Tag Archives: intellectual property

Sun 27th July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tech Radar: “The new domain name complement is causing problems for brands” - Tech Radar published an article todayon new gtlds and the problems brands are already having with protecting their brand. The article references a study from Brad Newberg at Reed Smith, the sample study took a look at 20 brands in the bicycle industry and how fast some of their names were taken by those not affiliated with the company. Canyon.bike is referenced as to being regged, “seven seconds after it became publicly available”. The article goes on to tell brand owners to be more proactive ... read more ...
Thu 24th July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
You Want To illegally download calm in a UK ? You will get some letters though no penalty - The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) must be wondering what the heck is going on across the pond in the UK. After years of trying to find the right solution to dealing with piracy, they are going to send citizens letters that are the equivalent to telling your dog who just pooped on the carpet, Bad Dog ! If someone is a consistent downloader of pirated content, they will receive up to four letters telling them that what they are doing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
An Example of Why People Still CyberSquat - Why do people still cybersquat ? That was a question posed a couple of weeks back on Namepros, and while I am not advocating it any way, I am going to give an example of how it still pays off in 2014. PluralSight.in sold on Wednesday for $16,000. The domain was registered in July of 2013, by a gentleman in China who just listed himself as Jeff. No last name, just Jeff. Well just Jeff regged pluralsight.in which has several live trademarks, some before the name was registered and others registered ... read more ...
Wed 23rd July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Citybankonline.com Guilty Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - CITY BANK (not CitiBank) whose site is CityBankOnline.com and CityBankTexas.com, represented by Kristi Dent of Cox Smith Matthews Incorporated, Texas, USA was just found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). The domain in question was CityBank.com. The three member panel UDRP panel of Fernando Triana, Esq, James A. Carmodym, and Dennis A. Foster, Esq said on the issue of RDNH: “”In the present case, the disputed domain name was registered in 1995, with a business model based on pay-per-click ... read more ...
Tue 22nd July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Strong View Systems Accuses Salesforce.com of Trademark Infringement over Social Studio, Neither Own The .Com/Net/Org - There is a battle brewing between software companies Salesforce.com and Strong View Systems. The battle is over a recently launched product from Salesforce.com called, Social Studio. The product was launched in May and Strong View Systems has had a trademark on the name since 2010. The domain name SocialStudio.com has been registered at Network Solutions since 1999, the domain is just a Network Solutions landing page and is under privacy. Matthew Klein who has really come on to the drop catching ... read more ...
Tue 15th July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
USPTO Refuses Apple Trademark Application on Touch ID - Patently Apple posted a piece about the USPTO refusing the trademark application of Apple  for the term “Touch ID.” Apparently the application was denied over likelihood of confusion. The domain name TouchId.com is registered to a company in the Cayman Islands (Not Name Administration), it was registered 13 years ago. The domain is parked. From the article: Today, the US Patent Trademark Office published an official letter that was sent to Apple regarding their trademark application for “Touch ... read more ...
Mon 7th July 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Napster.FM Hit With a UDRP by Rhapsody - A name from the past is back in the news, this time the second coming of Napster located at Napster.Fm was hit with a UDRP by online subscription service Rhapsody International, Inc. Rhapsody owns Napster.com and purchased the company a few years back. Napster.FM has been registered since March of 2012 by Napster.fm LLC. The website does not look to be operable as the top menu is blurred out where you would look for links to Chat, Discovery, About, etc… ... read more ...
Sun 15th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WordPress has had it with fraudulent DMCA Takedown Requests - Ernesto wrote a piece on Torrent Freak about Automattic the company behind WordPress and their case seeking $10,000 related to a misuse of the DMCA takedown process. The case in question involved Oliver Hotham who wrote  an article about “Straight Pride UK” which included a comment he received from the organization’s press officer Nick Steiner. Steiner did not like the article and sent WordPress  a takedown notice claiming it was infringing on his copyrights. From the article: Automattic, ... read more ...
