Molson Slapped in Domain Hijacking Attempt

Lew Pitcher writes "Well, it took a Canadian court to find that a Canadian citizen can own the domain name canadian.biz without being a beer (or a beer company). The Toronto Star is reporting that the Ontario Superiour Court has overruled ICANN's decision to take domain canadian.biz from its current owner and give it to Molson's Breweries (makers of "Canadian" brand beer). A spokesperson for Molsons gave the obligatory statement about disappointment in the decision, and indicated that it was too early to determine if Molsons would appeal the decision. Score one against the bad guys."

Comments

increasing irrelevance of bad beer

[epine]

Thankfully, most of Canada has a thriving microbrew industry these days that makes the national brands taste like sour corn syrup by comparison. The occassional batch stands against the best German or British exports, though not with great consistency.

One strange thing is that the Guiness generally gets better the closer you get to Ireland. Once in a blue moon the Guiness on the west coast has a head you can properly sculpt. The Guiness in Halifax is generally reliable, and if you pick the right place, the Guiness in Montreal can often be excellent.

Quebec is an interesting place beer wise. The beer selection tends to be fairly cosmopolitan. If you do chose a Quebec beer, it'll likely grow some hair on your chest. Barly retisa by the jug.

Molsons primarily appeals to the kind of person were lack of surprise is the only requirement. There are so many good good beers and so many good bad beers, I can't understand why anyone would drink Molsons at all, but there's no explaining taste.

I can see how the judge would look askance at Molson's attempt to patent the Maple Leaf. These days Tim Hortons is a much stronger national brand. They probably ran into the same problem that Microsoft faced in the court room: the judge was all too familiar with their product line.