A very easy UDRP decision came down on Spiriva.top. I see this name a lot because my Father uses it for C.O.P.D. The tm holder BOEHRINGER Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG of Ingelheim, filed a UDRP and of course the registrant an individual from Russia had no rights to the domain.
This continues a cycle of wasted money, companies having to pay UDRP filing fees for a name they really don’t want. Mike talks about companies making a mistake by not regging the “bang on” names that go with their brands, something like Audi.cars, and I think he is right. There is no reason however that a German pharmaceutical company should have to register a .top domain.
From the registrant standpoint it is really a fool’s errand. They are not going to sell these names that have zero value to a corporate entity. All the while they get brandished a cybersquatter and that may affect them down the road in a case where they have legitimate rights to a domain name.
Thank you for reporting this!
I hope new investors will open their eyes on TM domain and STOP registering them!
Some new gTLDs price their domains below “cost” aiming at getting thousands of registrations. These “deals” make any domain affordable to speculators and squatters alike, the latter go after pharmaceutical tm’s for the lucrative PPC.
Lucrative ppc ? No one is typing in a .top they are a complete waste of money. You are saying. Pharma company should register every drug in 700 + extensions ? You must be crazy.
Read. Comprehend. Respond. I said none of the above.
You implied since crap extensions like top are cheap that companies should cover their bases.
You also said lucrative ppc, don’t you need traffic for the lucrative ppc to matter ?
You’re dreaming with eyes wide open regarding “covering their bases.” Where did I say that pharma companies need to get 700+ extensions.
I said, cheap gTLDs lead speculators to gett tm-infringing domains at a pittance. Then they use these domains to launch PPC campaigns. Yes, there is money in that dark alley of as much as there is in long tail dashed .com’s.
I don’t think Acro was saying they should cover all their bases, just that the bad actors will try to steal every base, (baseball analogies running wild). These cheap extensions do pose a problem where more bad apples will get involved. There is no way a company can cover every extension. So they waste money, and the registrant better never own a good name because they are a serial cybersquatter.
They are making very poor choices of doing a doing a UDRP instead of a URS. With a URS they would not have to pay to renew trash domains.
So how much did the Pharma company have to pay for this proceeding (just filing, not legal fees)?
As you mentioned, Raymond, just a waste of money for everyone, except the registry and the legal., and perhaps the IP monitoring company.
According to https://icannwiki.com/URS between $300 to $500 dollars.
Price is not the only difference between the URS (created specifically for new gTLDs) and the UDRP, but also the time it takes to decide on a case: it’s much shorter.
Acro
Of course the biggest difference is that under the URS is the Complainant does not get the domain if they win, in a UDRP if they win the Complainant gets ownership of the domain.
They can get ownership of a domain that has little value to the public. IMO, doubt this company and/or others will develop these extensions. Not many people will type-in these names. In a sense, it is a waste to constantly defend against rotten apples.
Scammers and spammers rule the Internet. So many bad people preying on vulnerable subjects. Somebody should create a seminar on ways to protect TMs with acquiring new extensions. Maybe TM holders will wise up and save their money purchasing these names rather than waste thousands filing UDRP cases.
Why pay to fight this .top domain? It is obvious this domain owner is not that company.
Is it that confusingly similar this company feels there is a need to spend thousands defending against this domain registration? Unless the domain owner is hit with a $100,000 cybersquatting case, this pharmaceutical company is wasting their money.
Fighting cybersquatters is part of the business. No way companies can/will register their names in all extensions. Bad apples will continue to speculate, taking risks to register TM names. Can’t prevent this practice without blocking these people from future domain registrations through a first, second and third offense system.
What if someone sincerely wants to use Spiriva.top for something completely unrelated to pharmaceutical products?
Should every word in the english language be trademarked and owned?
.top makes absolutely sense with german names.
You can find the term ‘top’ in german language as a well used term in the economy, adevertising and media.