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If
you keep up
with
domain industry news you are
already well aware that a little-known
company from Brazil that operates
from the ccTLD SaveMe.com.br is
attempting to use the UDRP process
to hijack the generic domain name, SaveMe.com,
from its rightful owner, veteran domain
investor/developer Rick
Schwartz.
The
perpetrators don't even hold a trademark
on the term "Save Me" in their
own country (let alone anywhere else), but
it is relatively cheap to buy a UDRP
"lottery ticket" and take
a stab at absconding with a valuable
domain without paying for it, especially
since there are no penalties for
reverse domain name hijacking, even if
you if you are caught and found guilty of
the offense by the arbitration panel.
Little wonder then that such shenanigans
have become all too commonplace in recent
years.
Like
many domain owners, the irate Mr. Schwartz
has had enough and he is not only |
Rick
Schwartz |
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fighting
to keep his property, he is making sure
the would be hijackers in this case are clearly
identified and he is sounding a
broader alarm to make domain owners in
the mainstream business world aware of the
burgeoning threat to their online assets
in a current system where crime (morally
speaking if not technically) too often does
pay. Today Schwartz and his
attorney, Howard Neu, issued a press release that was
published all over the web, including at
the Wall Street Journal's
popular Marketwatch.com
site. |
The
release noted one of the many absurdities
in the Brazilian company's claim - the fact that
Schwartz registered SaveMe.com 15 years
before the Brazilian company even existed.
If that isn't brazen enough for you, here is
another one - the Brazilian company has asked
WIPO for a three-member arbitration panel,
composed entirely of Brazilian nationals.
Again no surprise as someone who is
willing to try to steal something that is not
theirs is unlikely to see anything wrong with
stacking a deck either.
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Theft
photo from Bigstock |
Schwartz
noted, "This
is a perfect example of Reverse
Domain Hijacking. A party, with no
rights whatsoever, tries to bully
folks into giving up their domain name,
and the domain name owner in many cases
can't afford to defend his property.
That defense often costs many thousands
of dollars. We are determined to let
folks who may own valuable dot-com real
estate know what is to come, as a bad
decision here could have a huge
impact on online business. In fact,
it could make U.S. businesses much more
vulnerable, because we rely on dot-com
for our online presence and commerce, as
opposed to other extensions or country
codes."
If
hijackers are successful in purloining a
domain through the UDRP process, the
only avenue left open to the domain
owner is to sue them in federal court -
a move that normally pushes the victim's
defense costs from the thousands
of dollars into tens of thousands of
dollars. Even so, Schwartz, |
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who
is fortunate enough to have the
financial resources to do so, has
already indicated he will sue the
attackers if they somehow manage to get
a decision in their favor (unfortunately,
wildly unfair UDRP decisions do
happen). |
No date has
yet been set for this arbitration hearing but
when it happens people will be watching it very
closely because if someone can take a domain
in a clear cut case like this - something that
would make
a mockery of
the UDRP process -
then clearly no one's domain is safe
from would-be hijackers.
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