If evidence is needed of his 'bad faith' use then the posts mentioned (See http://groups.drupal.org/node/7948 and http://hiveminds.co.uk/drupal.se) could be used. Maybe a screenshot should be taken of his post on hiveminds. Also the fact that he used the name for almost 2 years to point to his hiveminds.co.uk site is further evidence of his bad faith use of the name. See http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://drupal.se Sean On Jan 3, 2008 12:48 PM, Thomas Barregren <thomas@webbredaktoren.se> wrote:
Sean Newman skrev:
Yes Victor, It doesn't matter if its a .org .com or some country code TLD as in this case. Once there is trademark infringement and 'bad faith' use then its cybersquatting. And no it may not be 'illegal' but ICANN and country code registrars have dispute policies set up for exactly this case when someone tries to hijack a TM name and sell it for huge profits. All Dries or the DA has to do is contact the .se registry (I think that that is http://iis.se), and find out about their dispute resolution policy.
Yes, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation is responsible for the top-level Swedish Internets domain, .se <http://www.iis.se/lang/?id=en>.
Disputes about a .se domain can be handled by the their Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings <http://www.iis.se/domains/aboutATF>.
It might cost about 1,500 or 2,000 (not sure) to file a complaint, but the squatter would stand no chance.
The cost is approximately $1,250 USD or $2,500 USD, excluding VAT, depending on whether there is one or tree arbitrators, respectively. (See http://www.iis.se/domains/aboutATF/atfcost.)
Once he tried to sell it for thousands, it is clear 'bad faith', not to mention TM infringement. And yes he can be sued for misuse and TM infringement by Dries if Dries so chooses. It really is incredibly naive and frankly quite stupid to register a TM domain and then try to sell it back for profits. Imagine if he registered pepsi.se <http://pepsi.se> or microsoft.se <http://microsoft.se> and then tried to sell it for thousands of dollars. He'd get a lawsuit faster than he could say the word 'lawsuit'.
I agree. IANAL, but I am certain that Dries, as the rightful owner of the brand, if not registered in Sweden at least by prescription, will win a such Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings.
/ Thomas