Fun Friday afternoon topic: domain name disputes

[Jason Clifford]

On Tue, 2010-02-09 at 14:46 +0000, Aaron Trevena wrote:
> > If it would be a co.uk domain, she could probably go to a UK court.  Since this is a .com domain, I think any UK judge will quickly dismiss on the grounds that it is an American domain,
> > so that she should go to court in the U.S. of A.  And *that* will prove to become very costly very quickly indeed.
> 
> no .co.us would be an american domain, .com is a global TLD, so it's anybodies.

That's true but only to a limited extent as .COM domains are registered
subject to the terms and conditions of the ICANN approved registries
which pretty much all state that legal disputes regarding the domain
registration must be settled in the courts of that registries home
country or, more commonly, in the USA.

Certainly a judge in an English (and Welsh) or Scots court would not
refuse to hear a case arising from a dispute but if the other party
responds to the case pointing out that the domain is registered subject
to the laws of some other jurisdiction the judge may decide that it's
appropriate to direct the plaintiff to bring the case there. That said
the court is just as likely to hear the case and make an order on the
basis that the order should be enforceable through the courts of the
other jurisdiction.

> OTOH, national businesses using an global TLD is hateful.

Why? The global TLDs are not reserved to multinationals. They are,
rightly, first come first served subject to reasonable restrictions in
law - ie trademark, etc.