Ron Paul files complaint to seize eponymous web domain from supporters

Former Texas congressman Ron Paul has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization in a bid to take over RonPaul.com, a website founded in 2008 by the former presidential campaign's supporters.

According to a blog post on the group's site, supporters had offered the congressman use of RonPaul.org — another domain owned by supporters — free of charge. They also proposed selling RonPaul.com and the group's mailing list to the foamier congressman for a quarter of a million dollars.

"Instead of responding to our offer, making a counter offer, or even accepting our free gift of RonPaul.org, Ron Paul went to the United Nations and is trying to use its legal process related to domain name disputes to actively deport us from our domain names without compensation," the owners write.

The World Intellectual Property Organization is a specialized agency within the United Nations that arbitrates disputes over internet domains. 

The website owners say they "put our lives on hold and invested 5 years of hard work into Ron Paul, RonPaul.com and Ron Paul 2012" and would "prefer to keep RonPaul.com."

In the letter uploaded to the group's website, lawyers for Paul argue that "the words 'Ron Paul' have become synonymous with Dr. Paul's political writings and discourse" and the domain names under challenge "are identical to the Ron Paul [trade]mark."

In an interview last month with radio host Alex Jones, Paul — who retired from Congress at the end of the previous term — expressed regret that he did not hold ownership of his eponymous domain name.

"I’m going to have a home page," Paul said. "Unfortunately, I didn’t have RonPaul.com, so I’m going to have to have RonPaulsHomepage.com. That will be coming up, but it’s not ready yet."

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