On Sun, 24 Nov 2002, at 01:47 [=GMT-0000], Andy Coates wrote: > > On Sat, 23 Nov 2002, at 12:56 [=GMT-0500], Swerve wrote: > > > > > "Visa" Torn From Dictionary by Credit Card Company > > > > > > <http://www.eff.org/Cases/Visa_v_JSL/20021121_eff_pr.html> > > > > Lucky guy that EFF will pay for the court case. Many others suffer the > > same fate, thanks to the United Nations's WIPO and and the US > > Government's > > ICANN teaming up to give us the obligatory 'arbitration' > > under the UDRP. > > Having looked over the forums (http://www.arbforum.com), I can't believe > some of those cases succeeded. Energy.biz was transferred because > someone trademarked "Energy"?!? I can't believe how stupid that is. > Same goes for sex.biz - how can someone trademark "sex"?!? > > Is anything being done about this? I'd go absolutely bonkers if someone > took a domain of mine because I hadn't trademarked it.
Some people complain, like I do. But nothing happens. Unless you can afford to go to court (and you cannot pick where...), any large company (or city) with some sort of trademark (regularly they haven't one really) can grab your domain for a $1000 arbitration fee. And small companies? No, for them it is much more difficult. They do not get what they want easily from WIPO or NAF (ArbForum). Why? Guess. Recently the German town of Potsdam (near Berlin) got potsdam.com and net and org and info from a small ISP located in, yes, Potsdam. The town already had potsdam.de. Yeah. It is really sick. And it will not get better, but worse. Since the unfair decisions are quoted to obtain another unfair decision. If you can think of a good form of 'attack', let me know!