Mon 9th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Ad Impersonation Is The New Click Fraud - Lori Weiman wrote an interesting piece on Search Engine Land a few hours ago, the article focused on a different type of click fraud.  PPC Ad impersonation occurs when an impostor advertiser takes a well known website address, and uses it as the display URL of their own advertisement. From the article: When you first hear about PPC fraud rings, you tend to think of click fraud where an automated system, not a real person, is generating fake clicks on an advertiser’s ad. However, PPC impersonation ... read more ...
Sat 10th May 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sónar Purchases SonarFestival.com - We always cover stories when a trademark holder over reaches and tries to stake claim to a domain through UDRP instead of entering into a transaction with the registrant. In this post we are taking a look at a company that went out and purchased the name instead of going the UDRP route. Now whether or not a UDRP would have been a victory remains to be seen. Sonar is a music festival that was founded in 1994 in Barcelona by Advanced Music Sl. They put on festivals all around the world and operate ... read more ...
Thu 8th May 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Special Rights for IGOs and INGOs Could Lead To Registrant Rights Disappearing When it Comes to UDRP - A slight change of one word could open the door for domain registrant rights to evaporate over time. Currently ICANN is looking at a Preliminary Issue Report on Access by IGOs (Inter Governmental Organization )and INGOs  (Inter Non Governmental Organization) to the Curative Rights Protections of the UDRP and URS. You can read all the comments here. The Intellectual Property Constituency (“IPC”) of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (“GNSO”) would like to see the language changed when ... read more ...
Wed 7th May 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Russell Pangborn in as new CEO during Marksmen - Marksmen Names Russell Pangborn new CEO Brand protection firm Marksmen, Inc.  announced that founder Ken Taylor will become a consultant to the company as Russell Pangborn takes over at the helm. Pangborn previously had been at Microsoft where he was their Assistant General Counsel in charge of trademarks. The company put out a press release: Marksmen, Inc., a worldwide leader in brand protection services, today named Russell Pangborn chief executive officer effective immediately. He succeeds Ken ... read more ...
Tue 6th May 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Swatch Plans to Fight Apple on Trademark for “iWatch” - Mark Gurman of 9 to 5 Mac did a piece on Swiss watch maker Swatch stating that they will look to fight Apple on trademarking “iWatch”. Now Apple already has trademarked the term in Japan, Mexico and Turkey according to the article. From the article: The company is seeking to block Apple trademarks for the name “iWatch” because of its own line of watches called “ISwatch.” A representative for Swatch told Watson: We assess the likelihood of confusion as given, the marks are confusingly ... read more ...
Fri 18th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Will The NFL try to stamp out adore ? - The domain name GreenBayPackersLovers.com was registered last month, the domain is under privacy. The website is already up and running and actually got a bit of press on Yahoo Sports today. Anwar S. Richardson wrote, It is hard being single and searching for the perfect companion. Your so-called friends try to set you up on dates with people who are only attractive to those with their eyes closed. Speed dating is the easiest way to condense a year of letdowns into an hour-long session. Online ... read more ...
Tue 15th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Going To Court in India over Copyright/Trademark Infringement - Go Daddy is going to have to go to court in India regarding a claim by the National Stock Exchange and their online trading platform. It is hard to see how Go Daddy has liability in this case as they are not profiting from the sales of software, but I am not a lawyer and I am not well versed in Indian law. LiveMint reported: ... read more ...
Sat 12th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Off The Hook in Revenge Porn Case - So back in January of 2013 a class action suit was filed against the revenge porn website  Texxxan.com, GoDaddy who hosted the website, its uploaders and its subscribers. Eric Goldman who regularly contributes to Forbes on intellectual property law and Internet law, said at the time he felt the case was weak. Now to give some context Mr. Goldman has been a staunch proponent of 47 USC 230, section 230 of the the Communications Decency Act, he has been worried that with the recent cases involving ... read more ...
Tue 8th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Company Loses Battle to Get Critical Website Taken Down - There has been a lot of discussion about the coming .sucks new gtld and some of the potential pricing that could potentially come with it. Other extensions coming down the pipeline have gotten less publicity but certainly fall in a similar camp. .Fail,.Exposed,.Gripe and .WTF are all extensions that no company or person really wants to be associated with to the left of the dot. Brands IMO should not participate in regging their names in these extensions. The reason being is you cannot protect against ... read more ...
