Welcome to Gahtan’s Technology and Internet Law Blog

According to Computer World, a recent sale of the porn.com domain fetched a cash price of US$9.5 million, the second highest price for a domain name sale. Sex.com was reportedly sold for $12 million in 2005 but was not an all-cash transaction.

It used to be that cybersquatters would register the name of a famous person, company or product and then try and sell the name to the rightful owner. But now things have changed. According to Wired News:

These days, cybersquatters seek to register a star’s domain before that person becomes famous, and then develop a business relationship with the new celebrity, offering website hosting or design work. These so-called soft squatters are registering the domains of hundreds of amateur athletes, musicians and other would-be stars in the hope that one or two of the names will become well-known.

There are now even specialized services like sedo.com that make it easy to earn add revenue from parked domain names and at the same time provide a vehicle to help sell such domain names.

According to Reuters, SEX.COM has been sold for about US$12 million in cash and stocks. This tops the US$7.5 million paid for BUSINESS.COM during the dot.com frenzy. The site currently makes money selling banner advertising but the buyers are expected to add other revenue generating services to the site.

IT.Can’s new blog site reports on the recent CIRA decision in Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company v. Ebenezer Thevasagayam (pdf). The respondent had registered the disputed domain name, entreprise.ca, in 2003 along with 56 other domain names. The Complainant had argued that “entreprise” is the French language equivalent of its trade name and trademarks.

Two of the three panelists held that the domain name was confusingly similar to the Complainant’s mark and that the Complainant had provided sufficient initial proof of bad faith by noting the links on the respondent’s web site to competitors of the Complainant.

Well, not really. Actually, I like shopping at Home Depot.

However, someone who thinks differently recently prevailed in a UDRP brought by Home Depot. The Respondent was represented by the University of San Francisco Internet and Intellectual Property Justice Clinic.

Read more…

So there’s a domain name you’ve always wanted. It looks like it might expire soon. What should you do?
Mike Davidson has the scope in How to Snatch an Expiring Domain. This great article, although now a little dated, describes the entire process.