I want to start out by thanking everyone for their well-wishes and birthday greetings. They have inspired me to work hard to make this blog as interesting as possible.
Francois asked my opinion on which is better – a “parking” page or a “sale” page from a legal standpoint? The short answer is – it depends on how you monetize your domains. The longer answer is a little more complicated.
Although there have been a number of UDRP panels who have equated parking a domain with either doing nothing with it or acting in “Bad Faith” by being confusingly similar to a trademark due to the way that the PPC Company has put advertising on the page, there seems to be an equal trend that holds that just parking a domain is NOT an act of bad faith, but rather shows that there is no intent to trade on the Complainant’s trademark. this is especially true if the Domainer instructs the PPC Company not to include the Complainant or its competitors on the page.
On the other hand, there have also been UDRP panels and ACPA Federal Judges who have held that simply slapping up a “FOR SALE” page is evidence of Bad Faith because it shows that the domain was acquired SOLELY to sell it to the Trademark holder and that there was no legitimate business purpose in acquiring the domain. Yet, the practice of “flipping” domains is a popular one and has succeeded in providing substantial income to the “Flippers”. The problem there is that the decisions holding that “flipping” domains does not evidence bad faith, are few and far between.
So, the bottom line is, do you make more money selling domains or parking them? It’s more of an economic question than a legal one, but the legal consequences need to be considered.
Thank you for “listening”
Howard
The Neu Facebook