Sat 5th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
USPTO Views The Glass Half Empty When it Comes to Google - There is a lot of buzz around Google and their attempt to trademark the word glass. The Huffington Post and The Daily Mail wrote articles on Google having trouble getting their trademark approved which for the most part they were sourcing the Wall Street Journal article who seemed to be the first to talk about the trouble Google was having with their trademark for glass. Jacob Gersham wrote on the Wall Street Journal: At least one company is opposing Google’s bid. In December, Border Stylo, LLC, ... read more ...
Wed 26th March 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ZeptoLab Seeking to Cancel King.com EU Trademark on Candy - We have written before how King.com the makers of the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga were seeking to trademark Candy for video games and clothing. Last month King.com decided to pull their US application and are no longer seeking to trademark the word ‘Candy’ with the USPTO. “King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher. Each market that King operates in is different with regard ... read more ...
Sun 16th March 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DVD Ripping Software Company has domains seized though stays defiant - Torrent Freak reported  a few days back that a DVD ripping software company DVDFab had its domains and bank accounts seized. A New York federal court has granted the seizure of several domain names, bank funds and social media accounts belonging to DVD ripping software company DVDFab. Judge Broderick ruled in favor of AACS, the licensing outfit founder by Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft, Intel and others. AACS, the decryption licensing outfit founded by a group of movie studios and technology partners ... read more ...
Sat 8th March 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
‘Domains by Proxy’ Hands Over Personal Details of “Pirate” Site Owner - Torrent Freak reported that Domains By Proxy, the privacy service from Go Daddy, turned over the personal details of one of their customers. The majority of the 83 comments are taking a lot of shots at Go Daddy, as some think its bogus that Go Daddy uses the word potentially and does not have definitive proof by copyright holder. As one commenter pointed out, registrants need to understand that a privacy service is not going to accept potential legal risk for a registrant. You need to know what you ... read more ...
Tue 18th February 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Candy Crush Saga Maker King.com Filing for IPO - We have written a couple times about King.com and their intellectual property goals of trademarking the words candy and saga. Today the company announced they are looking to do an IPO. The company will look to trade under the symbol KING. CNET covered the story King Digital Entertainment, a digital-gaming provider perhaps best known for its Candy Crush Saga title, has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public. King’s statement with the SEC is exceedingly short ... read more ...
Fri 14th February 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Lush Cosmetics Wins Trademark Battle With Amazon - Lush Cosmetics has won its high-profile trademark battle with Amazon, with the High Court ruling against the retail giant’s use of the word ‘lush’ in its search marketing. Insider Media covered the story, The cosmetics business, which is headquartered in Poole, took legal action against Amazon.co.uk and Amazon EU after complaining that the retailer was infringing its trademark. Lush does not permit its cosmetics to be sold on Amazon. However, visitors who typed ‘lush’ into the search box ... read more ...
Tue 11th February 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Is @jamesdean Twitter hoop violating heading law ? - Its not just domain names where people seem to make a stretch with regards to trademarks. Wendy Davis wrote a piece a few hours ago on MediaPost about Twitter and James Dean. From the article: The licensing agency CMG Worldwide has sued Twitter for allowing a user to tweet under the name of deceased actor James Dean. CMG alleges that Twitter — as well as the account creator — are infringing trademark in the name James Dean. The licensing company, which manages accounts of Dean, Marilyn Monroe, ... read more ...
Mon 10th February 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
BidPal Inc. Decides to take their UDRP Loss to Court - There was an article published today by Gerald Levine on Ip Legal Corner, that highlights what is a disturbing trend for domain owners who have legitimate rights to their domain. It was generally considered that if you registered a domain, say in 1998, and a company came along in 2008 with a trademark, you could easily show there was no bad faith in the registration unless you could foresee the future. Of course you have to pay attenion to your domain names at all times, someone who registered a ... read more ...