Ow, my head

…that’s the sound you heard when I read about this little tidbit:

In June, Guadalupe Zambrano of Katy, Texas was ordered by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to transfer the domain name “thejaylenoshow.com” to Jay Leno after five years of using the site to redirect traffic to…you guessed it…his REAL ESTATE WEB SITE. Read the full decision.

Unfortunately for Mr. Zambrano it was found that “…[his] registration of the disputed domain name with knowledge of the Complainant’s rights in the JAY LENO mark is evidence of bad faith” and that he “used the disputed domain name in bad faith to attract Internet users to [his] website for commercial gain….”  All this despite the description (presumably taken from his arguments in the case) that “his expertise is in real estate, and he is successful because of his ability in marketing.”

Oh, come ON!

In 2007 NAR approved Standard of Practice 12-12, which specifies that members cannot use or register domain names that would present less than a “true picture.”  At the time I expressed the opinion that it was silly to create such an explicit rule for something that should easily be understood to be prohibited.  What did I know?