I am not at all surprised, but apparently there have been a number of people who went out and hand registered trademark domain names in some of the new gTLD extensions. People and organizations who were opposed to the new domain name extensions cautioned brands about this happening, and Forbes has an article covering the problem.
The article, Cybersquatters Rush To Claim Brands In The New GTLD Territories, which was published today on Forbes, highlights a number of domain name registrations that it believes should be considered cybersquatting.
This type of thing happens every day, regardless of the extension. There are many ccTLD domain names that contain famous brand names that have been registered for years. In many cases, I think the issue is that people don’t know any better. They may not be familiar with trademark law, and they see an opportunity they can’t resist.
Most domain investors would not register a famous brand in a new gTLD for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a lawsuit can be expensive and a UDRP can create a problem for the investor’s other holdings in the future. Secondly, I would guess that most new domain names will have no traffic, so monetization opportunities aren’t there. Unfortunately, the people who do buy these trademark domain names make legitimate domain investors look bad. It’s drawing negative attention to this space, and that isn’t good for anyone, especially those who operate clean businesses.
I strongly urge people to not buy trademark domain names when they are looking at new gTLD opportunities. If you need to hear that from a legal expert, check out attorney David Weslow’s video on Domain Sherpa. Buying trademark domain names increases the likelihood of being sued, and they are liabilities rather than assets.
Good points their Elliot,but the waters are not clear in alot of these cases,especially with the new extensions,I recently brought a name in a new extension,top of the line one keyword,that everyone talks about most days,and straight out of the dictionary,and yet I’m waiting for “trade mark infringement checks to be decided about,why??Horizon.
It seems that almost every day someone contacts me to see if the new gTLD domain name they registered in a company’s trademark will subject them to a lawsuit if they offer it to the trademark holder. I say to them, “what does your instinct tell you?” and then I say, “goodbye.”
Good post Elliott. Not only are those who intentionally register trademarks at new gTLDs buying trouble for themselves, but they are giving ammunition to CADNA and others who want to change the ACPA and UDRP to tilt the playing field further in favor of brands. Legitimate domain investors will face that threat because of the stupidity of these cybersquatters.
All sounds like good advice but, in the last 2 years we have worked with more than 1000 companies and tried to purchase their trademark in .com or another extension. I analyzed the top 100.000 .com trademark domains held by other than the trademark holder and guess what ?
Almost all of them belong to the very well known Domain Investors, clearly they did and do register all domains they can get no matter of trademark or not. When we reached out to them in more than 1000 cases they ask high prices for them, its not like they say sorry and it was a mistake. I have no ethical opinion about this, but to make it look like this is something that is not common business practice in this industry and its best is simply not true.