On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 14:41:54 +1100, Nick Andrew wrote:

> It's already happening, and I didn't make the policy. Germany has
> decided that Shell Corporation has more right to the name www.shell.de
> than some guy whose surname is Shell, whose only claim to fame is that
> he registered the name first.

I'd prefer to say the domain name without the "www" bit.  For you interest,
I received the following private email from a friend in Germany.  She said:

"I guess you havent heard the latest about Herr Shell vs. Shell Oil fighting
over shell.de? went all the way to the highest court in Germany, the
corporations have won against the little guy. The corps dont need a udrp in
Germany, the courts are on their side all the way up. Herr Shell now has to
pay
Shell Oil what could be millions for just having bought a domain name with his
last name in it."

> Closer to home - as the article I was following up queried - soon domains
> will be able to be taken from their registrants if the registrant no
> longer qualifies for that domain according to the policy of the day.

As far as I know, the policies are careful not to be retrospective.  That
means there is no possibility of somebody finding the rules change during the
currency of a domain's life.  Changes of fees are excepted as these are admin
not policy related.  However, with competition, the fees are more likely to go
down than go up.

What can happen, however, is that where a person registers a domain name based
on a claim of some sort (e.g. that they have a valid business name) they may
lose their entitlement to that domain name if they lose their rights to that
registration.

In other words, if you own a business name "nicks.com.au" based on a business
name "Nick's Hardware", you will be asked whether your business name is still
current when you come to renew your domain name.  That is only common sense.

I'm sure if you ask Melbourne IT, they will confirm that is the existing
policy.

Best regards
Patrick Corliss

Note:
I'm on the Board of auDA (the .au country code) as well as TLDA (the Top Level
Domain Association).   Please note that anything I write is my own personal
opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of any body with which I am
associated.



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