Nicholas, My colleague here is a lawyer, and that's exactly what he says. It's
an effectve contract at the time of the transaction and cannot be retrospectively
changed, unless it's an ongoing service for which new terms and conditions could
apply.
One of the biggest problems I see with Afilias simply dropping false TM
applications is that their contract does not stipulate that they can do this - even
for false applications. Their only out is through the normal course of the challenge
procedure. It could possibly then become a criminal matter (misrepresentation and
possibly trade mark fraud) but because no documents are involved, it's difficult
to prosecute and very hard to prove. Lastly, I don't think most of the authorities
would understand the significance of this, and therefore not give it much priority.
Personally
however, I can't believe how stupid some of those cybersquatters have been. I mean,
by blatantly declaring false TM numbers and dates, that's just an open invitation
for a challenge and saying goodbye to their foolishly spent money.