressly declare that I was aware of the potential infringement and I was satisfied that I could proceed with my registration.

However, my domain name in full and the domain name extension was probably one of the top 50 used words in a foreign language, so a layman could quite possible argue that there was no case to answer for anyway.

I used 'reasonable' common sense to think of my domain name so I think I have it covered.

Please note that the views expressed are my own and I am not a lawyer and I have no money so don't sue me. Please be careful when registering any domain that may skate near any trade mark issues as until the law changes it all boils down to a matter of opinion and theirs may be different to yours.

G-oodlu.ck

Thanks for alerting us to this. I liked your closing quote from expert Gerald Levine in discounting the article thesis:

in that attorney's logic, could they just apply the same to physical business location. Do I get first dibs/ right to ownership if I have a company named the same as the street? Only if I trademark my business - what about precious metals? What about anything someone can build a real business on - other than being a lawyer, I guess.

DnameAgame said:

in that attorney's logic, could they just apply the same to physical business location. Do I get first dibs/ right to ownership if I have a company named the same as the street? Only if I trademark my business - what about precious metals? What about anything someone can build a real business on - other than being a lawyer, I guess.

Click to expand...

I agree strongly with first dibs but not right to ownership. Some companies only register parts of their business for trademarks which means they are either cheap skates, lazy or incompetent. This does not then give them rights over the whole world. Common sense is a whole new concept of business that some may never understand. Is there any common sense in a huge corporation called Blue Kettle Chips taking a UDRP claim against a small cafe in another country called Blue Kettle Cafe?

How would any 'reasonable' person assume they were in any way related.

When I wake up tomorrow I may want to register a domain name. If someone else, who also wanted that name delays in doing so, then I will have a domain name that someone else wants.

Buy it from me and learn a lesson from your delay. It is called commerce. It's life. Dog eat dog and all that.

Many of the top companies that I can think of now have one word dictionary names as their brand. This is, in my opinion a mistake and it is also quite lazy and lacks imagination. I am sure they paid outside agencies to come up with a brand name such as 'Tree'.

Maybe, the companies I should admire more are those who thought outside the 'B0x'.

Reddstagg said:

The clever computer advised me that there may be a potential trademark infringement as there was already a major corporation with the name 'examp' and I had to expressly declare that I was aware of the potential infringement and I was satisfied that I could proceed with my registration.

Click to expand...

Great post. I'm interested in the technology used to alert you about the potential trademark infringement. Did the site use an API connected to the WIPO website? Just wondering where the site got the data from? Thanks @MTB

MTB said:

Great post. I'm interested in the technology used to alert you about the potential trademark infringement. Did the site use an API connected to the WIPO website? Just wondering where the site got the data from? Thanks @MTB

Click to expand...

I wouldn't be too technical myself, but if I give you the full details it might make more sense.

There would appear to be several companies which trade using some form of the letters 'ALG', one of which uses www. alg. com.

My registration was for www. alg. uno which is the Spanish world 'alguno' which means 'any'.

In my view, if the technology had been able it would have seen that I was using a domain name and extension to create a Spanish word rather than infringing on a trade marked name.

Technology is never perfect and this is why it will neverrrrrrrrrr rrepllace the hhhhumans (he says in a robotic voice).

I just wonder how easy it would be for registrars to implement moe sophisticated software.

Thanks for your response by the way.

People buy houses in the hope that the house they buy will increase in value

Domain names are Digital land

People buy and sell actual land for a profit on ter investment

Domain name investors buy digital land and intend to make a profit on their digital land in due course

It is not a domain name investors responsibility to defend some bods trademark

It is tech responsibility of the bod that wanted a trademark to defend their own trademark and not leave digital land all over the place and delude themselves that it'll be ok no one will buy it anyway just because they cannot afford to buy all the extensions or choose not to

If a gold bar was left in the road people wouldn't drive by it

And leaving digital land on the Internet tat affects a person's trademark is effectively just tat leaving gold bars on the digital highway

But there are enough lawyers in terms domain name industry as investors who over time will prove tat domain name investing Is a valid occupation

The reason why trademark disputes happen is because the legal digital infrastructure isn't in place at the point of purchase to prevent domain names tat Infringe trademarks from being bought etc as the legal sector are making their money from udrps when they should be working for the likes of Godaddy trademark checking all domain names before Tey can be made available for purchase etc tussle making it impossible for a domain name tat infringes a trademark to be bought

But the problem is that trademarks were registered prior to the Internet being invented

All trademarks registered should be incorporated in every domain name registrar so that the two search engines are combined so that the trademark database search engine is also the domain name registrar search engine making it impossible for a trademark infringed domain name to be bought And where all existing trademarks have to be checked against and all future trademarks to be applied for via the combined trademark / domain name registrar search engine and udrps would no longer exist

And breathe lol

I live in a country where one of our politicians fell off a swing in the grounds of a hotel and took the hotel to court as there were no posted instructions or safety warnings. You couldn't make up that sh1t but they did. It went as far as a proper claim but it picked up media attention and it was dropped.

Their political party made them see sense and everyone had a good old laugh about it. In cases like this, I presume that a lawyer was consulted before the case went forward and any reasonable human being would have to ask how it was allowed.

Common sense it seems, is no longer part of the Bar exams.

I think that all sides of the domain investing business need to meet somewhere in the middle and rather than a company actively seeking legal retribution they may wish to consider a more logical approach. Sometimes, we as domain investors make mistakes and even small business owners who may not even know that domain investing is a stand alone business may make mistakes.

They may see an ad telling them how easy it is to set up a website and they go ahead and think of a name and using the easy to follow templates they create a new website with a shiny domain name. Obviously, they may have considered whether there is another business with this name but this is only for a nano second and they probably assume that as the name was available to register there are no further concerns.

Live and let live and learn by your mistakes, but don't punish someone who is human and by no means an expert.

If we could all afford IT Departments, then there might be fewer issues raised....or maybe more..lol.