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Domain wars: What’s in a name?

By John Ingham
Press Release Domain wars: Whats in a name?
NOV 18, 2014 LISTEN

The new business networking website butN has come up against a cyber squatter who thinks they own entitlement to the butN name. But who really owns the right to use a website domain name?

In spite on a proliferation of domain suffixes in recent years the Internet community continues to put great store on dot com. Domains ending with dot com that have three, four or even five-letter names can hold resale values of many thousands - or tens of thousands - of dollars. This has led many speculative dealers to emerge waiting for desperate market entrants to pay top dollar for their domains.

The latest commercial target to come into the arena is the business networking community butN – which provides business travelers with an opportunity to link up digitally when arriving in a new city and meet face-to-face. The domain butN.com is held by a company “Get on the Web Limited” which advertises on its website that

“Get On The Web Limited does not knowingly register and offer for sale domain names which are registered trade marks.”

Wisely butN's founder, Robin Chater, had taken the precaution of registering the butN name as a trademark in the European Union, the USA and many other locations worldwide. However, when approached Paul Westley of 'Get on the Web' replied that

“It is correct that Get On The Web Limited does not knowingly register AND offer for sale domain names which are registered trade marks. When we registered the domain name in 2000 and later started to offer the domain name for sale in 2003, you had no registered trademark, indeed your company did not even exist! The conjunctive "AND" reflects the wording of third element in the [ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy Policy] and is designed to prevent subsequent johnny-come-lately trademark holders trying to reverse domain name hijack valuable domain names. “

Brave words from an organization operating towards the questionable side of the internet world.

But this raises an important question for all Internet- based trading companies. How far does the authority of a private sector, non-profit corporation such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have in the world of trading names? The International system of Intellectual property has universal support from governments around the world and the system of trademarks provides strong protection for all businesses that qualify for registration. Yet in the new “bedsit” world of Internet traders such authority counts for very little.

Get on The Web Limited has now virtually doubled its price for butN.com, although the business networking site has cleverly sidestepped the issue by opting for the domains butn.co and but-n.com.

According to butN founder Robin Chater “We have been advised by our Patent Agent just to wait – if the domain is ever sold it cannot be used for any purpose that can be confused with butN. If it is, then we can begin infringement proceedings.”

He went on to add that “As a private company imposing its position in a self-appointed way ICANN has no more authority in this matter than a bunch of store detectives deciding entitlement to an exclusive garment on their shelves when one customer has already bought the goods. Knowingly selling an entitlement such as a domain name without warning where clear intellectual property rights have been assigned also contravenes sales description legislation and could alone land a cyber squatter in the courts”

Editor's Note:

butN is a trading name for butN Limited, the social networking arm of the Federation of International Employers (FedEE). FedEE originated from a business network firs established in 1988 with support from the European Commission. Today it is an independent organization with corporate members throughout the world.

A recent article explaining the origins of butN may be found at http://startups.co.uk/butn-robin-chater/

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