Which is funny because trademark owners tend to not be "small businesses".

Okay I appreciate you're still willing to engage my snarky commentary, but I really really disagree that 12k is going to be a good barrier to enable people to "get the domain they really want". It enables people with money to do that.

It looks like someone looked at this and said "well 12 grand is affordable but not at scale so people will think twice" - no this is just impossible for some people and amplifying unequal distribution. People with this kind of money already have a "I can get 1000 of em" advantage at $12 a year. No need to give those people more of a head start.

This policy comes from a place of privilege and I despise it. Period.

What's next, ReCAPTCHA bypass if you have Google One? (Ha I say that like it's not already implicitly the case that RC trusts a well tracked Google user more.)