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I was the panelist in an interesting UDRP dispute, debeers.feedback, which raises a couple of points worth being aware of.

If you’re not aware of it, .feedback is one of those new Top Level Domains that ICANN approved earlier this year. It is supposed to be a forum where people wishing to provide feedback (Duh!) can make their point. At the time of its approval, it was apparently rather controversial.

In this particular case, a number of what appeared to be otherwise genuine “feedback” posts only appeared on the website after Debeers sent a letter of demand, even though they were dated much earlier. The registrant did not seek to explain that.

The first point I wanted to draw your attention to is that, unbeknownst to the Complainant or me, the posts in question seem to have been cut and pasted from Yelp. If you have to deal with one of these domain names, a Google search will be in order.

Marty Schwimmer, the original trademark blog, suggests another argument: that “feedback” is semantically different to “.sucks” (and similar criticism outlets) and, Marty argues, implies an official outlet or connection.

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