You Probably Shouldn’t Brag Regarding Registering a Trademark Domain Name

This isn’t a very smart thing to do.

If you’re going to register a domain name counting a famous trademark, you probably shouldn’t brag regarding it. Like this guy did [update: removed link. Guy took post down. He also has a fresh post up that states “I recently decided it was time to migrate my personal blog away from this business as my view points at times can be a bit controversial.”] following registering Starbucks.im.

I recently picked up a few good .im top level domain names counting starbucks.im. Though this particular domain extension represents the county code top level domain of the Isle of Man in Western Europe, this domain name is quickly getting picked up by firms wanting to offer instant message services as well as a great domain to describe who you are.

It’s pretty easy to prove bad faith when you register a domain if you tell the world.

.IM has its own ccTLD dispute policy outside of UDRP. So if Starbucks wants this domain it can probably just follow that process. Or heck, it can sue the guy in the U.S. where he’s based.

But my guess is a nice cease & desist letter and a cup of hot coffee would do the trick.

(Hat tip Nick Braak)