There are predatory-domain name registrants, and there are registrants engaged in the legitimate business of acquiring, monetizing and reselling domain names. That there are more of the first than the second is evident from proceedings under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). "Given the human capacity for mischief in all its forms, the Policy sensibly takes an open-ended approach to bad faith, listing some examples without attempting to enumerate all its varieties exhaustively.
The UDRP jurisprudence that has developed over the past twenty years confirms three points: a) that a mark owner's exclusive rights are no greater than the law allows, b) that the facts will be weighed (as one would expect in an adjudicative proceeding) to determine the lawfulness of domain name registrations, and c) that the law is no less protective of Respondent as it is of Complainant.
Read MoreThere is also another related difference in the jurisprudence applied in UDRP proceedings and court actions. Under the UDRP, a renewal of registration of a domain name arguably used in bad faith but registered in good faith is not actionable, while under the ACPA and the Lanham Act, it is. Under UDRP renewal is simply regarded as a continuation of the registrant's holding, not a new registration. (Bad faith is measured from the registration of the domain name by the challenged registrant)...
