The practice of registering a domain name similar to that of another organisation and then using that domain to protest against its products or services is acceptable according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
According to ZDNET, these"freedom of speech" domain names are controversial, because it often involves the company's branding, and most likely their trademark, is often used when choosing the domain name.
In a traditional cybersquatting case where the company's name is used for financial gains, there is an 83.72 chance that the company making the case wins the decision, and the domain name is transferred over to them.
However, in these 'freedom of speech' cybersquatting cases, the panel's decision on the cases has swung both ways. The trend will increasingly be to allowed these sites to exist, according to a case decided last month.
In that case concering chelwest.com, operated by Frank Redmond, it expresses inflammatory opinions about a public hospital — Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Redmond was not happy with the hospital's treatment of his daughter.
The hospital whose domain is chelwest.nhs.uk, claimed that the site's name is too similar to its own site, and that "chelwest" is part of the hospital's branding and, therefore, its intellectual property.
In this particular case, the panel ruled in favour of Redmond. The reasons were that Redmond is not using the site for any commercial gain and it is immediately apparent to Internet users who visit the site that it is not the official site.
Redmond, according to
the panel, is simply criticising the hospital with opinions which he believes to
be true; and it is not obvious that "chelwest" is branding of the hospital.
This case was special because the panellist deciding the case had tried to draw up a set of criteria that could be used to judge whether a 'freedom of speech' domain name site should be permissible or not.
As much as I loathe cybersquatters, this certain type of 'freedom of speech' domain cybersquatters should be allowed as it allows people to make their opinions heard.
