Protect Your Domain Investment by Knowing Domain Law

Posted by Kyle Eslick on April 2nd, 2008 | Category and Tags

For all of you active domainers out there that try to keep an eye on the industry, you’ve probably been spammed with blog posts and even e-mails recently regarding the Snowe bill, which is a bill that could have very negative implications on domainers world-wide.   Basically this bill, if passed, would give businesses with trademarks more access to domains than they currently have, costing many domainers thousands if not millions of dollars in losses due to being forced to turn over their domains.

The Snowe bill is obviously the biggest threat to our industry, but there are several things that a domainer needs to be conscious of in general when determining whether to invest into a particular domain name.   Over the past decade, there has been a lot of presidence established that helps guide internet law and provides you with general guidelines to follow.  

If you are interested in doing what you can to protect your investment, you first need to understand how things work from a legal perspective.  Domain Bits has taken the time to collect a bunch of things you need to know when it comes to Domain Law.   Here are the subjects covered:

  1. The Contract Rules
  2. Your Domain Can Be Shut Down
  3. No Such Thing As Domain Ownership
  4. US Law Overreaches International Boundaries
  5. Generics Can Be Trademarks
  6. Registrars Will Park Your Domains
  7. Record Keeping
  8. Private Whois
  9. Accurate Whois
  10. Front Running
  11. Hijacking
  12. Most Registrars Aren’t Helpful
  13. Not Much Legal Protection

Click over to get full explanations of each option and make sure you are doing whatever you can to protect your investments!

No related posts.

There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Jeff on April 2nd, 2008:

    Thanks for the write up!

  2. Comment by Kyle Eslick on April 2nd, 2008:

    @ Jeff – Hey, thanks for stopping by! It was a great write up, I just had to mention it!

  3. Comment by Irrelevant on April 3rd, 2008:

    I fail to see why the rights of someone who makes a $10 – $20 a year investment on a domain name that directly violates someone’s established trademarks should control over the rights of the trademark holder.

  4. Comment by Jeff on April 3rd, 2008:

    @Irrelevant – I’m not sure what you mean. There is a UDRP procedure in place that deals with exactly what you are referring to.

  5. Comment by Kyle Eslick on April 3rd, 2008:

    @ Irrelevant – I think you are right to an extent, but where does the trademark end? Trademarks were created to protect a brand. If someone owns a domain without the intention of leeching traffic and isn’t infringing upon that brand, then that company should not have the rights to it in my opinion.

    If I own an apple domain that talks about Apple orchards, Apple should not be able to take that from me because it infringes upon their brand, etc.

    The big issue is not trademarks upon themselves, but instead is how far that trademark extends.

  6. Comment by Irrelevant on April 3rd, 2008:

    I know that I’ve spent thousand of dollars in legal fees building and protecting brand names.

    I am often frustrated when planning to come up with new brand names when I see a domain squatter holding a useful domain name with no apparent intention of using it whatsoever

    HOWEVER, since they got there first, I have to respect them. BUT, if I get there first, and actually bother to go through the work of trademarking my brand, then they should have to respect me.

    That’s my 2¢ on the subject, but I do realize opinions will differ.

  7. Comment by Kyle Eslick on April 3rd, 2008:

    @ Irrelevant – No problem and I understand completely. Though, as this blog focuses on domaining in general (and by extension some cybersquatters), you probably won’t see to many here with the same view.

    With that said, I understand your frustration. I’m still working on obtaining a few domains that aren’t being used by anyone that I would like to use and it gets frustrating.

    If you run into a domain that is taken and undeveloped, many people don’t bother contacting the owner. If you are committed to developing it, sometimes you can get one for under $100.00 (which isn’t much money if you truly intend to develop and commit yourself to it).

  8. Comment by Irrelevant on April 4th, 2008:

    I have tried a few times to contact the owner and surprisingly, I’ve never once had they respond to my inquiries.

    I agree, while I’d rather get the domain for $10, I would often pay $100 or even $500 if it was a domain I really wanted.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Post a Response