Internet Legal Question For Ya

[The Purple Cow]

Ok I promised a friend of mine that I would have an answer to this question today, but our corporate lawyer is off skiing somewhere - so it's back to my usual fall-back position of picking your brains.

A friend of mine has a little Expat website were strangers in a strange land can come together and discuss common problems and share information etc etc. However, although the site is called Expat Lair she didn't register the expatlair.com domain name.

Now an anomin, anomminous, anoma - un-named person has now gone and done just that, via Go Daddy. This person is now proposing/threatening to set-up a similar website with the same name.

So question for OTF's legal eagles. Does my friend have any rights to stop that person doing that under any kind of 'fair's fair it's my name and I've been using it for three years' ruling?

[Stumpy Pepys]

Internet Legal Question For Ya

I've very little legal knowledge, but I'd imagine the answer was no. People make a living -- if not a slightly dubious one -- out of parking domain names and collecting the advertising revenue, or buying domain names that they think will become valuable later.

I know that for a long time bbc.com wasn't owned by the BBC (and they recently spent a hefty whack to buy it).

[ursus arctos]

Internet Legal Question For Ya

Has your friend trademarked "Expat Lair"? That would help her claim. The Netherlands may also have specific legislation on "cybersquatting" that could help her (the US does, but I don't think that England and Wales do).

She could also get in touch with the UDRP, whose reason for existence is to arbitrate these kinds of disputes.

The person registering the domain name should have had to represent and warrant that believed that it didn't infringe on anyone's IP rights. If she can demonstrate that she had such rights, she probably has a chance to do something about it.

Stumpy, my recollection of the BBC case is that it was a bit different; they didn't have to buy the name from a cyber-squatter, but rather from a legitimate US-based business with the same initials that had just gotten to the window first (and could demonstrate that they actually operated a business that was related to the domain name). I think the same thing happened to a number of UK newspapers trying to register .com addresses.