Legal Tips for Domainers
November 26, 2007 · Print This Article
Via Elliot’s interview with Brett Lewis I found this useful article that provides practical tips for protecting your domain names. Well worth reading the entire article. The points it covers are:
Rule 1. Register dictionary words and fanciful terms that you make up.
Rule 2. Use accurate contact information.
Rule 3. Do not register domain names with the intent to sell them to a trademark holder.
Rule 4. Do not forward Web traffic to a competing Web site.
Rule 5. Be honest!
Rule 6. Don’t make up crazy stories.
Rule 7. Avoid unnecessarily antagonizing the other side.
Rule 8. No forwarding Web traffic for trademarks – even descriptive ones – to porn sites, ever.
Rule 9. Resist the temptation to cyberflee.
Rule 10. Do not ignore cease and desist letters.
All seem like common sense to me, but where money is involved, people seem to lose their common sense sometimes.
The thing that bothers me so much about the UDRP process is that the results often seem unpredictable. An unpredictable legal system means more legal cases, and lower domain prices as the risk of the unpredictable legal system must be built into the price of the domain.