Last week I blogged about domain tasting and
contacted the CADNA directly in my official position as President and CEO of
the 'World Association of Domain Name Developers Inc.' about how
professional domainers and this new organization could be able to work
together. While there may be areas in which we disagree, when it comes to
'tasting' we have something in common. That email has so far gone unanswered. In the meantime I have had many discussions with folks and have seen some
posts here which warned that CADNA is not to be trusted. They believe their
TRUE agenda is to 'Reverse Hijack' valuable domain names that are
legitimately owned by painting everyone as a cybersquatter. Needless to say I was stunned to hear this.
I have also learned that the organization
itself would be a cybersquatter under its own definitions of
cybersquatting. Yup, you heard me right. There are folks saying they are guilty
of what they are accusing others of. Some very large companies may be
embarrassed to learn this. It seems that they chose a domain name that
already has a trademark!! Their domain is CADNA.ORG, but there is a
company that has a trademark on CADNA and operates from CADNA.COM!!
Does this cause confusion? It did with me. In my blog I mistakenly linked
the post on the 16th to CADNA.COM and it was only on Sunday the 19th that
somebody emailed me that I made a mistake and that it was a .ORG not a .COM at
the end of CADNA.
So will we see the anti-cybersquatting CADNA.ORG get
swept into court for violating the mark of CADNA.COM?? Did they not do any
research? How SLOPPY can this new association be and how IGNORANT can the
companies putting their names behind them be?
So either CADNA needs to change its domain
name or it is just as guilty as the people they are pointing fingers at and
calling cybersquatters. Then again, maybe this shows that nothing is black and
white. Maybe CADNA.ORG needs to look at these differences. Not everything
is a TM infringement. Not everything causes confusion in the marketplace. Not
every trademark is the same or there would be no need for so many different
trademark classifications. So we will wait and see if CADNA.COM files a WIPO or
UDRP against this new coalition that may be violating their trademark by folks
that say they are concerned about the abuse of Intellectual Property. So what
say you CADNA.ORG? Are you the newest cybersquatter in town?
And how is the sale of Pharmacy.com going?
It seems to be brokered by Fairwinds LLC which is one of the companies
backing CADNA. An asking price of $50 million big ones would set a new record
for the sale of an individual domain name. So who is CADNA.ORG? What is their
real mission and REAL motive? Is it possible they know that great domains have
value in the tens of millions and this is the foundation to legally take
our domains to which they have no rights? Like the railroads took peoples land
back in the 1800's?
CADNA.ORG seems as guilty as those that they
accuse of cybersquatting and CADNA.COM should file suit if they were to
follow what CADNA.ORG intends to make legal. So either CADNA.ORG
needs to take a deep breath before they RECKLESSLY call folks cybersquatters or
they have another agenda.
Stay tuned. Let's see how this plays out and see
if this organization will admit that they should not paint all domainers as
cybersquatters. If they do, then they themselves ARE cybersquatters by their
own definition and the charter members that include AIG, Dell, Eli Lilly,
Hilton, HSBC, Marriott, Richemont, Verizon, Wyndham, and Yahoo! may end up with
some egg on their collective faces. How uninformed can they be? Did ANYONE at
these supporting companies look into this? Did their board approve this move that may end up backfiring right in their faces? Did they do their due diligence or
have they swallowed something that will prove to be very embarrassing?
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