Domain Masters Radio Show

Litigation insurance is a must have in the domain industry

Monte: Right. Let me pop one more question at you. Ilikeinfo asks, the forms lead me to believe that UDRP tends to be biased against individuals, non-trademark holders. So my question is does the lawyer feel this way in general? Do they think its generally fair, etcetera?

Stephen: That’s a hard question. I have no proof of any sort that they’re biased. On the other hand, if somebody is coming in as a company that’s been relying on a trademark for many, many years, a lot of these people who are making the decisions are attorneys who have been working for corporations for many years. They’re going to say well it’s just not fair. It’s not fair for them to say it’s just not fair. I think if you actually looked at the weight of all the different WIFO decisions, probably they would tend toward going to the corporation. But I honestly think that all of those panelists are trying to do what’s right.

Monte: How do you feel about it though, as a lawyer?

Stephen: That’s really not a fair question because one, I have lots of clients who are large corporations and I have lots of clients who are single people. I’ve seen it go in both directions. I really can’t give you an absolute answer. My only answer to that is I don’t know.

Monte: Yeah, okay. Another question, if I register fordsucks.com to put up an anti-ford site, could ford sue me for damages?

Stephen: They could but they’re probably going to lose. The sucks sites are very well known. It’s settled law, at least within the United States.

Monte: For freedom of speech type . . .

Stephen: Right. It’s political speech. You’re putting up information about how you believe Ford sucks. Well, then you’re going to be fine so long as you tell the truth. Don’t ever put up a ford sucks site and then start telling lies about them. If you put something up make sure you actually have evidence or proof that what you’re putting up. One of the things I always tell people is why don’t you go file suit against them and then put a copy of the complaint up there because they can’t get you no matter what for what you say in a complaint that’s been filed in a court.

Monte: Alright. That’s good. At least we’re covering some of the questions on the chat. Let’s get back to a couple of the points. I think we were on . . .

Stephen: Well one of the things I always tell people along the way and it goes back to the might makes right thing, you know if you’re in this industry, consider getting litigation insurance.

Monte: Well what’s that entail? What does litigation insurance entail?

Stephen: You go to an insurance company and there is lots of them out there as we all know. Some of them offer litigation insurance and some don’t. Defensive litigation insurance is inexpensive. Usually for $100,000 you’re going to pay about $1500 a year. And if you get sued based upon the standard trademarks, if you get sued for trademark infringement, then they pay for it up to a $100,000.

Monte: Oh wow, that’s great.

Stephen: I don’t know why everyone in the domain industry doesn’t have it. It just doesn’t make any logical sense.

Monte: What are some of the insurance companies that provide that insurance?

Stephen: I can look some of them up on our next commercial.

Monte: Okay, great.

Stephen: It just makes logical sense. Obviously, you can dump a lot more money into litigation.

Monte: It’s about $1500 a year?

Stephen: Say that again.

Monte: You said it’s about $1500 a year?

Stephen: For $100,000 worth of litigation insurance.

Monte: Pertaining to any type of litigation or just trademark.

Stephen: Honestly, I’ve only looked up trademarks. But I know they do patents, I know they do copyrights, I know they do offensive litigation insurance also whereas you know you see someone infringing on your patent or trademark and they’ll pay for the litigation. I never asked the costs but I suspect that the costs are substantially higher because you have the ability of pointing at somebody saying you know I think we’re going to sue them. Then the insurance company would have to pay.

Monte: There’s a couple questions coming in. I think its $1500 a year and the type of insurance is called litigation insurance. That’s the exact name, correct?

Stephen: That’s what it is.

Monte: That’s what it is, litigation insurance and it’s $1500 a year.

Stephen: I think that, well that’s the, last time I got a quote that’s what it was. You know obviously a re-insurance company is going to charge what they charge. Obviously, if you’ve already got something going on, they won’t give you litigation insurance because it will be a pre-existing condition.

Monte: Right. And do they check, the insurance companies check, thing that may your record how many times you’ve been in court in litigation. Is there, do they do that in pre-screening for that?

Stephen: I’m sure they do. They ask a bunch of questions pertaining to that. It’s the usual or most obvious stuff that you expect. They’re just like any other insurance company in the world. They’re in it to make money. They’re going to make a bet as to what’s the chances that you’re going to get into litigation and based upon that they’re going to charge you accordingly. If you’ve been in 40 car accidents, I think you’re car insurance is going to be a lot higher.