Trademark Law

Rick Schwartz has been warning other domainers for some time about the dangers that lurk ahead.  One lawyer at Out-law.com is proposing that trademark holders band together to track down and police cybersquatters worldwide.  This effort would be funded by large global corporations. 

John Mackenzie, an intellectual property and technology law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that businesses should band together to tackle the multi-million dollar cybersquatting industry pro-actively.

"What is really needed and what may occur is a trade organization pushing a policing function whose only purpose is to chase these people," said Mackenzie, saying that it could be similar to business-funded copyright protection groups such as the Business Software Alliance.

"Brands have no choice," he said. "This is turning from the opportunistic registration of domains with people making small amounts of money in garden shed operations into activity from highly sophisticated organizations who are operating around the world."

Essentially, what is being proposed here is a common fund to bring cybersquatters into court in order to sue for damages, as opposed to the limited relief of domain transfer allowed under the UDRP and similar policies.