Hacker News Reader

Comment by counternotions | Hacker News Reader

How would a lawsuit against him work in a case like this?

UDNRP seems to apply quite readily to this situation.

> A complainant in a UDRP proceeding must establish three elements to succeed:

    The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark
        in which the complainant has rights;
    The registrant does not have any rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and
    The domain name has been registered and the domain name is being used in "bad faith".

Libera could probably get the domain transferred into their control. Especially if they set up their trademarks right as another comment mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Domain-Name_Dispute-Re...

Does the libera IRC net actually engage in any trade for which they might have trademarks?

Seems to fit class 38 quite well. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/trademark-class-38-t...

I think the real question is if they bothered to register it.

Yup and using a service like WIPO arbitration is actually cheap. 1-5 domains is $1500

There's likely not much illegal that they've done, and domain squatting isn't always illegal (and is very rarely fought over).

People fight over domains all the time.

This is classic trademark violation, right?

Freenode is using the Libera brand to advertise their services by registering a Libera branded domain — purposefully to re-route customers looking for Libera properties.

Since Freenode is in the same industry and provides the same services, and is using the Libera brand to direct to their services, it seems particularly egregious.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com