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What would stop McDonalds from suing him if he refused to relinquish the domain name for free? Couldn't they claim it was trademark infringement? Edit: Changed

What would stop McDonalds from suing him if he refused to relinquish the domain name for free? Couldn't they claim it was trademark infringement? Edit: Changed "copyright" to "trademark".

UweSchmidt 12y ago
Back then things weren't as clear-cut and I believe a lot of money changed hands when corporations realized that they need their website right now.
- pasbesoin 12y ago
  You can be too late, with respect to certain windows. For a while, people made significant money selling highly desired domain names, including to big companies. Now, those companies just "take them away" via trademark infringement claims. The legal structure for doing so has since been constructed and tested by them. One of my concerns is that more and more such windows are being closed. It's not the isolated case, but the overall trend towards a corporate and corporate state restricted "push" implementation. I.e. the end of "open".
  - meowface 12y ago
    I don't really see how disallowing people from registering a name already in use by a person or company goes against "openness". If you're using someone else's name, I think they're justified in trying to forcibly retake control of it.
chimeracoder 12y ago
> Couldn't they claim it was copyright infringement? No, though they could claim trademark infringement (which is an important difference). Trademarks can (but do not need to be) registered in order to be protected, and an unregistered trademark can trump a registered trademark if it precedes the registered one, if it is in a sufficiently different "category", if it is geographically distinct, or for a number of other reasons. One interesting example is the Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois[0]. The USPTO is very clear to note that registering a trademark is not a guarantee of validity of the trademark, and they do not issue refunds on the application if the trademark is successfully challenged and invalidated later. In this particular case he'd be less likely to win against McDonald's, especially if all he's doing is domain squatting.... but you never know - take a look at http://www.chaseonline.com http://www.chaseonline.com . [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_%28Mattoon,_Illinois%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_%28Mattoon,_Illino...

What would stop McDonalds from suing him if he refused to relinquish the domain name for free? Couldn't they claim it was trademark infringement? Edit: Changed "copyright" to "trademark".

UweSchmidt 12y ago

Back then things weren't as clear-cut and I believe a lot of money changed hands when corporations realized that they need their website right now.

pasbesoin 12y ago
You can be too late, with respect to certain windows. For a while, people made significant money selling highly desired domain names, including to big companies. Now, those companies just "take them away" via trademark infringement claims. The legal structure for doing so has since been constructed and tested by them. One of my concerns is that more and more such windows are being closed. It's not the isolated case, but the overall trend towards a corporate and corporate state restricted "push" implementation. I.e. the end of "open".
- meowface 12y ago
  I don't really see how disallowing people from registering a name already in use by a person or company goes against "openness". If you're using someone else's name, I think they're justified in trying to forcibly retake control of it.

chimeracoder 12y ago

> Couldn't they claim it was copyright infringement? No, though they could claim trademark infringement (which is an important difference). Trademarks can (but do not need to be) registered in order to be protected, and an unregistered trademark can trump a registered trademark if it precedes the registered one, if it is in a sufficiently different "category", if it is geographically distinct, or for a number of other reasons. One interesting example is the Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois[0]. The USPTO is very clear to note that registering a trademark is not a guarantee of validity of the trademark, and they do not issue refunds on the application if the trademark is successfully challenged and invalidated later. In this particular case he'd be less likely to win against McDonald's, especially if all he's doing is domain squatting.... but you never know - take a look at http://www.chaseonline.com http://www.chaseonline.com . [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_%28Mattoon,_Illinois%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_%28Mattoon,_Illino...