Taking A .BIZ Name From The Current Registrant

crabby · Oct 21, 2002

Opinions appreciated for this situation:

Current registrant in Asia (what a surprise) has a "For Sale" page resolving for a particular .biz name. For example only, let's call that domain name ex1.biz. My interpretation of the .biz rules stipulate "For Sale" pages are not an acceptable use of a .biz name.

I own the .info and .us versions of the name, and have no registered trademark on "ex1". However, I make commercial use of my .info and .us versions by forwarding them to relevant content on my .com site. My .com site has a totally different URL (the company name), while "ex1" is an acronym relevant to the products I sell through my .com. Follow?

My goal is to get ex1.biz taken from the current registrant, and awarded to me. (FYI, the current registrant responded to my email price inquiry with the price of $30,000.00 (US Dollars).

So my question is: Is there a procedure for me to challenge the registration and take the name? Neulevel's STOP Procedure? Some other challenge procedure? Remember, I have no registered or pending trademark application for the acronym "ex1", only the commercial use of forwarding ex1.info and ex1.us to my .com.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your opinions.

jberryhill · Oct 21, 2002

An RDRP complaint can be filed against non-conforming .biz registrations:
http://www.neulevel.biz/ardp/docs/rdrp.html

The deadlines for STOP have long come and gone.

The problem is, though, that the RDRP is something of a joke that was included in the .biz application to keep the IPC folks happy. The IPC folks are so dumb, though, that they didn't get the joke.

Figure.... why should the complainant be entitled to transfer of the domain name simply because the respondent was violating the .biz rules by trying to sell the domain name? Anyone can complain against someone selling a .biz name, and just because one person complains first does not entitle that person to the domain name.

Now, in cases where the complainant has a trademark, then the run-of-the-mill RDRP results would not differ significantly from the UDRP (which applies independently to the .biz gTLD). Of course, in that case the complainant would simply file a UDRP.

The RDRP is sort of like saying, "Hey, I know a guy who is violating the leasing terms on his car. I would like to obtain the car. Is there some way I can notify the leasing company about the violation and obtain the car?" While the leasing company might take back the car and terminate the lease, it does not follow that you get the car simply as a reward for notifying them of the violation.

However, the RDRP sets forth no guidelines for determining whether a name is to be transferred versus being cancelled. So, you might as well be the first to find out.