Ron Paul Fights to Claim RonPaul.com

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images

Former U.S. Representative Ron Paul speaks at George Washington University March 4, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Now that hes no longer giving speeches on Capitol Hill, Ron Pauls main platform for spreading his libertarian message is the Web. Hed like for his command center to be RonPaul.com. But right now, that domain name is owned by a cohort of his supporters, who since 2008 have used the address to post Paul-related news.

There is an existential logic behind Pauls desire to own his eponymous domain. Everybody knows that RonPaul.com should be Ron Paul, the former congressman said when TIME spoke with him recently about life after Congress. Its your identity. Yet the owners, including Tim Martin, who via email identifies the group as several expats living in Panama, arent ready to hand it over. That means recovering the address wont be as simple as Pauls reasoning.

Just ask Bill Clinton, whose attempt to recover williamclinton.com and presidentbillclinton.com failed in 2009. Those websites still redirect to the Republican Partys homepage. Or ask Michael Bloomberg, whose company failed to take over michaelbloombergsucks.com when the magnate was running for New York City mayor in 2001. Back then, the site pointed to sucks.com, a place where all people can get together and vent their grievances about Corporate America, American Politics and Politicians.

One option politicians can use to recover control of their namesake websites is to accuse the owner of cybersquatting, the practice of buying domain names with the intent of selling them back to the true owners at inflated prices. That practice was outlawed in 1999, when Clinton signed the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act into law. But going to court is costly, in terms of time and money.

Politicians can also look to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is what Clinton, Bloomberg and Paul all did. ICANN is a nonprofit organization that helps govern the wild digital frontiers of the Internet, and approved arbitrators use its policy to settle disputes. When a politician requests a domain name to be transferred to them or cancelled, they have to prove three things: that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark to which they have rights; that the current owner has no rights to the domain name; and that the current owner registered and is using the site in bad faith. ICANNs mediators cant dole out monetary awards like juries,but using their policy is typically a cheaper, quicker process.

Beyond Sarah Palin, most politicians dont attempt to register their names as trademarks, partly because most names arent unique. Take Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, whose eponymous website redirects to a store in Ireland called Everest Music. Its run by an Irishman named Paul Ryan. However, public figures like Ron Paul have an additional argument at their disposal, which is that even in the absence of an actual registered trademark, they have common law rights to their name. The words Ron Paul have become synonymous with Dr. Pauls political writings and discourse, Pauls lawyers argue in their complaint, filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization. The idea is that because Pauls name has been used to identify certain goods (like books on liberty), the trademark is there by default.

Both Clinton and Bloomberg passed this first test, successfully proving that they had trademark rights. Bloomberg failed to pass the second, that the current owner has no rights to the name; the National Arbitration Forum ruled that using the domain name to promote free speech, rather than to extort money for instance, was a fair use. Clintons attempt failed at the third test, proving bad faith. Among many arguments, the former President claimed that an Internet surfer might be duped into thinking hed defected to the Republican Party. The panel found that unconvincing: simply linking to the GOPs website didnt amount to malicious registration.

Mike Segar / REUTERS

Continued here:
Ron Paul Fights to Claim RonPaul.com