I've heard of domain squatters having to give up domains obviously violate a trademark. I remember Apple won macbookpro.com in court a while back. The guy was squatting on 16 domain names! Anyway, did the courts side with Apple because they take special action against domain squatters like this guy? Or will they take action against any site? If so, why are there countless forums like iphoneforums, teamxbox, ps4forums, etc all still running?
Courts side with Apple as long as they demonstrate their claims based on what laws apply. Apple takes action against any site that violates or commercially exploits their trademark rights without their permission. Numerous factors are involved, such as strength of trademark, use of the domain name, and likelihood of confusion, among others.
1. They are violating trademarks and what they are doing is illegal (unless they have permission from the trademark holder) 2. That does not mean that the trademark holder knows about it or has decided not to take action (they may well take action tomorrow or they may never take action)
In IP law there is something called "Fair Use" that allows trademarks to be used in "fair" ways. If fair use didn't exist, it would be illegal to even use the trademark in conversation. And that's ridiculous*. So macbookpro.com has an obvious intent to use Apple's trademark, iphoneforum.com might not. Iphoneforum.com is probably a forum where people talk about iphones. Given the nature of forums, the owner of iphoneforum.com is probably not trying to represent himself as Apple. But "fair" does not have a real definition and usually comes down to who has the better lawyers. And Apple has great ones. *All IP law is ridiculous, but that's a different point.
Apple have a very clear policy: You can NOT use their registered trademark in a domain name. Fair use will not come into it. From: http://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html
That's all well and good, but it isn't up to Apple. Apple can sue if it wants, and it would probably win. But Apple's rules are not laws.
Heh, I've seen some people consider some (or even all) laws as ridiculous. Yet, some are there for a material reason. And yes, fair use does allow certain domain names bearing trademarks under (very) limited and specific circumstances. One of my favorite fair use cases is Toyota vs. Tabari. At the end of the day, though, it boils down to what the domain name's registrant/owner intends to do with it...and what its trademark holder is prepared to do, if ever.