[TowerTalk] Sneaky! Sneaky!

[Jim Lux]

At 05:31 PM 6/14/2004 -0400, Alan AB2OS wrote:
>I wanted to check something about the AlfaSpid rotator, but entered 
>www.alfaspid.com instead of www.alfaspid.ca. Guess where I got redirected 
>to -- the ProSisTel rotators page at www.arraysolutions.com,  the 
>ProSisTels being a major competitor of the AlfaSpid.
>
>Alan AB2OS

IANAL, but.... Seems that this would violate the trademark rules on domain 
names. Presuming that alfaspid has some form of trademark protection (not 
necessarily registered) on their products, which it seems they would, since 
they have been sold in interstate commerce, and their name is not confusing 
with some "commodity" item.

As I recall the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (or something 
like that... it's been several months since I looked at it) says that 
registering a domain name that is identical or confusingly similar to the 
trademark or service mark of another is a big no-no.

Even worse than just registering the domain is to have it redirect to a 
competitor. I think that falls into the "use in bad faith" category, but 
you'd have to look it up.

Perhaps alfaspid.ca has already filed their complaint?  A quick whois shows 
tht the registrar for alfaspid.com is ENOM, INC.