WWF Wins Cybersquatting Case

FunkBox writes "Apparently, The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) has won the first international arbitration in a ``cybersquatting'' dispute over the rights to an Internet address. Check out the story here." Or just read the decision. ICANN strikes the first blow under its new expedited uniform dispute resolution rules, that everyone - everyone - is now subject to.

Surprised it dragged on this long

[DaveHowe]

I am fairly surprised it took as long as it did - the guy registered "worldwrestlingfederation.com" purely to try and extort $1K from WWF, but they negotiated a settlement with him while the IICAN were considering it.. probably on the offchance the guy was right, and the IICAN guidelines wouldn't be enforced. It's good to see they will be though - even if it was a pretty clear-cut case. We need to see one a little closer to the bone (where a big american company is in the wrong, for instance?)
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Egads

[dougman]

Perhaps the cybersquatter was hoping that an irate, menstruating Chyna would come to his door and beat the rights to the domain out of him? (Okay, that was just gross. I am so sorry. Really. Truly tasteless. I have no idea what I was thinking.)

If you can smell...

[chrischow]

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR DOMAIN NAME IS!

This is total crap

[forkspoon]

This is bad. Just because a person or company registers a trademark in any country, now it seems he has the right to the domain name, even if he hasn't paid for it yet. So the big guys win again. I mean, the WWF can spare 1k, 10k, even 100k in ransom to this guy. And they can also do without that specific name, and maybe get creative and think up another name that isn't taken. One reason this law is bad is because it probably will work backwards. For instance, American laws can't hold you liable if you did something in 1910 if the law came about in 1915. It is called ex post facto, and it keeps the government from making laws just so they can shut people up by putting them in jail for something trivial they did in the past. However, it seems that now, if a corporation bought the trademark in 1910, they have rights to the corresponding domain name, even without paying for it. Screw this law, in the past, domain's were given in a first come, first serve basis, with no official interference after that. This added layer of government will only serve large corporations and will only work against individual rights.
Travis
[e-mail]

Re:This is total crap

[chrischow]

what u mean they can change their name because someone already registered a domain name using their registered company name? how about the person who registered that domain thinking of something original and registering that instead?!

Doesn't augur well

[jaed]

What's really annoying/alarming about this is that the arbitrator went ahead and issued a decision, even after the two parties had come to a mutally agreeable settlement. The arbitrator just rode roughshod over that.

Makes me suspect that the process in the future will be more about power than fairness. The results of that kind of thinking are rarely good ones, particularly not for individuals up against large organizations. What happens when the next "veronica.com" case comes up against this process? Will we see an increase in reverse domain piracy? I fear so.