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Henley.com, Reznor.com. Is Your Name Next?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the protecting-what-is-yours dept.

Here at Slashdot we tend to get certain things submitted a lot. Big companies going after "The Little Guy", especially regarding domain names seems to be one of them. Sometimes I feel bad for people because they owned trademarked names, but it looks like they are just squatting, but what about your name? Henley.com is being chased by Don Henley (thanks Netizen) and Reznor.com is owned by AJ Reznor being chased by Thomas & Betts. In each case, a person registered the name given to them at birth, but now a corporation wants to take it because they have a trademark. How do you protect your name?

2 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Why not .us? by Robert+Link · · Score: 4
    Wouldn't a lot of these problems be avoided if private individuals sought domain names in the appropriate subdomain of .us? For instance, in my case, the nation is positively littered with "Robert Link"s, but I am most likely the only one in Charlottesville. Thus, robertlink.com or the like is probably going to be a source of conflict, but I doubt anyone would fight me for robertlink.chr.va.us (or whatever the appropriate subdomain for Charlottesville is).


    We need to get over our .com fever and stop trying to use the DNS as a phone book. It isn't necessary to be able to guess a person or company's name to guess his/its domain name; that's what search engines are for.


    -r

  2. Domain name rights, all thats needed is fair play by substrate · · Score: 4

    As long as you're not violating trademark law or extorting somebody domain names should be first come first serve. If an individual registers their surname as a domain name first its theirs, if a company registers their trademark as a domain name first its theirs. If somebody (a corporation, an individual or whatever) registers a domain name which is somebodies trademark and uses it to compete against them then the registrants rights to the domain name should be terminable.

    Basically the way it should work comes down to a simple concept: Play fair. The way it presently works is also a simple concept: Carry the biggest stick.