Re: [ga] Can trademark holders seize my domain if I haven't done anything in bad faith?

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Richard,

Wendy Seltzer has good advice posted here: http://chillingeffects.org/domain/


--- On Fri, 2/13/09, Richard Henderson <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Richard Henderson <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [ga] Can trademark holders seize my domain if I haven't done 
> anything in bad faith?
> To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Friday, February 13, 2009, 2:15 PM
> 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?