This past Thursday, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) held a conference in London called the “Online Brand Abuses and Internet Governance Education Forum”.
We will reprint the press release below, but here the important parts you need to know:
CANDA is getting better organized, gaining more support throughout the world, in both membership and dollars, and in particular does not like domainers.
Particularly troubling is the following language:
“””This forum brought together brands from across the globe to share collective knowledge, experiences and strategies for combating brand infringement, harmful diversion, phishing and other online abuses such as counterfeiting. With the high margins posted by online criminals—many cybersquatted domains that are simply used to post sponsored advertisements produce $10,000 per year and cost just $10 to maintain—it is clear that this form of online abuse needs attention.””””
In making this statement CADNA places a wide range of activity in the same bucket labeling them all criminal and abusive.
1. Brand Infringement, which they are seeking to expand from the current trademark infringement protections
2. Harmful Diversion, which is also done by ISP and registrars, when they serve up a ads on a not resolving pages;
3. Phishing, an activity which is already criminal, where sites are faked to look like the real site and users are fooled to give their account information to the fake site.
4. Counterfeiting, which is the sale of counterfeit goods, which is also illlegal.
CADNA calls alleged trademark infringers, which includes all the above, “online criminals” and states that a cybersquatted domain can generate $10,000+ annually for a $10 registration (almost meaning that all cybersqatted domains do so. Also what they would call a cybersquatted domain is quite different from what your defination would be.
Of course as Rcik Schwartz pointed out last year CADNA.org itself infringes on a trademark owned by the same company that owns CADNA.com. However they seem to be OK with that infrigement or as they would call it criminal behavor.
So boys and girls, CADNA has not gone away.
They are actively recruiting on an international basis to fund efforts aimed directly at domain owners.
They have know taken the fight global.
For all of you who thought the Snowe Bill was the last you would hear from this group you are sadly mistaken.
If you thought you no longer had to support the ICA, your wrong.
Here is the full press release by CADNA, which is already getting press:
This past Thursday, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) held its London Online Brand Abuses and Internet Governance Education Forum. Broad in its geographical scope, the forum welcomed companies from the US, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, with half of the attendees representing Global 500 companies. These attendees came together because of concerns over issues such as online brand dilution and the often-ineffective governance of ICANN. This was the first of two international Online Brand Abuses & Internet Governance Education Forums to be hosted by CADNA, both aimed at creating a global network of brand owners in order to share the latest in proactive, reactive and preventative domain name strategies.
Today there are over 1.4 billion Internet users, and online advertising is projected to grow to over $80 billion in the next 3 years. The Internet makes it easy for brands to move into new markets, but unfortunately criminals enjoy the same perks- inexpensive and easy access to services and consumers. This forum brought together brands from across the globe to share collective knowledge, experiences and strategies for combating brand infringement, harmful diversion, phishing and other online abuses such as counterfeiting. With the high margins posted by online criminals–many cybersquatted domains that are simply used to post sponsored advertisements produce $10,000 per year and cost just $10 to maintain–it is clear that this form of online abuse needs attention. CADNA forums open avenues for communication and cooperation between brand owners so that they can have a collective voice with which to effectively protest these practices.
The keynote speaker at this CADNA-hosted event was Dr. Jonathan Zittrain, Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University, principal of the Oxford Internet Institute and a Berkman Visiting Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, where he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Dr. Zittrain’s presentation reviewed the evolution of the Internet from an open, simple, and informal environment to a structured corporation. He argued that this evolution came about because of entrepreneurial, technical and regulatory opportunities that the Internet provided, and was dictated by the individuals at the helm of ICANN, who often took decisive positions on a piecemeal basis, without a holistic understanding of the Internet landscape that they were creating.
Also among the speakers was Martin Sutton, a representative for prominent CADNA member HSBC. HSBC represents the type of global company that can contribute to and benefit from an international coalition aimed at raising awareness and combating online abuse. “The Internet is young, and online abuse will continue to occur,” said Sutton. “It is key to have an effective strategy and policy, as well as the type of industry collaboration that CADNA offers, in order to protect brands and consumers.” Member representatives of Bacardi & Company Limited and DIRECTV, Inc. also shared their views on domain name system challenges and solutions.
