In a move that’s difficult not to view as ironic, recently retired Congressman Ron Paul filed an international complaint with the WIPO on Friday, demanding the organization (an agency of the United Nations) turn over both the RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org domains from the current owners. Those current owners being Paul’s own supporters who have run the websites since 2007. As an outspoken proponent of smaller government and individual freedom (not to mention the poster child of the success possible with grassroots activism by volunteers), this move by Ron Paul is bound to make even his biggest fans do a double-take.
According to statements made by the current owner of the disputed domains, Ron Paul made a recent comment during an Alex Jones Show interview expressing regret over not owning RonPaul.com. That led to a number of listeners urging the domain owner to work out a deal. Apparently, that’s where things began to fall apart. The current domain owner accuses Ron Paul of ignoring his “respectful” offer of purchasing the domain (and associated mailing list of users) for a sum of $250,000 and resorting to filing the WIPO complaint instead.
The official complaint filed by Ron Paul tells a slightly different story. First, it establishes Ron Paul as owner of the “RON PAUL” U.S. trademark, by virtue of its use with the sale of seven books he has authored (three of which made the New York Times best seller list). Paul’s complaint proceeds to argue the current domain name holders haven’t used the domains in connection with any bona fide offering of goods or services, yet made excessively priced demands on its resale. In contradiction with the details posted on RonPaul.com by its owner, Ron Paul’s complaint notes one of his representatives, Chris Younce, inquired about purchasing the domain. Younce received a reply from a George R. stating, “Yes, it’s currently for sale at $848,000. This is for the domain name only and does not include the website or other content.”
Only later was a second letter received offering the $250,000 price for the domain and mailing list, plus a “free gift” of the RonPaul.org domain thrown in. Ron Paul argues he had the domains appraised at an approximate value of $50,000 — far less than the “exorbitant” asking price.
To prevail in such a dispute, a trademark owner has to show three things:
- The trademark owner owns a trademark (registered or unregistered) that’s the same or confusingly similar to the registered second level domain name.
- The party that registered the domain name has no legitimate right or interest in the domain name.
- The domain name was registered and used in bad faith.
It’s abundantly clear that the current domain holder registered the RonPaul.com and .org domains with every intention of referring to the man who is now filing the complaint asking for them, so item one is a given. And although it may come across as mean-spirited, I’m afraid it’s also completely in the legal right to claim the current party has no legitimate right or interest to Ron Paul’s name and trademark. (Just claiming one is a fan or a political supporter doesn’t grant one any automatic legal rights to a person’s name or intellectual property.) Item three might prove the most challenging to prove though. Ron Paul’s complaint portrays the domain owner as disingenuously selling Ron Paul merchandise made by third-party vendors, directly in competition with official Ron Paul goods, while maintaining his use of the domain is only for non-commercial purposes. That’s a strong argument to support the “bad faith” requirement.
Of course, when politics comes into play, public opinion and appearances sometimes hold a greater importance than what’s in the legal wrong or right. This is where Ron Paul may lose by winning. If grassroots volunteers who invested many hours of their lives promoting his name and cause take this as an attack on their efforts, what price tag can be placed on the damage?
I remember this happened to Glenn Beck a while back. Someone made a web site with his name on it in the domain name. Instead of a fan site, it was a political satire criticism site that made fun of Beck. Despite his best efforts and lawyers, Beck did not win in that case, and made it worse for him publicly by trying to take down the web site and take control of it. They called it the Barbra Streisand effect, after the singer/actress made a fuss over photos of her, and it only made it worse.
The owners of ronpaul.com and ronpaul.org must make a ton of money selling RP stuff and advertising as well. That is why they must be asking these high prices for the domain names, because if they sell they will lose revenue. You have to take that into consideration.
This is common practice and domain squatters do it as well. If a domain name expires, a squatter buys it out and then offers to sell it back to the person who used to own it for thousands of dollars. Sometimes even more.
Fudge it, just create therealronpaul.com or something for Ron Paul, and tell his true fans to go there instead.