It’s quite common for various trademark holders to go through the UDRP domain dispute process to get back domains held by cybersquatters. Still, it’s quite impressive to hear that FreeCreditReport.com was able to get 1,017 separate domain names in a single dispute (found via Slashdot) apparently by using some sort of software that identified all the domains. The company that held the domain names argued, in part, that the term “free credit report” should be seen as generic, not a specific trademark, but the arbitration board simply said that since the USPTO had granted FreeCreditReport.com with a trademark, that the trademark was solid — and thus most domain names that included those words could be turned over.
This does raise some questions however — since we’ve seen plenty of other cases where domains that included trademarked terms, but which would not be confusing to users (such as “trademarknamesucks.com”), have been allowed to be used by the original registrant, rather than handed over to the trademark holder. It’s unclear, in this case, if some of those domains were like that — or if they were all pure squatter domains. Still, it’s quite an impressive haul by FCR.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