CADNA’s education forums are hosted to provide brand owners with the knowledge they need to take full advantage of the name space and reduce brand abuses. The second international forum will be held in Paris on June 25, and will continue the discussion on the importance of an international business coalition and the possibilities of cooperative enforcement options for brand owners. Featured speakers at the Paris Forum will include Frederick Mostert of Richemont, David Roache-Turner of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Sylvain Hirsch of Paris-based IP Twins.
The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (“CADNA”) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization dedicated to ending the systemic domain name abuses that plague the Internet today. Its members include the following global corporations: American International Group, Inc.; Bacardi & Company Limited; Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA; Dell Inc.; DIRECTV, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; Hilton Hotels Corporation; HSBC Holdings plc; Marriott International, Inc.; Verizon Communications Inc.; and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. For more information, please visit www.cadna.org.
As I’ve said many times in the past, we all need to do as much as possible to separate the obvious TM squatters from professional domainers.
Presently, CADNA is doing a better PR campaign of lumping us all in the same category than we are at kicking these parasites outside the castle walls.
A quick check (5 minutes) at GoDaddy’s TDNAM.com site reveals these for resale in the highest price categories:
AskMicrosoft.com 50K
DisneyStudio.com 50K
KinkosCommercialSolutions.com 50K
JeyBlue.tv 50K
BarclaysCapitalGroup.com 50K
MicrosoftGreen.com 50K
MicosoftAction.com 50K
SonyMobilePhone.com 39K
MTVMusicChannel.com 35K
PacificBell.mobi 29K
CBSnews.us 29k
David
I still have never gotten anything back from godaddy.com on this issue.
Of course on the registrar side of things they, along with many other major registrars, serve up parked pages on expired infringing domains and put the revenue right in their pocket.
I really don’t understand why GoDaddy isn’t doing something as simple as removing the insanely obvious TM violators from their TDNAM site.
I believe anyone should be able to register any names they wish, but the aftermarket is a different animal that is quite easy to monitor – especially those names for sale in the higher price ranges. No one notices if someone is trying to sell KinoksCommercialSolutions.com for $500, but add a 50K price tag and it’s like putting it under a spotlight.
Usually, when a company doesn’t move on these things it’s because it may affect their bottom line. However, I don’t seeing that happening here because only a complete idiot would pay 50K for DisneyStudio.com or AskMicrosoft.com. In other words, there’s no market for them.
I’ve never met GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons, but from everything I’ve read about him he sounds like a stand-up guy. I have no idea why he would allow this to continue when it has the capacity to inflict so much damage upon our industry.
I actually sent a letter to Dan Clevenger of CADNA.com on 3/29/08.
I thought this might be interesting to everyone.
From: Kelly Lieberman
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:44:11 -0500
To:
Subject: Cadna.org is infringing on your trademark
Dan,
You may not be aware that CADNA, The Coalition of Domain Name Abuse, (www.cadna.org ) has violated their own “best practices” and has used your trademarked name to fight their battle against companies that use similar or deceptively similar names to divert traffic from businesses.
This group is made up of some very large corporations, and you may have substantial legal rights and monetary claims against them for using your trademarked name in a manner that does not enhance the image of your company.
“Their” CADNA has received considerable press as of late due to a bill being introduced by Senator Snowe. The hype may reach a level, if it hasn’t already, that consumers or the press may be confused as to which CADNA is being discussed. Your company’s reputation could be harmed in the process.
Many of us think that it is outrageous that an agency acting as an advocate for domain owners, has chosen to use a domain that was already trademarked by another company! It goes against everything they supposedly stand for, and meanwhile they are stepping all over your rights to your business name and your online presence.
If you want to get to the bottom of this, and learn more about the company using your name, you can visit http://www.internetcommerce.org .
Feel free to contact me if you require any other information.
Kind Regards,
Kelly Lieberman
From: Dan Clevenger [mailto:dan.clevenger@cadna.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 11:47 AM
To: Kelly Lieberman
Subject: Re: Cadna.org is infringing on your trademark
Dear Ms. Lieberman,
We are aware of this, as it has been brought to out attention several months ago. However, we were under the impression that the company in question does not participate directly in our industry, therefore no conflict actually exists.
