Red Hat fails to take WeMakeFedora.org
Red Hat recently filed a request to have the domain name WeMakeFedora.orgtransferred from its current owner, Daniel Pocock, alleging trademarkviolations, bad faith, and more. The judgmentthat came back will not have been to the company's liking:
The Panel finds that Respondent is operating a genuine,noncommercial website from a domain name that contains an appendage("we make") that, as noted in the Response, is clearly anidentifier of contributors to Complainant's website. In registeringthe domain name using an appendage that identifies Complainant'scontributors, Respondent is not attempting to impersonateComplainant nor misleadingly to divert Internet users. Rather,Respondent is using the FEDORA mark in the domain name to identifyComplainant for the purpose of operating a website that containssome criticism of Complainant. Such use is generally described as"fair use" of a trademark.
The judgment concludes with a statement that this action was an abuse ofthe process.