Thread: Eliminating cybersquatters

Interesting article on Traverse Legal about Rick Schwartz's mission to eliminate cybersquatters from the domain industry.

I think it will be a very good move if more domainers take a stand against cybersquatters. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many people "domainers = cybersquatters." This perception needs to change as it obviously hurts the domaining industry as a whole.

What are your views?

I think most of us did a little 'squatting' early in our domaining days but hopefully we all learned and dropped any questionable name - why go looking for trouble?

This investment realm is great without resorting to lowly tactics and I agree, the visible dichotomy between real domain investing and cybersquatting should be as wide as possible.

Hi DomainLobe, I think nowadays most domainers are aware of what constitutes a bad faith registration and they avoid such registrations.

Unfortunately, there are still those who deliberately seek to trade off the goodwill of a third party by registering trademarked domains.

I do believe there are some newbies who are genuinely unaware of the legal aspects involved when they register certain domains. The answer here is that they educate themselves by reading domaining blogs, asking questions on forums etc.

I want to check my entire domain portfolio to ensure no trade marks are registered , i want to understand from you is there any easy way we can check for trade marks in india.

Originally Posted by domainpundit

I want to check my entire domain portfolio to ensure no trade marks are registered , i want to understand from you is there any easy way we can check for trade marks in india.

Hi domainpundit, I'm not an expert in this area, but here are two things you can do:

(1) check if there's a registered trademark for the term in India; and
(2) check if there are common law rights attached to the term in India.

(1) Registered trademarks.
Okay, first problem! India's trademarks database is not easily or freely accessible (see here). Although you can do an online search, you might need an Indian bank account – I'm not sure though. Alternatively, you can pay offline at one of the Trade Marks Offices in India. So if you're based outside of India, carrying out a trademark search is a bit challenging!

If you find out there's a registered trademark for the term, the next step is to determine what type of goods/services the term is being used with. For example, if the third party is using the term in association with computers, but you intend to use the term in association with clothing, then I think it's safe for you to use the domain. However, it's very important to be aware that this principle does not apply to well-known trademarks which enjoy special protection (for example, see INDRP & well-known trademarks).

If you're going to pay big bucks for a domain, you might want to consider hiring a trademark lawyer to conduct a search for you to ensure you will not infringe anyone's rights.

(2) Common law rights.
Even if there's no registered trademark, a third party might have common law rights over a term/phrase. Therefore, check to see if the term is being used in India. You can check search engines, yellow pages, news sites etc. If the term is being used, apply the same considerations as mentioned under trademarks.

I hope I haven't confused you and sorry for the long post!

Please note I'm not a lawyer and these are just my observations. You should consult with a trademark lawyer for specific advice.

Very helpful post Ceres!

Hi Ceres , Many thanks for the detail explanation.


cheers

yep, great explainations
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theres a lot of difference between domainers and cybersquatters..for one domainers, in ideal circumstances, never register trademarked domains..they mostly try to look out for generic words in domains..