My PokerHost Smoking Gun

I feel even more confident right now about my Poker Host domain dispute. Doing a website history search on archive.org shows me that PokerHost.com didn't even have content up until October 2004, where they announced they would be opening in December 2004. I registered the domain in June 2004, and had content up by September. That means I was using the term "Poker Host" in commerce before they were, arguably many months before (if their first use counts as December).

This makes me think that maybe I should respond to their effort to reverse hijack my domain name by responding in kind. I could conceivably file my own application for a trademark and file an anti-cybersquatting claim against them. The reason I wouldn't be able to succeed with a UDRP claim is the same reason they won't be able to.

A UDRP claim is an arbitration process. Under a UDRP claim, you have to prove bad faith registration AND bad faith use. Under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, you only have to prove one or the other. It's a very important distinction.

If I could succeed in getting a US trademark, then their continued use after the trademark is approved would probably constitute bad faith. The nice thing about Anti-Cybersquatting claims is that you can not only get the domain name but you can also get statutory damages up to $100k besides traditional trademark infringement remedies such as defendant's profits (I wonder how much they're raking in every week), damages sustained, and legal fees.

If there's any IP lawyers out there who want to take this case on a contingency fee, feel free to contact me. lol.