[asterisk-biz] Bunch of asterisk-related domains for sale

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 01:17 -0500, Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> 	Thanks for the clues.
> 
> 	What I mainly don't like, more even than I do you now, is people
> polluting the -biz list with indications that it's OK to infringe
> tradmarks.
> 


To a point though an attitude of its ok does go to show how easy it
would be for a small group to cause damage to intellectual property
(regardless of which side you are on).  You can either dilute the name
to the point that its generic or bankrupt a smaller company trying to
defend it, either way they lose.  The cost?  Not that much actually.

Lets review this shady tactic with a real case, only in reverse.  The
Cult Awareness Network (CAN) listed the Church of Scientology (CoS) as a
cult.  CoS did not like that, or at least some of its members didnt.
About 20 people all filed form letters asking to volunteer there clearly
stating they were CoS members.  CAN got suspicious when 20 work request
letters all identical came in over a couple of days, and hired none of
them.  All 20 people filed a personal suit for discrimination against
CAN for a cost of about $200 each.  CAN won every case although it spent
$1M defending itself, filed bankrupcy immediately after, was bought out
by CoS right after that and now CoS is not listed as a cult.  It was
never proven that this was a CoS officially sanctioned activity.

Now since this started over a debate with domain names, lets use that as
an example, although it does not have to be limited to that.  And know
that if you file a frivolous lawsuit then generally you can be
countersued in the US but the burden of proof that it was frivolous is
generally high enough that almost never happens.  

A group of people each register independant companies and domains that
would infringe upon Digium.  They begin to actually use them, so that
there would be some dilution.  Digium sends cease and desist letters,
which are ignored, digium files in court, which goes with the smallest
of challenges, but enough that digium legal has to spend time, and thus
money.  When the judgement comes down the companies which have no assets
other than the names, fold.  A total of a few hundred dollars max per
person was spent, but digium spent in all likelyhood much more than
that.  In essence digium would have paid thousands of dollars each for
domain names it did not want.  Generally it is difficult to go after the
individuals that do this type of thing, so the only assets that could be
attached to would be the corporate shells that really have nothing in
them.

This puts digium in more or less an impossible situation, if they do
nothing there is dilution, which can be grounds to lose the trademark,
if they do something they would be spending many times more than
anything they would get to protect the name.  While there are criminal
copyright laws, I do not believe there are criminal trademark laws, as
such it would be solely on digium to file all motions to get
information, a process server, court fees, etc.  And the discovery
process can actually give someone a hook to subpoena records digium may
not want made public, which would mean digium would have to challenge
the discovery requests which is more time and effort on their side to
fight what amounts to a 5-10 minute single sheet of paper.

This is why I would never invest in a company whose majority revenue
stream is some IP whodingy.  Real products, real services, but not just
a name.  If you are building a business do it with something real,
preferably something tangible (although for the most part services are
good too, services can go very wrong very fast).  Of course there comes
a time when you have to brand your product, and get your name out there,
so that people know if its not XYZ then its not quality, but that is
different, because the name isnt everything.




-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
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