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Assume that there is a trademark made of two words (i.e. Somename TECHNOLOGIES). In the trademark's application as well as the approved registration, there is a comment:
THE MARK CONSISTS OF STANDARD CHARACTERS WITHOUT CLAIM TO ANY PARTICULAR FONT STYLE, SIZE OR COLOR
No claim is made to the exclusive right to use the following apart from the mark as shown:"TECHNOLOGIES"
Now, if a person owns domain name somename.com can the trademark holder put claims to it as cybersquatting?
As domain names are international and ran by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the trademark part does not always come into effect. Cyber squatting can still occur without a U.S. Trademark.
If a company is somename and you own somename.com they have the option to dispute that with ICANN. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/dndr-2012-02-25-en#udrp
ICANN is going to look at the way you use the domain name. They won't allow you to simply own the name to charge the real company a lot of money, run a scam, or use it only for bad things.
However, if you have a reasonable use for somename.com, like it is also the name of a club you belong to or something, ICANN would likely let you keep it.
As for the trademark part, the company would have to sue you for using their trademark if you infringed on it in court if they wanted to pursue the matter. That would be separate from the cyber squatting issue and if you lost you would most likely be ordered to compensate the company financially.
somename.com. It is just a blog. No ads, or commercials, or referrals. So basically it really generates no income. I have had it for about 3 years now and figured I might retire it. A quick search on the net resulted in somename.technologies (one of the new gTLDs, not the actual domain name) - I have offered them to take it off my hands and I did not name a price. But they immediately responded with cyber-squatting threats. I might as well just hold on to my blog - told them no offer exists anymore, and just wanted to know what are the options here.
May 7, 2019 at 16:19