Citizen Media Law Project: “WIPO Arbitration Panelist Frederick M. Abbot has denied Glenn Beck’s UDRP complaint against . . . Isaac Eiland-Hall, the man behind glennbeckrapedandmurdereda younggirlin1990.com. . . . Panelist Abbot ruled that Eiland-Hall’s domain name was a “legitimate noncommercial or fair use of
Attorney David Johnson, author of the Digital Media Lawyer Blog, wrote an interesting article on a trademark holder’s choice of forum when seeking to obtain a domain name from a cybersquatter. The action may be a lawsuit in federal court or an arbitration under ICANN’s Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure. The article is titled “Federal Court or UDRP Arbitration? How the Forum that Decides a Domain Name Dispute Can Make a Big Difference in the Results.”
Combatants in cybersquatting or domain name disputes are often not aware of the great degree to which the result they get depends on the judicial body that makes the decision. A clear illustration of how forum choice affects results can be seen in the widely varying deference given by the different judicial bodies to a defendant’s assertion of a “laches” defense to a cybersquatting complaint.
A domain name is an asset. Some domain names have substantial value. It is possible to use a domain name as collateral for a loan, but there are important issues that must be addressed for the creditor to be protected and have the right to foreclose and sell the domain name. For a discussion about how to perfect a security interest in a domain name, see “The Domain Name as Collateral: Considerations for Creditors Seeking to Use a Domain Name as a Security Interest or as a Source of Payment on a Judgment.”
Citizen Media Law Project: “In September 2009, conservative talk show host and self-described ‘rodeo clown’ Glenn Beck filed an administrative complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) against the privacy service for glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. (The UDRP is a policy that website operators automatically agree to when they register a domain name; the policy enables trademark owners to initiate an administrative proceeding challenging the registration of a domain name in ‘bad faith.’)”
See KEYTLaw articles and information on “Domain Name Law & Domain Name Disputes” for more information about cybersquatting.