I hope that the USPTO do not ever allow any further generic TM’s

I’m rather lost with this. AFAIK generic words can be granted TM status if used distinctively rather than generically or descriptively, such as Tide for detergent and Shell for gas products.

But…I guess you know something I don’t since you have 5 USPTO TM registrations as you said.

I’m not understanding your comment.

I made no reference to you, the quality of your portifilo or any reference to $.

All I’m saying is if you are not US based, which I believe you are not, then you are not subject to US laws.

Your comment was you welcome new US laws that may include criminal penalties and my point was simply that if you were US based, you might not be so eager for a new law that could put domainers in jail.

Correct me if I wrong but I believe you do not live in the US.

If so its much easier to be in favor of a law when you have no exposure to it.

What is going on behind the scenes at the ICA, is that Philip Corwin the representative of the ICA is on top of all these meetings, hearings and will represent our side, our view.

The ICA has to pick its fights very carefully as it is a underfunded organization.

They fought on the Snowe bill, the Kentucky domain Seizure action and other major issues effecting all domainers.

The ICA never was meant to be a organization that would deal with every domaining issue or represent individual domain holders in disputes with third parties.

Again if you don’t want to support the ICA, support another trade group that represents domain holders and has a full time attorney and lobbyist.

Oh, there is none.

Finally believe it or not, I have an extremely clean portfolio. I have never had a domain taken from me, ever.

So I write this not worried about me.

I worry about the industry as a whole.

I’ll be fine either way, but if laws get tighter, and unreasonable it will scare buyers away from domains.

Not helpful to anyone in this business

I’m not understanding your point

The really was a meeting on Tuesday in Washington about trademarks and domains.

There really exists a trade group of companies like dell, Verizon, HP, Time Warner and that group is called CADNA- Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse

There really is an all day meeting in Washington this Friday on these issues.

There really was a law proposed last year called the Snowe Bill that was pushed by the CADNA.

There really are congressional hearings scheduled this year on this issue.

These are all facts, not opinion not possibilities.

All Actually Happening or happened.

Now if you want to tell me your not concerned that CADNA want’s Congress to amend current federal trademark laws to increase the penalty for trademark infringement to $1,000,000, per domain, from its current $100K (in the Snowe Bill) and your not concerned that CADNA wants to make trademark infringement criminal, (also in the Snowe Bill) so that the next time you get a threatening letter from an attorney they will not only threaten you with a lawsuit but to also put you in jail, and finally your not concerned with Congress expanding the definition of “trademarks” to include terms not protected under current law (also in the Snowe Bill) then don’t worry about it.

Sleep well.

Don’t want to join the ICA fine with me.

Hire your own lobbyist, start your own domainer group and hire your own lobbyist.

The only thing you can’t do is make excuses, do nothing sit by and wait for the laws to change.

If you own a top-tier one word generic domain like even Rick’s Candy.com, you might get attacked. Some company comes out and says, “Hey under these new rules Snow got passed, Candy,com is trading off our trademark for our brand Candy Panties b/c they sold some chocolate in the form of panties”. Crazy shit like this is already happening and although much gets beaten in panel decisions or court decisions, just imagine what it will be like if they get a free reign. Legitimate domain owners without big bucks to defend themselves will be robbed left and right……especially once the word gets out how easy it is to “steal” a domain from an individual or small company.

This must be stopped.

Is the ICA still allowing domain auctions where proceeds are given to them?
.

Now the ICA would need numbers so maybe the ICA needs to have a $20 entry membership. The ICA does not give anything to its members that would cost anything so build the membership.

The scare tactics are fine, but the average domainer on a forum who owns a bunch of LLLL.com and other three word .com who are not tm typos do not have to worry about CADNA to say otherwise is nothing but a lie, because at the end of the day no matter how big the ICA got it would never match the strength of major global companies who are legitimately protecting their TM. Now I am all for fighting a situation like the LL.com that Elequa/FMA had that was wrong 100 %. But maybe forums need to not allow tm domains to be sold on their forum. Drop houses not catch them and allow them to be bought on the drop.

No one believes if they had a domain and say SONY wanted it that the ICA would help them, I am not saying they should but fact is they would not. So unless the individual domainer is getting help all they are doing is raising money for the ICA to protect the interests of their agenda.

There is a need for Cadna because if I am a company that over 100 years has built an international brand, why should it be ripped off by some asshole in his parents basement ? Reverse Hijacking and idiot tm domainers are too different things IMO. Great blog but the scare tactics about joining the ICA are a little much IMO, I think the average domainer needs to see every one in the industry who is a major player participating before worried about joining the ICA.