Michel In Guides!

[rgdot]

A bit of  and 

A 28-year-old salesman named Adam Mascall from Luton received a very angry letter through the post from the people at Michelin Guides (i.e, the French restaurant bible universally revered in food circles) after he snapped up the "www.michelinguides.com" domain name for just £6 recently.

Michelin, who mistakenly allowed the domain to expire, then threatened to sue Mascall in a sternly-worded letter as he was infringing on their trademark.

Mascall, however, then wrote back to Michelin and told them that his website was actually "Michel in Guides.com" and began filling the holding page with hilariously photoshopped images of UEFA president Michel Platini in Girl Guides uniforms!

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/thetoepoke/id/1878?cc=5901

[Renegade]

Clever way to get around being accused of playing with their trademark. But he's still a squatter. Just a squatter that knows he's landed a nice sized fish.

[app103]

I wonder what they would have done if the Michelin tire company decided they wanted the domain name for something. 

[Carol Haynes]

Its about time the US did something about .com cybersquatting.

Can't happen any more on UK domain names, and if someone tries it Nominet, the governing body, reassigns the domain to the person/business that has the greater claim.

[barney]

Nominet, the governing body, reassigns the domain to the person/business that has the greater claim.

I'm curious about greater claim determination?  Who does it, how do they do it, what influences them?  How much government is involved, what businesses/trades/industries are involved?

I remember an effort in the US a decade or so ago to manage domain squatters ... it failed  , mostly due to self-interest on the part of those making the judgement  .

[Carol Haynes]

In the UK It works like this:

If you feel you have a greater claim to a domain name than a current holder you can submit a request for adjudication to Nominet (the national governing body for domain names). If the domain is not currently being used or clearly not displaying content relevant to the domain name or infringes on a business or trade name then they will transfer the domain to the claimant. If it is less clear there is an appeals procedure where an aribitrator helps make the correct decision.

At least that is MY understanding of how it works. Here is their full guide: http://www.nominet.org.uk/disputes/resolving-domain-disputes

I have used this process a couple of times where people have come to me to design them a new website and the previous webhost claims they own the domain name (usually to stop their customers leaving them). This usually involves them registering the domain incorrectly with their names rather than the client details - something frowned on anyway as it is a legal requirement in the UK that anyone (other than private individual websites) must be contactable via the WHOIS service so if the domain is registered to the designer or hosting company it is clear that it is being sat on to prevent someone transferring to another service.

In the US this is just blatant extortion - I have been doing some work for a local company and their .com domain had lapsed. When I went to see about registering again it is now described as a 'premium' name (it isn't it is very specific to one small 2 person firm and no use to anyone else) and they want hundreds of dollars to return it. As far as I can tell there is no way in the wild west US internet to get around this blatant ripoff scam.

The same happened to me a number of years ago - I used a domain registrar to look up the availability of carolhaynes.com - it was available (for about £15) but when I came back the next day to purchase it the price had shot up to £300. Needless to say I didn't buy it. Six months later I tried again (this time through a UK registrar) and secured it for the normal price!

[40hz]

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