Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, RDNH, is attempted theft of intellectual property through abuse of administrative proceedings. The IP being contested are internet addresses, domain names.
Domain name owners are required to submit to dispute resolution procedures, which can be very costly in time, lawyers fees, and harassing impediments to efficient property management.
Why is this not yet labeled a crime?
Some fools file complaints in ignorance, not understanding IP rights and procedures. This is gradually becoming less of a problem as precedents and case law better clarify infringement, liability and bad faith.
More prerequisite rules would help immensely. For example, the internet is precise, demanding accuracy. If my address is "bank" it's not the same as "bunk" or "band" -- different by one letter or character is different. This is the same for addresses in Manhattan: 84th Street is different from 89th Street. If you want to buy fruit and go to the wrong address, perhaps someone there will sell you fruit. Reasonable. Businesses must provide potential customers with proper directions or risk losing trade. But some poor businesspeople seek to artificially & improperly expand their domain, claiming exclusive control of a wide region to which they've no proper right. Hopefully, a good World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel would quickly & completely reject such claims. But some strange decisions have favored cagey Complainants.
There aren't yet automatic penalties attached to RDNH in WIPO proceedings - this is a major problem.
Domain name owners are required to submit to dispute resolution procedures, which can be very costly in time, lawyers fees, and harassing impediments to efficient property management.
Why is this not yet labeled a crime?
Some fools file complaints in ignorance, not understanding IP rights and procedures. This is gradually becoming less of a problem as precedents and case law better clarify infringement, liability and bad faith.
More prerequisite rules would help immensely. For example, the internet is precise, demanding accuracy. If my address is "bank" it's not the same as "bunk" or "band" -- different by one letter or character is different. This is the same for addresses in Manhattan: 84th Street is different from 89th Street. If you want to buy fruit and go to the wrong address, perhaps someone there will sell you fruit. Reasonable. Businesses must provide potential customers with proper directions or risk losing trade. But some poor businesspeople seek to artificially & improperly expand their domain, claiming exclusive control of a wide region to which they've no proper right. Hopefully, a good World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel would quickly & completely reject such claims. But some strange decisions have favored cagey Complainants.
There aren't yet automatic penalties attached to RDNH in WIPO proceedings - this is a major problem.
