In the battle between new domains and old trademarks, legitimate businesses cannot be sure of victory. Udo Pfleghar considers the issues.
The proliferation of low-cost domain registrations quickly led to the phenomenon of large numbers of domains being registered by business ventures with the sole purpose of selling these domain registrations to third parties with legitimate legal and commercial interest in them. This includes use as a company product or service name, with corresponding trademark and company name registrations to protect these interests.
This is particularly relevant when domain grabbers register vast numbers of domains and wait for these to become important to third parties with bona fide commercial interests.
If the domains are registered by domain grabbers a fter the corresponding trademarks, service marks or company names, rights holders have a substantial number of instruments at their disposal to assert their rights and reclaim the domains.
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Octogen, domain names, trademark registration
