Previously on ODTAA… I’ve mentioned a peculiar aspect of the dispute resolution policy at CIRA, administrators of the Canadian .ca top-level domain.
If someone acting in bad faith registers a domain name that matches a trademark you hold, you may be able to use the policy to force them to give it up. But if that same person registers your personal name, you’re SOL.
(Incidentally, if you want to register SOL.ca, you’re also SOL – it’s currently registered to the Mexican brewery FEMSA. But I digress.)
So why do trademark holders appear to have more rights than individuals when it comes to protecting their online identity? I asked University of Ottawa Prof. Michael Geist, CIRA board member and holder of the Canada Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. With his kind permission, I’m forwarding his reponse to you:
The rights for trademark holders come in part because there is some exclusivity granted in the trademarks and some concern for consumer confusion. The CIRA policy tries very hard to balance, however, with free speech rights. There is no exclusivity in names — lots of people have the same name and we (along with virtually all TLDs) did not believe it appropriate to favour one person over another in this regard.