Best Regards,
Daniel C. Clevenger
President – CADNA Automotive
3921 Delp St.
Memphis, TN 38118
(901) 566-9090 ext. 812
Dan,
I realize that their CADNA does not have anything to do with the automotive industry, however, the premise of their organization exists to prevent other companies from doing exactly what they did to you. That is what makes it so offensive. What’s interesting is that they won’t allow a mom and pop internet store to have a domain like http://www.AIC.net, (just an example to illustrate) which might stand for Allegiance of Independent Caterers because one of their members is AIC, AIC.com, a financial services company. They would take this small internet consortium of catering companies to court and ruin their business and claim their domain, by arguing that consumers might be confused by the similar domain. Let’s say that ICA, the financial services co. follows Bear Stearns into bankruptcy. When people type in ICA to search for catering companies and sees bankruptcy news they might be confused. In this scenario, ICA, the catering business has been hurt by the bad reputation of the ICA, financial services business but they don’t have the big corporate dollars to fight them.
In your case, you have a trademarked name, CADNA. You use it in the automotive industry and registered the domain CADNA.com. In CADNA’s case, they are an organization in business to protect trademarked domains. They registered CADNA.org knowing full well CADNA already was a trademarked business, and CADNA.com was taken. By their own standards they are actually violating their own ethics.
A lot of the small business owners on the internet are concerned about this organization because they come in under the guise of what appears on the surface to be genuine concerns about cyber squatting on the internet (cocoacola.com, for example), but end up being tools to hijack domains from legitimate business owners. Sometimes they are people who have owned a domain long before the term became a household term. (myspace.uk)
I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I wondered if anyone else had ever seen the irony in CADNA using someone else’s domain. I wonder how many more of us will write you? In any case, I wish you the very best, and certainly don’t mean to add any stress or worries.
Kindest Regards,
Kelly
Kelly,
Thanks for your information – we will look into it a bit further.
While I do agree with your premise – in your experience, what would we really be entitled to?
Since this is really out of the scope of our experience, how do you feel the best way to proceed would be if we determined we would take action on this?
Dan
Dan,
While I am not sure legally what recourse you might have, I know that the attorney that represents the Internet Commerce Association, Philip Corwin, would be able to give you a really thorough look at all your options. He would probably call you back within the hour if you left a message with your company name, and an explanation of why you were calling. He is very familiar with CADNA (.org) and is representing the Internet Commerce Associations efforts in changing the language of the Snowe bill that has been put in front of Congress so that it better protects the interests of smaller businesses. Here is his link :
http://www.butera-andrews.com/philip-s-corwin.htm
I just saw this on Wired and thought that you might be interested. This is where these things sometimes end up, although in this case it is two huge entities fighting over a generic use of an apple.
Here is the link: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2008/04/apple_vs_apple.
That’s why I think it makes sense for you to be on guard now, and write the letter that tells CADNA (.org) that in no uncertain terms should they do anything to disparage the good reputation and name of CADNA. Because, honestly, when we are talking electronic search, the future of business CADNA is CADNA no matter what you are selling. Ten years down the road if someone is typing a Google search for CADNA, and there are 15,000 pages of legal documents about CADNA (.org) they have diluted your name – and your power to be found.
By now you are probably more than wondering who I am and why this strange passion about the unfairness of trademark law. I am a 44 year old married mother of a 14 year old daughter, entrepreneur, inventor, volunteer, and collector. One of my newest passions is buying and developing domains into businesses. I follow the industry like I do everything I am involved in and was angered when I read about the big corporations moving millions of dollars into a lobbying group to try and take domains away from rightful owners. I don’t condone anyone buying a trademarked domain or a typo version of it or something very similar to siphon money from a business, nor though, do I condone a corporation taking domains away from legitimate business people. More than likely, the corporations, with all their millions will win unless people like us stand up and speak out.
So there you are, that’s me. If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Kindest Regards,
Kelly lieberman
Anyway, that was my attemt at trying to get CADNA.com to stand up and protect their domain. I don’t know if Dan ever called Corwin or not. I did forward all coorespondence to Rick Schwartz as well, but I never heard anything more….
Kelly
You are my new hero
Good job
Keep us informed of your progress
I hate those who espouses one position and then does the same thing when it benefits them.
Those who scream the loudest usually is the worst offenders.
Great work, Kelly.
Nice post – Great response to it.
