Re: [ga] WIPO Arbitrators Stern In Domain 'Hijacking' Rulings

["John Berryhill" <john@johnberryhill.com>]

From: "Eric Dierker" <eric@hi-tek.com>


> Dr. Berryhill,
>
> The U.S. legal system is not quite the ivory tower monolith you seem to
think.

I don't know much about ivory towers.  I'm a practicing IP attorney, not an
academic.

> It is more likely than not that those that can afford good Attorneys will
> prevail over those that cannot.  I have not seen a single case of a
registrant
> obtaining a contingency lawyer on a domain name matter.  If you think mom
and
> pop down at wheel- haul.com can beat out U-hauls lawyers by hiring an IP
lawyer
> on the fly you live in a fairy tale.

The fairy tale I live in is one where mom and pop regularly beat high-priced
lawyers in UDRP disputes.  Have a look at, for example,
http://www.motorcyclist.com/JohnBerryhill.htm , which describes how a lone
Hawaiian motorcycle mechanic beat a large publisher with a team of expensive
LA lawyers, by using a "reasonably priced" lawyer.

Or have a look at http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/95559.htm to see
how a small businessman in California beat one of the largest US publishers
and its team of lawyers from one of the largest law firms on the planet.

Take a look at
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2001/d2001-0233.html and read
how an individual in Switzerland beat the Rand Refinery, which quite
literally has more gold than anyone on earth to spend.

Take a look at http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/97076.htm where a
citizen beat the city government of Salinas.  Because that case involved a
public agency, we were able to find out that the City of Salinas government
spent $23,000 paying its lawyer in that case.  The Respondent, on the other
hand, had expenses of somewhere less than 1/10 that amount.

The prevailing respondents in the skipkendall.com dispute spent a grand total
of $400 on attorney's fees in preparing their response.

You have absolutely no experience in this area, and no idea what you are
talking about.

> I could be wrong and would be happy to find out that I was.  Please list a
few
> IP firms or divisions of firms that would take these matters on based upon
a
> recovery of fees concept.  Shucks, list a lawyer.

To defend a respondent in a UDRP there is no "recovery of fees" because there
IS no monetary reward to a prevailing domain name registrant.  Of what do you
want the "contingency" to subsist?

I don't know a single attorney who regularly defends these things that has
not provided many, many hours of free advice and assistance to respondents in
UDRP disputes, or to domain registrants who have received cease and desist
letters.  Again, I have to ask, what is your experience?  How many lawyers
did you contact with your domain name dispute, and what were you told?

Or do you mean that someone who intends to sell a generic domain name for
thousands of dollars is somehow entitled to volunteer help in protecting it
before she can make that sale?  Uh, yah, I'm sympathetic but I'm not a chump.


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