I'm going to have to DRS myself..

[julian]

Sorry to bring this up again but I think this is important regards future dev of .uk domains.

I realise no one knows the correct answer but just highlighting potential issue.

example:

Blogg's owns the currently undeveloped hotels-dot-co-dot-uk

He wants to build it out and invest money developing/marketing into a legitimate website. It only has one main, obvious and natural use, and that use if going to be pretty dam similar service to hotels-dot-com - its hard to do anything other and whay should one?

mega corp owns hotels-dot-com an already established site, has buckets of cash and legal support.

After speaking to Nominet, a DRS has potentially a strong case if a the .uk domain in use is a confusingly similar service (branding and look could be differnet). I wonder if this could be stifling to generic development - who wants to lose a good domain down the line to a nominet domain 'expert'

So the only option is to test this by transferring a .com I own to a friend and getting him to DRS my .co.uk with a highly prepared case down the line. This is going to be an expensive exercise, but necessary.

This leads be to believe how much parking prime domains could backfire long term when it comes to end users.

 

[Retired_Member38]

A true one word generic domain like 'hotels' will be fine - but bear in mind a massive company might just bypass the DRS process and take you to court instead and you'll need to spend a fortune to defend it.

DRS'ing yourself is pointless - just because you get one result one time, doesn't mean you'd get the same result with a different 'expert' at a random other date...

 

[namealot]

Are you trying to set precedence? Win or lose is it even possible to do so given multitude of variables?

 

[anthony]

What would be the point of having a UK namespace if it couldn't have a site providing a similar function?

 

[julian]

What would be the point of having a UK namespace if it couldn't have a site providing a similar function?

@Anthony You just hit the nail on the head.

- and what is the point if USA-mega-corp. can DRS you down the line for operating a 'confusingly similar service' ..?

@Monkey - USA-mega-corp. no need to waste their time going to court they go direct to nominet, and for few grand win the DRS and domain. The domain is what matters to stop someone's operation.

 

[Retired_Member38]

@Monkey - USA-mega-corp. no need to waste their time going to court they go direct to nominet, and for few grand win the DRS and domain. The domain is what matters to stop someone's operation.

Sticking with your 'hotels' example, there is no way in hell Hotels.com could take hotels.uk from you unless you done something beyond stupid, like rip off their design, lie about being part of their business group, or copy all their branding or similar.

Their best hope would be to go direct to legal action and hope you fold like a cheap lawnchair when you realise how much its going to cost to defend.

 

[accelerator]

So the only option is to test this by transferring a .com I own to a friend and getting him to DRS my .co.uk with a highly prepared case down the line. This is going to be an expensive exercise, but necessary.

Julian, I'm not sure if you're serious about this testing, but if your friend is considering developing a generic domain, I really wouldn't worry about it. No company can claim rights to a generic business type.

Rgds

 

[RobM]

No company can claim rights to a generic business type.

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-disputes/542-game-co-uk-drs-case.html

 

[Retired_Member38]

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-disputes/542-game-co-uk-drs-case.html

There is obviously more to that story. Hard to check it all now without some serious digging, but selling computer games via affiliate links and asking for a £1,000,000 seem to be points that didn't exactly help him...

 

[Edwin]

I don't see what the point would be, it's not like being on trial for a crime in that there's no "double jeopardy" rule for DRS so even if you successfully defended the case against "yourself" somebody else can still DRS you in future and you could then lose, because Attacker A and Attacker B have different claims to the domain i.e. their basis for disputing the domain registration will be different.

In other words, the case that you bring against yourself (even if you did go down that route) will never be exactly the same as the case someone else brings against you (different background, different trademarks, etc.) so winning one particular challenge doesn't mean much - it's not going to immunise you against all other challenges.

 

[RobM]

There is obviously more to that story. Hard to check it all now without some serious digging, but selling computer games via affiliate links and asking for a £1,000,000 seem to be points that didn't exactly help him...

I agree. I was just pointing out that every case has it's own offence/defence. As it also depends on 'experts' deciding each case it can't just be said that a generic domain is 100% safe from a bigger company.

 

[accelerator]

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/domain-name-disputes/542-game-co-uk-drs-case.html

I can't view the link and can't spare the time to investigate all the legal arguments ... but all I would argue is that no business has the right to brand on a generic term and then expect no one else to be able to use it. If you want rights to a brand then choose your own unique one. Whether this stands up each time I guess varies according to how the domain has been used, but I reckon I could come up with a pretty good case for defending a generic domain ... maybe I should be a lawyer.

Cheers