Domain Names in Politics

Yesterday, the National Arbitration Forum handed down a decision in a domain name dispute involving three domain names corresponding with former President Bill Clinton's name - williamclinton.com, williamjclinton.com, and  presidentbillclinton.com.  The UDRP arbitrator held that although President Clinton does have common law trademark rights in his name, his complaint failed to establish the bad faith elements required under the UDRP to support transfer of a domain name to a complainant.  The name is registered to a private individual - Joseph Culligan - who is personally interested in issues surrounding the registration of domain names corresponding with famous people, notably politicians.  Although he had registered the names of several prominent politicians, including some domain names that corresponded with the personal names of former President George W Bush and his wife Laura Bush, he has never sought to profit from transfer of the names to the "rightful owners".  The Clinton domain names were not used for commercial profit and were directed to the RNC website by Mr Culligan.  I have had a longstanding interest in the issue of rules relating to the registration and use of personal names in the domain space, with particular reference to politicians' personal names and have discussed this in some of my previous work.  So I have been following this Clinton decision with interest - and must give a shout out to Mr Culligan for keeping me appraised of the progress of the dispute.