The “got milk” loophole

You can own GotMilk domains if…

I’ve written before about how “got milk” is a trademark and actively protected by the California Milk Processor Board.

Yet the owner of GotMilke.com just handed the group its first ever uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) loss.

How did he do it? Well, his last name was Milke.

Surely the California Milk Processor Board noticed this when it originally sent him a cease & desist letter?

Just because the registrant’s name was Milke didn’t make this an easy case for the respondent, but the milk marketing group would have had to make a different argument. Although I’m not privy to the actual complaint, the way the panelist response reads it sounds like the group just followed its boilerplate filing.

That shouldn’t be too surprising given that is has a dozen active UDRP cases.