Name.coms - who has the rights?

[draggar]

Simple discussion -

Who would have the rights to a (Name).com?

Of course, we can knock out the obvious and leave it to two possibilities:

The person with that name and a company, but who would in that case?

We've seen several in the past - recently Scarlett Johansson won her name.com in a WIPO case, Mr. Nissan has been fighting for the rights to use his name for many years, and Mike Rowe lost MikeRoweSoft.com to MS (because he got cocky). Each case is different but - who would have the rights?

What if someone named Sam Adams wanted to put up a personal blog and he was a beer fanatic? Would Sam Adams (Boston lager) be able to go after him? What if two brothers, Tim and John Johnson wanted to start a business together, would they be able to go after Johnson & Johnson for the domain? What if a woman gets married - does she still have the rights to her maidenname.com or would that be the opprotunity for a company to come in and WIPO it away from her?

Could it be something as simple as "first come first served" or could it be more sinister to whoever can afford the better lawyer?

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this.

 

[vip]

From my point of view as an idealist, first name and last name should be "first come first served" - like John.com, McArthur.com and such. If some company wants the name, they must buy it, not wipo it.

As for a full name domain (like JohnMcArthur.com) should be owned by a person with the same full name who register it first. If some company wants it, they must buy it, not wipo it.

From my point of view as a corporate, "That %#@* guy just stole my company name on the Internet! Blood-sucking lawyers, off your butts and get him!"

 

[BostonDomainer]

I'm a big fan of first come first serve then pay-up however when bad faith is evident, that rule is out the window.

Side Note: Mike Rowe did not lose to Microsoft. It was settled.