Toyota.Me Sell for 90K: Why Shouldn’t a Registry Be Liable for Profiting From the Sale of Trademark Infringing Domains?

The .ME registry just sold toyota.me for the whopping price of $90,025.

Not only is it the highest price ever paid for a .me it is agoing to be a litigation nightmare for the new owner.

We all expect that Toyota.me will draw a federal lawsuit or a WIPO action in the near future.

If Toyota waits say a year and then files a federal lawsuit against the registrant, they will ask for damages including all money the registrant  made from use of the domain.

My question is then, why not sue the registry as well?

I mean the registry is putting $90K in their pocket from the sale of this domain.

The registrant will probably make less than $100 in a year from parking the domain.

So if the trademark holder wants to go after the “deep pockets” as we say in the legal game, that would seem to be the registry.

A couple of weeks a ago a court seemed to indicate that a registrar might be liable for allowing its client to register a large number of trademark infringing domains through an automated registration process.  The case Verizon California, Inc. v. Navigation Catalyst Systems, Inc., highlights some of the potential liablity that registrars might face in the future.

Full story here: http://www.thedomains.com/2008/08/10/toyotame-sell-for-90k-why-shouldnt-a-registry-be-liable-for-trademark-infringing-domains/