Monday, April 28, 2008

Reverse Domain Hi-jacking or Reverse Cybersquatting.

It has been some time since our last post, bogged down with "real life" goings on I suppose. Anyhow, today the domain industry was dealt a serious blow when Lufthansa (the airlines) was awarded the domain; LH.com through a UDRP decision. It appears the respondent (Future Media Architects) has already filed suit in New York, a pre-emptive call likely based upon experience...

We cannot begin to explain how big of a blow this is to domain name investors. A decision like this will offer fodder to big corporations who don't want to spend big bucks to steal domains from investors who might be intimidated. Furthermore, this will lead to a larger number of "reverse cybersquatting" cases, in which these companies will claim trademark rights, however vague the case may be, because the UDRP standard is favorable to weak cases offered by larger corporations. In essence reverse domain hi-jacking is becoming the norm.

Because of this, we will be focusing on building out a new site under our domains; reversecybersquatter.com and reversecybersquatters.com - we might even point reversehijackers.com to the site. We will be showcasing UDRP cases in which we feel the complainant was attempting to or succeeded in reverse domain hi-jacking. We will dig deep and add as many cases as we can find in the UDRP database - we will also need help from you to locate these cases. Additionally, we will be updating the site as new decisions are handed down.

No timeline on the site, but we will update you as progress is made.

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