This is an interesting but hilarious piece of news that happened recently, so I thought I would share it with you guys. A domain squatter lost the domain name CarlosSlimHelu.com to the real billionaire. Mr Carlos Slim also happens to be 2nd on the Forbes list of richest men in the world. This episode is classic; if you don’t know what a WIPO ruling is, read on.
A little explanation on domain squatting is required. You might have heard of some cases in the news of domain squatters getting into trouble by registering a trademarked domain, or the name of someone famous. Domain squatting is exactly that. WIPO stands for World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN body that judges on intellectual property rights. WIPO rulings are made when the panel makes judgments based on complaints received.
In this case, it is very obvious that the name CarlosSlimHelu.com referred to none other than the man himself. But what is hilarious is the squatter’s own arguments trying to justify that his domain registration wasn’t done in bad faith. The guy demanded $55,000,000 from Mr Slim to get the domain back, and when he didn’t get a response, redirected the name to a porn site to “get his attention.” It goes without saying what happened afterwards was a no brainer. Read all the details in the ruling here.
One of the reasons the domain industry is getting a bad reputation is due to such domain squatters. In the above case, it’s obviously written with “bad faith” all over it. Reading the story did give me a good laugh, though.
For me, a domain name is a piece of cyber-estate that gives me a presence on the Web, and I’ve written about domains at various times, like how to choose a good domain name, or why .com is best. You can either register a domain name or you can buy it from someone, but one thing’s for sure – there’s a right way, and a wrong way to go about it.