We have reported previously on what I would refer to as the mess regarding the use of politician’s names in domain names. A bad actor can benefit by aprropriating a politician’s name, either by diverting traffic through initial interest confusion, or by simply foreclosing the targeted politician from obtaining desirable names. However a politician tends not to have the rights and remedies accorded to a trademark, and thus cannot use the UDRP and ACPA (with exceptions). Complicating the analysis is the First Amendment issue relating to the use of, for example, JANEDOE.COM to provide critical speech about JANE DOE. Alas, the public doesn’t benefit from the status quo (such as the behavior illustrated here).
What is to be done?
