I own domain keyword1-keyword2.com . I've been watching the domain keyword1keyword2.com for a while, but missed its expiry

I notice now that its been tasted by a few companies and is now displaying the generic ad page and is registered to a keyword company. (until Jan 08 so I guess they liked the taste of it as its been kept more than 5 days)

Do I have any claim whatsoever for the domain keyword1keyword2.com ? I don't have any trademarks as its a free information service (it runs at a loss - I just keep the site up as a community service as the forum is very popular) but I do have an ebook for sale that contains more in depth info than the site.

I've noticed a few listings on google that incorrectly point to keyword1keyword2.com yet they are describing my site. (the previous content of the site was not related at all to my site.)

Do I have any claim whatsoever for the domain keyword1keyword2.com?

No.

The only claim you have is for the domain name that's registered to you and paid
for. And even if you're able to demonstrate trademark rights to the term, it doesn't
give you any absolute claims towards any domain name bearing it.

If you want something that's owned by someone else, you try to buy it. Period.

like experts-exchange.com and expertsexchange.com story and many many others

If you are not aware of it, your keyword1-keyword2.com may have actually justified their hanging on to keyword1keyword2.com.

Fair enough - I tried to buy it from one of the tasters, but they obviously wanted more $$ than I offered. Can't have been that good traffic if they sold it to another taster.......

I'll wait for Jan 2008 and see what happens !

Those backlinks might be why they're holding onto it. You might trying to contact those backlinks and get the links corrected.

Actually, that isn't entirely true.

If you have an established service set up on your domain, and the owner of the similar domain offers a similar service you can claim the other party is attempting to "pass off" - which is illegal, and a served injunction would give you rights over that domain name or at least the other party withdrawing services.