The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won a decision under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for the domain name <mit.gay>. The case raises a few interesting issues, and it's one of only a very small number of disputes involving the dot-gay top-level domain (TLD).
I discuss the case — one of only eight dot-gay domain name disputes as of this writing — in a video on the GigaLaw YouTube channel.
There was no real issue in this case about the first element of the UDRP: whether the <mit.gay> domain name was identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which MIT has rights. The decision cites a trademark registration from 1989, and I found that MIT owns many other registrations, some of which are even older. Plus, the domain name is identical to that trademark, when you look at the second-level domain and ignore the dot-gay TLD, which is the usual practice.
The more interesting issues in the case relate to how the registrant of the domain name was using it. According to the decision, the <mit.gay> domain name redirected to MIT’s own mathematics website at <math.mit.edu>. On that issue, the panel wrote:
[T]here is no obvious explanation, nor has one been provided, for an entity to register a domain name that contains the MIT mark and use it to redirect visitors to the Complainant’s Website other than to create a false impression that the Respondent is affiliated with or authorized by Complainant. In the absence of rights or legitimate interests of its own this demonstrates registration in bad faith.
Accordingly, the panel issued a decision that the <mit.gay> domain name should be transferred to MIT.
As I discuss in the video, dot-gay is one of the new gTLDs that emerged from ICANN’s expansion of the domain name system in recent years. The TLD was delegated in 2019 and is now part of the GoDaddy Registry portfolio of top-level domains.
Although dot-gay is being marketed for “LGBTQ individuals, organizations, businesses and their allies,” it’s an open TLD, meaning that anyone can register a domain name within dot-gay, which also means that, like most top-level domains, it’s an easy target for cybersquatters, though MIT appears to be the first university that filed a UDRP complaint for a dot-gay domain name
For more details, watch the video below:
