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- Dec 3, 2006
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I can not understand why you are wrangling over this when the arguments you are presenting are PRECISELY the points FOR LOSING a judgement and LOSING the domain name.Too me the most important question is why someone should lose a generic name if it has links infringing on someone ele's trademark. You can argue all day long about whether there is infringement or not, but if you can't see the bigger issue involved then there is nothing left to say.
Domains are assets. Why should a company be given an asset if the Parking page links infringe on their trademark. They should pursue their case in civil court and get a cash judgement. I know that it is hard to keep people from putting up infringing links, but why nobody sees the bigger picture is a mystery to me. Each time these cases come down the pike everybody argues the same things over and over, when it is obvious that the more important issue is the loss of an asset just because it infringes on the trademark.
Intangible assets vs. tangible assets - why cloud the issue? And if a domain name exists clearly to profit at the benefit of others, then that goes beyond infringement and fraud.
If someone who bought Goodwill.com, opened a store, put up a sign saying similar to the Goodwill Industries, and sold goods to the general public while posing as a charity...yeah, you can damn sure bet that they would be shut down, all goods seized, and most likely the property would be seized. All of those are assets.
IF someone was to set up a website using the name Goodwill and sold items on the site to people BELIEVING they were buying from Goodwill industries, I can also be willing to bet that more than just the domain name would be seized.
Again, it all boils down to intent.
You seem to be more on promoting domains as NON ASSETS.
As I mentioned earlier, most browsers know know the location of every viewer. The fear (if I owned this domain) would be if I did not have 100% total control on which ads appeared or did not appear...the fear would be an Adsense ad would pop up letting someone in San Jose know the location of the San Jose Goodwill store or in Lizard Lick Indiana know where the nearest good will is. Some may argue that this benefits Goodwill but that would be a hollow argument.
That is the bigger picture - how it is presented and perceived. Your "intentions" (or what you meant to do vs. what you actually did) is not going to carry much weight.