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I bought netflix.soy

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Re: I bought netflix.soy

#51
post #17
post #9

If these companies notice, they can file a UDRP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Domain-Name_Dispute-Re... ) request, on the basis that the domains infringe their trademarks, and were registered and used in "bad faith".

>and were registered and used in "bad faith". How were they registered in bad faith? He's not extorting money from netfilx, nor is he trying to deceive people into thinking he's neflix.

UDRP typically rules in favor of the holder of the unambiguous trademark in these kinds of cases. As an example, "Exxon Mobil" refers unambiguously to a single entity only, and has no other possible uses, so anyone registering exxonmobil.{anything} would lose if the company came after them. No one else has any right to that trademark, and ICANN enforces trademark rights on domains.

If the trademark already existed when you bought the domain, and especially if it's widely used and ambiguous, you're gonna lose that domain if the company comes after you.

Contrast this with the case of, e.g., McDonald, which is a widely used surname that predates the existence of the trademark. So long as you specifically aren't trying to cause confusion with the McDonalds restaurant trademark, you can use "mcdonalds" in a domain name.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#52

Interestingly, I recently saw a couple a couple of google.* domains available on Google Domains, including some reasonable-sounding ones: IIRC, google.tech (edit: google.page), google.business, and google.camp. Tried to purchase them but they instantly became unavailable the moment I tried to do so. The cynic in me thinks that Google has a special check for those and renews it themselves if someone tries… More genera…

Companies like Mark Monitor will buy all of the .tld's for you-- and continually grab new ones (as the set of TLDs is constantly growing). At Netflix's size, I would assume they would've paid for such a service.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He never registered google.com. google.com is hard-locked at the registry level by Verisign and has very high security manual safeguards around any changes that are made to it. There was a temporary bug in Google Domains that made it appear as if he had bought google.com, but he had not.

Are there other domains hard-locked at the registry level? I haven't heard of this behavior before.

Yes, there are many such registry-locked domains. Verisign and most other TLD operators sell it as a service. More info:

https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-regi... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/01/does-your-domain-have-a-...

It's a recommended best-practice for high-value sites, which the main website of any Fortune 500 company certainly falls under.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there other domains hard-locked at the registry level? I haven't heard of this behavior before.

Yes, there are many such registry-locked domains. Verisign and most other TLD operators sell it as a service. More info: https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-regi... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/01/does-your-domain-have-a-... It's a recommended best-practice for high-value sites, which the main website of any Fortune 500 company certainly falls under.

Oh, this is available to anyone with a .com using a major registrar. I had misunderstood this to be some special feature only available to the domains that make up massive amounts of internet traffic like google.com.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there are many such registry-locked domains. Verisign and most other TLD operators sell it as a service. More info: https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-regi... https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/01/does-your-domain-have-a-... It's a recommended best-practice for high-value sites, which the main website of any Fortune 500 company certainly falls under.

Oh, this is available to anyone with a .com using a major registrar. I had misunderstood this to be some special feature only available to the domains that make up massive amounts of internet traffic like google.com.

There is likely to be even more scrutiny placed on any changes to domain names that employees of Verisign immediately recognize, such as "google.com". I imagine that would have to go through a very high level person at Verisign. It's in everyone's vested best interests here to not screw up something so visible as that.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#56
post #27

Interestingly, I recently saw a couple a couple of google.* domains available on Google Domains, including some reasonable-sounding ones: IIRC, google.tech (edit: google.page), google.business, and google.camp. Tried to purchase them but they instantly became unavailable the moment I tried to do so. The cynic in me thinks that Google has a special check for those and renews it themselves if someone tries… More genera…

there is the Trademark Clearinghouse which actually deals with these cases (by either automatically registering the domain for the trademark holder, or notifying them immediately if the domain is registered so they can take semi-automated action) [1] [1] https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/trademark-clearinghouse

Yeah, I don't recommend buying domains with trademarks in them, even for research (or similar) purposes.

I registered a domain name with a client's trademarked name in it as part of an authorized penetration test of that client a few years ago. At the end of the test, I asked if they wanted me to transfer it to them, and they didn't. A year later, when it expired and the domain privacy stuff went away, all of that automated enforcement machinery started running, and suddenly I was being threatened with all sorts of arbitration/court appearances if I didn't transfer the domain (which I no longer owned) to them. Took weeks to sort out, and that was with documentation that I'd bought the domain as part of a pen test the client had specifically agreed to.

Re: I bought netflix.soy

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no way you'd get a "google" domain under any extension but even if you register a domain with "google" + something else you're going to lose it in a UDRP anyway. It's possible that google and other major brand names don't have to register every extension, the names are just reserved for them alone, should they want them.

Huh? The guy in the article did in fact buy a google.tld - https://google.xn--9dbq2a/

I wasn't talking to the guy in the article, was I?
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