Generics with different TLDs - Will they cause issues?

[STDomains]

Its pretty clear and obvious that non-generics are a no-no.

We found some bad eggs in our portfolio a couple of weeks ago and with the help and advice of folks at NP, removed parking, removed from Sedo, and are going to let them expire..

However, being the risk-averse company that we are .. we have more thoughts on similar lines..

What are everyone's thoughts on generic names with different TLDs? The cheaptickets.com case seems to be a big win, but then what about generics in a different language or generics that dictate the usage because of the meaning of the word(s).. does anyone think that this can pose big problems?

1) For example, say some big corp owns Smile.com (just a random example).

Tomorrow some enterprising domainer goes and regs Smile.co.uk just because it is a premium generic domain that is available. Is this a valid reg? Would the owners of Smile.com usually come after the regg-er? Can the co.uk be sold/promoted without issues?

2) What if the generic word kind of dictates the use. Like say for example EatChicken.com (made up example again). One would assume that the USE of EatChicken.com and EatChicken.co.uk and EatChicken.US and EatChicken.* would most easily be creating a site about eating chicken. Is this against 'acceptable use' or can it be considered to be "bad faith"?

Similarly.. what about ChickenKhao.com? "Khao" means "eat" in Hindi and so the site is again saying Eat Chicken...

This is a real scenario for us (with different keywords of course)..

Are we being too paranoid? ..

STDomains.

 

[DNQuest.com]

Maybe a little paranoid. It has been upheld for the most part that generic and descriptive domains cannot be TMed as long as it didn't pass itself off as a TM in a certain catagory. (IE- windows, Apple, Champion, etc...) Cheaptickets.com was dealt a blow when their TM was challenged and they lost their TM status because the name was deemed descriptive. The unfortunate part is you may need to spend money to protect your generics.