Lawyers are trying to get a significant change slipped into UDRP which
would have dramatic implications for domain name owners.
Buried in the depths of a submission to ICANN via ICANN's Strategic
Plan Forum, FICPI the International Federation of Intellectual
Property Attorneys (attached do***ent at
http://forum.icann.org/lists/strategic-plan-comments/msg00025.html)
state :
With respect to the current UDRP we believe it is time to consider
very minor changes to the "bad faith" requirement which would allow
challenges to succeed in instances wherein there has been either use
OR registration in bad faith.
Minor ?
Lawyers drove such a "minor" change through UK Nominet's process with
drastic consequences resulting in the Nominet expert, lawyer Andrew
Lothian, ordering the confiscation of a generic domain name GAME.co.uk
and handing it over to the complainant (a company having branded its
shops calling them "GAME" in 2002). Even though the domain name was
registered in 1995 ten years prior to the complaint, because of the
word "OR" in the policy, this factor was ignored.
The article
http://www.weboptimiser.com/search_engine_marketing_news/7868224.html
entitled "Game.co.uk dispute prompts concern for small businesses" is
representative of the alarm that Nominet's policy has caused.
The only party clamouring for such a change is the lawyers. Business
must be slack !
This should set alarm bells ringing for all domain name owners and
registrars.
