Actually, the judge rules the court actions, jury considerations, evidence presented, etc, in both civil and criminal cases.

I wasn’t aware that ICANN didn’t incorporate a fair “domain by domain” review for each UDRP, as opposed to being influenced by past outcomes of previous UDRP’s where either party lost. There’s a reason for the logic behind judging each case on ITS OWN MERITS, without prior results helping to determine the outcome on a current case.

Oh well!

You’re just making up reasons to fit the facts – just like the panelist.

Thing is nowadays, the general trend (seemingly) is:

- it’s a crapshoot
- no such thing as precedent (one can find “precedents” which would rule for either side)
-the panelist just makes up the rules as they go along so that the complainant wins

I have little doubt if the respondent had an unblemished reputation – that the panelist would’ve ruled for the complainant on another “technicality” eg. domain was held for over 10 yrs but no ‘real’ business was ever run from the domain or some other chit

People, if you ever lose a UDRP (for whatever reason)…just change the goddang name of the registrant so it can never be used against you!
And go offshore

I think your thinking of criminal cases, not civil ones.

When you go to court there those proceedings are governed by the state or federal rules of criminal procedures or civil procedures.

WIPO and UDRP have their own set of rules.

Previous cases can and will be cited and used in making a decision, which of course was the point of the post

I’m surprised this wasn’t pointed out.

If you’re sitting on a domain that is blatently and unquestionably infringing a trademark, of course you should find a way to correct the problem and/or hand the domain over. But in situations where the claim being made is not as black-and-white, you shouldn’t just immediately roll over and play dead.

I’ve been on the receiving end of many “claims” this year and 99% of the time the “claims” are without merit. My approach is to always respond promptly, gather and communicate all the facts, and educate the person making the complaint. A lot of the time the other side has no clue what they are talking about. If I handed over every domain that someone had a “concern” about we’d run out of domains. ;+)

Domainers, in general. need to show these folks that they can’t just drop the “T” word in an email and expect you to immediately hand over the domain. You wouldn’t believe some of the ridiculous “claims” I’ve gotten over the years. Most situations are more nuanced, especially for the majority of domainers who have ethics.

Know your rights. Push back firmly but politely. And educate the other side. In doing so, you’ll earn more respect for you and the industry as a whole.

Bonus: you’ll stop losing domains to bogus claims.

get real.