Reglikedomain industry desk

Of a political domain name “opportunist” — Fascinating tale

Florida man’s political domain registrations have given him access to a number of politicians on the campaign trail.

NationalJournal has a fascinating story today regarding Michael Deutsch.

Deutsch has beaten a number of politicians to registering key domain names, and the story talks regarding how these domain names have helped Deutsch get access to the campaign trail.

As I read the story I thought I’d heard of this guy ahead of. As it turns out, Deutsch is the guy who registered OrganizingForAction.com and .org ahead of Organizing for Action, the non-profit successor to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, was able to register them.

Organizing for Action filed a UDRP, but lost on the grounds that it couldn’t possibly by now have trademark rights to the name on the day the group was unveiled.

While the story characterizes Deutsch’s political domains as being used merely to gain access, he also makes money buying and selling domain names.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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