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[ga] Can trademark holders seize my domain if I haven't done anything in bad faith?
- To: <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Subject: [ga] Can trademark holders seize my domain if I haven't done anything in bad faith?
- From: "Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:15:44 -0000
Some time back I registered the domain www.nhs.info with the thought of
developing a little information website about the history of the NHS (Britain's
National Health Service) in the future when I got some time.
I've been contacted by the NHS, informing me that the UK's Department for
Health has a registered trademark for the term 'NHS'. They say that by
registering the domain name www.nhs.info I am infringing the Department's
trademark.
They also claim that the domain name is confusing internet users (although
there is no website - it's just a domain name that's been registered).
I have not used this domain name in bad faith.
I have honest plans for it.
Moreover they had the opportunity to 'reserve' this domain name, if they wanted
to, through the processes set up by ICANN to allow trademark holders to
'reserve' names if they wanted to. They didn't do that.
So I just bought a domain name in good faith. I want to use it when I am ready
to. Can a trademark holder, in these circumstances, just take a domain name off
me?
I have made no attempt at all to confuse anyone. I just bought the domain on
the open market.
Are domain names the intellectual property of a specific trademark holder,
giving them the right to seize someone else's domain, when the present
registrant has no malicious or bad faith intentions?
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