Those good folks over at the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy have a really nifty idea to get back at those pesky spoofers – people who use your domain as the “from” address in their spam.

ISIPP is offering a new service with which they will help you to register your domain name for trademark protection. Once you have your domain trademarked, anybody who spoofs it is guilty of trademark infringement!

And if you have a hankering to really make them suffer, it’s much easier to sue someone for trademark infringement than it is to sue someone under CAN-SPAM, plus anybody can do it (CAN-SPAM limits legal action to the FTC, state attorney generals, and ISPs). And as a bonus, under trademark infringement you can sue anybody who benefits from the infringement! Can’t find the spammer? Sue the person whose junk is advertised in the spam! (And as a bonus bonus, they will usually be more than happy to lead you to the spammer.)

ISIPP figures that if enough people sue spoofers for trademark infringement, it will cause a “death by 1000 papercuts” scenario, causing vendors to stop advertising in spam, and spoofers to stop spoofing.

Even if you don’t want to sue the spoofers, trademarking your domain is a very good idea.