Trademark owners are going to keep pushing the envelope until a chorus of just regular business owners rise up with their own horror tales like Verizon and Microsoft does at every turn

I agree with you the UDRP should be fixed and go to a loser pays system.

I actually proposed exactly that, earlier this week to the ICA.

The Problem is the trademark groups don’t want to fix the UDRP.

They want a whole new system that will allow them to cheaply and quickly take down domains.

Again I have no problem with doing that with the “verisons” or “wallmarts” of the world, but I see the writing on the wall and what you consider generic they don’t just like “first call” we consider it generic but they got some judge to issue an injunction given them exclusive use not only to that term but also to the term “call us first” which is totally generic but also subject to a trademark.

So what I’m telling you don’t think your going to get any “easy paydays” defending generic trademarked terms, I just lost one, “smooth move” which is now on appeal.

The Google PPC suits and to a far lesser extent this CraigsList suit are necessary to establish case law for trademarks given these relatively new advertising mediums. When managing a PPC campaign in Google, there’s a link to ad keywords. Click the link and now Google offers up your competitors trademarked terms to bid on. This seems like Google is enabling trademark infringement, but I’m not a lawyer.

I’m not a fan of the URS or the UDRP as it currently is structured. Instead of the URS, I think the UDRP should be fixed. It takes $1,600 to file a UDRP. If a UDRP is won the respondent should reimburse the complainant the $1600 filing fee. If a UDRP is lost, the complainant should pay the respondent $1,600 for needlessly defending his property. Complainant’s will think long and hard before they roll the dice on getting a name. Domain investors will think long and hard about registering trademark domain names. Further, if I own a generic domain, bring on a silly UDRP if its going to be an easy payday.

I’m sure this comment will light up so emotions.

This suit has nothing to do with domains but its the same basic argument used in suits against Google in PPC ad suits.

“”"Until the parking industry stops monetizing domain names that are typos of trademarks, registries prevent obvious registration of domain name trademarks and search engines stop serving ads on the offending names, this issue won’t go away”"

Your wrong the issue is bigger.

They want full protection for all trademarks famous or not.

The problem started with typos of FAMOUS trademarks but now trademark groups, as you can see here, want this protection to apply to every trademark and everything is trademarked.

You are underestimating the issues and problems this is going to create for domain holders, especially when coupled with the URS and internet ad platforms

From what I read this has nothing to do with domain names? Until the parking industry stops monetizing domain names that are typos of trademarks, registries prevent obvious registration of domain name trademarks and search engines stop serving ads on the offending names, this issue won’t go away. There’s too much money being made. Unfortunately the crooked few may ultimately spoil it for the honest many.

… seriously though – this is getting ridiculous and no one seems interested in applying sensible boundaries.