There is a fine line between the Use and Abuse of domain names
Kelly
I forwarded your letter over to Phil
There is another example of hypocrisy. CADNA is driven by Fairwinds Partners LLC. Fairwinds has tried/still trying to sell pharmacy.com but for quite a while displayed ads of Trademarked drug brands such as Viagra and Paxil on a landing page. So Fairwinds themselves profitted (they have since removed the landing page, but that can probably be dug up) from the very trademark abuse they accuse others of.
Thanks!
I was so underwhelmed by Dan Clevenger’s reaction, but then again, I know that I wasn’t the best person to explain it all to him either.
I really was inspired by Rick’s post on his blog about how he had contacted him and I thought I would give it a try too, since some time had past.
It was right around the time Rick was so frustrated because he thought no one was heeding the warning about CADNA and the Snowe Bill. I wanted him to know that there are really a lot of us out there trying to make a difference in our own way- hoping that he wouldn’t give up on all of us and quit blogging.
I sure miss his posts!! He had a lot of jerks who posted some cr*p about him, but that’s what fame and fortune will get you sometimes.. a whole lot of jealousy. There are many more that just admire the heck out of him, and are trying to do what we can to follow in his giant footsteps.
Ok, the man has some vision and sound business instincts, granted. But do not go overboard, he is no leader for domain registrants. Real leadership is not self serving. Bragging about buying porno.com on National Public Radio is not going to get him (or anyone in domains) the respect he so craves. Rather, it has the exact opposite affect.
@jblack,
You’ve got to kidding???
You’re disparaging the guy who single handedly has helped shape the industry we all make money in. From his mind has sprung world class ideas from the Internet Commerce Association to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. to a blog we all have learned invaluably from. Leaders like Rick not only have great ideas they have the ability to get other people onboard and see these ideas through to fruition. Without his leadership skills this industry is nowhere near as cohesive as it is today.
Your kidding yourself if you think any leader is selfless. They are all human and at the end of the day have something to gain. From world leaders on down ALL leaders are self serving to varying degrees. There is always some kind of financial reward…..somewhere.
Mike,
I have a question maybe you could help answer.
As I mentioned to you last week, I’m relatively new to domaining. I would like to donate a domain for auction so the proceeds would go to ICA. I feel a responsibility to this and would like to contribute even if it is only in a small way. I also feel that by doing this publicly if I could rally at least one other (hopefully more) “new” domainer to do the same, then I can have a positive impact. We all need to help lead by example.
Are there any mechanisms in place to accomplish this? If not, maybe you could steer me in the right direction.
Thank you in advance,
Koz
Koz,
I see you are new, welcome. I noted his business insights and vision, that is not an issue. But trust me, he is not singularly responsible for everyone who ever made a dollar on the web (If so, it was a giant omission he was left out of the history of the Internet book). If anyone thinks bragging about buying porno.com on National Public Radio heard by millions is an action of a respected “leader” we have much different definitions of what constitutes “leadership”. I am afraid that action does far more to alleniate a large audience than it does to inspire that same audience. Worse, its that audience upon hearing such things that might be more inclined to support Congressional actions to regulate all domain names even more. At best, it was poor judgment. And sound judgment is the first criteria of a good leader.
Koz,
I have pledged 15% of all my domain sales to ICA. You can send them proceeds on your own or contact them directly and offer up your domain.
Also Moniker.com has auctioned off domains before on behalf of ICA at their auctions. You can contact Monte@corp.moniker.com and let him know that you are interested.
I think it’s great that you want to donate a domain!!!
jblack,
Greatly appreciate your warm welcoming. “Singularly” was definately an overstatement on my part. Unfortunately, I’ve never listened to the NPR interview. So, I won’t comment on it directly. But, knowing the history of Rick’s business ventures before domaining it was only a natural progression from the adult phone call industry to adult domain names. He followed the money and bucked conventional wisdom and invested in names that aren’t for the faint of heart. Does it surprise me that he would talk about this passionately on NPR , no it’s what he knows. Rick has always spoken what’s on his mind, he’s not the silent leader type. You’ve got to respect his thoughts, vision, frankness and his accomplishments in this industry.
Thanks again for the welcoming,
Koz
Kelly,
I appreciate the info. I knew about the Moniker auctions, but didn’t know if it was appropriate to try and contact Monte.
Thanks for the vote of confidence,
Koz