What does reverse domain name hijacking mean?

With the rapid development of the Internet, domain names have become an important symbol of enterprises and individuals in cyberspace, and their value is becoming increasingly prominent. At the same time, conflicts between domain names and traditional intellectual property rights such as trademarks are also increasing. Today, let's learn what reverse domain name hijacking means?

1. What does reverse domain name hijacking mean?

Reverse domain name hijacking refers to the situation where, in the context of a conflict between a domain name and a prior right such as a trademark, the trademark owner or other interested party who should have resolved the dispute through legal and reasonable means, attempts to use the domain name dispute resolution procedure to illegally deprive the domain name registrant of the domain name legally owned by the domain name by improper means.

Examples of common situations:

1. Exploiting loopholes in the rules

Some domain name dispute resolution policies stipulate that if a domain name is identical or confusingly similar to another person's prior trademark, and the domain name registrant has no legal rights to the domain name and there is a malicious registration, the trademark owner may apply to transfer the ownership of the domain name. Some trademark owners will deliberately distort their understanding of key elements such as "bad faith registration". Even if the domain name registrant registers the domain name based on his own creativity and business needs (for example, an entrepreneur registers the domain name with his unique entrepreneurial project name to conduct business, and the registration time is earlier than the trademark owner's involvement in the relevant field), the trademark owner still complains on the grounds that the part of the rules that is beneficial to him attempts to seize the domain name.

2. Subjective assumption of the value of the domain name

For example, a company sees that a domain name that has been registered by others and is in normal use is of great commercial value. Just because the domain name contains the same characters as its own trademark part, it determines that the domain name registrant is maliciously registered, complains to the relevant agency, and asks to transfer the domain name to itself, completely ignoring the fact that the domain name registrant has established a legitimate business under the domain name and has formed a certain brand influence.

2. How domain name holders protect themselves

In the "Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Method", domain name holders can defend against the complaints of trademark owners based on three reasons:

(i) "Before learning of the domain name dispute, the domain name holder has used or can prove that it is ready to use the domain name or a name related to the domain name to provide legal goods or services." This clause grants the domain name holder the right of prior use.

(ii) "Although the domain name holder does not have a trademark or service mark corresponding to the domain name, the domain name it holds is widely known." This clause provides special protection for well-known domain names similar to well-known trademarks.

(iii) "Reasonable use of the domain name or use of the domain name for non-commercial purposes." This clause recognizes the legitimacy of good faith registration and reasonable use.