For Sale NiagaraRegion.ca lost in dispute

[hugegrowth]

watch out for your .ca geo names

http://www.domainnews.com/registries/2008032783/ca-geo-domains-may-be-a-liability-to-hold/

this loss makes the point that any city or region could come after a related geo domain and have a chance at getting it. I don't agree with the panels decision in this case.

I wonder what would have happened if the owner had disputed it, or if his real estate practice had been in Niagara?

 

[theinvestor]

This decision really bugs me, but it's mostly the fault of the owner. Why did he never respond? It almost makes no sense.

 

[cashboy]

I happen to know that a Toronto lawyer offered his services for Free to defend this,
but the registrant never replied to any emails.

 

[revolution1]

seems odd. seems a lot of .ca owners never respond to emails. Dumbasses...

 

[theinvestor]

Why else do you think there are many still decent domains in the drops?

Just wait till the TBR's are horrible. This .ca market will explode.

 

[Theo]

I've been monitoring geo names of various countries in the .com/.net realm and the .ca rules by default reserve these names. Still, there are about 1,000 Canadian names on the .com availability list.

 

[hugegrowth]

'Niagara Region' isn't a city name, so I don't think should have been lost. A good defense would have prevented the outcome IMO.

Next they can go after

"City of ______"

"_______ City"

"_______ Area"

I think each city having their .ca reserved is ok, but how far can they take this?

Look at .us, major city names are held by domainers and developers.

To take away a generic name like "Niagara Region", and even have to defend your ownership of it, should make .ca domainers stand up and take notice.

 

[whitebark]

This seems like a rather silly one. Niagara 'region'? It's a wide area and not a place. Much like the Fraser Valley, or Okanagan.

This case is from 2007
http://www.cira.ca/en/cat_dpr_decisions.html

Are there more than that? I also see a couple dnforum posters there!

They better not touch my spuzzum! LOL

 

[DropWizard.com]

It's a poorly written and thought out decision at best. But the respondent didn't answer and they do have a registered trademark.

However the owner was using it for real estate which is a useage different from the TM registered and accordingly non conflicting... a point the panelist misses.

And to state that useage for commercial purposes does not constitute fair use is utterly absurd.

Idiots!!!

 

[Irish31]

seems odd. seems a lot of .ca owners never respond to emails. Dumbasses...

QFT. Kind of sad really, seems this could have been prevented if he could have brought himself to hit the Reply button.

My experience is that for any sort of TLD. Ca owners are the worst for unresponsiveness, by a yard.



Jay