Will Newly Passed Legislation Impact Domain Owners?

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI don’t have a legal background, but I was just sent a link to some legislation that was just passed by US Senate.   The Act, known as the “Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008” creates a Cabinet-level position called the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.
Recently, some companies have gone after trademark domain names by citing violations of copyright acts in lieu of the Lanham Act, which specifically covers domain names.   This Act will allow the US Justice Department to file lawsuits against people who violate copyrights on behalf of the copyright holders.   Could this could be dangerous for domain owners whose names could potentially be considered copyright violations?

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. It all depends on how they apply the law. I read a while back that there have been only a couple of suits filed under the CAN-SPAM Act. Now, we all know there are hundreds, if not tens of thousands of violators of the CAN-SPAM act (check you spam folder). If the new act will be used to go after the most egregious abusers, that’s fine. If, however, the department goes on the attack, it could be problematic.

  2. Since we now live in a fascist country; one cannot depend on law or justice, property can be taken at will, for any reason or no reason at all.
    If thought through, one can see no reasonable hope for retaining any property at all, (unless one is part of the regime, that is!)
    so fasc

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