Tag Archives: lawsuit

Sat 24th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is this Trademark Lawsuit Unethical or Something Worse? - Trying to get a domain name that existed before your trademark. I’m a big supporter of intellectual property rights. Unfortunately I’m stuck writing more often about lawyers and companies that overstep their bounds. The latest case: Smart Tax Holdings, LLC. The company filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) against Marchex for the domain name SmartTax.com. The plaintiff started using the name “Smart Tax” in 2006 and filed a trademark on it. The trademark was granted ... read more ...
Tue 26th July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Caught Off Guard After Being Named in Apparel Counterfeiting Lawsuit - Domainer with parked domain name ensnared in lawsuit. Imagine you’re a domain investor, just going along and buying domain names and parking them like everyone else. You know you may get hit with a cease desist every once in a while from an aggressive trademark lawyer. But that’s about it. But then one day you find yourself named in a massive apparel counterfeiting ring. That’s what happened to VL Raymer. Raymer owns the domain name Primp.com and has owned ... read more ...
Thu 26th May 2011
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Apple Sues Owner of WhiteiPhone4Now.com, Then Dismisses Case - Seller of white iPhones sued. Apple has sued the owner of WhiteiPhone4Now.com (as well as the domain name itself), but then filed to dismiss the case on the same day (pdf). However, the dismissal is “without prejudice”, meaning it can be refiled. It’s possible Apple was already in settlement talks with the owner or is refiling the case elsewhere. Apple alleges the owner used the site to sell conversion kits to make the traditionally black iPhone white. The ... read more ...
Mon 25th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Janna Bullock Plays Whack-a-Mole with Domain Names - NYC socialite struggles to control domain names. New York real estate developer and socialite Janna Bullock has filed another cybersquatting lawsuit to recover domain names she says are similar to her name. Bullock filed the case against BullockJanna.com and Bullock-Janna.com in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia. Her official web site is JannaBullock.com. According to the complaint (pdf), Bullock brought a similar action against several domain names ... read more ...
Mon 11th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Files Cybersquatting Lawsuit Over Bing Domain Names - Microsoft goes after Bing cybersquatters. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against a California man and several John Does over their registration of domain names containing the “Bing” mark. The suit lists 21 allegedly infringing domain names ranging from aolbing.com to BingPornTube.com to Bing-Search.com. Microsoft says that over 1,500 domain names containing “bing” were registered each month in the two months following the announcement of its search ... read more ...
Mon 20th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Proxy Battle Launched to Replace Live Current Media Board - Battle begins to replace board at Live Current Media. The former CEO of what is now Live Current Media has launched a proxy battle to regain control of the company’s Board of Directors. David Jeffs was CEO of the company from 2002 to 2007 when he hired Geoffrey Hampson to replace him. According to the proxy solicitation: In March 2010, Mr. Jeffs received from a shareholder of the Company a news release issued by Corelink Data Centers LLC, a Delaware company that ... read more ...
Wed 15th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Sues Telepathy to Get PLA.com Domain Name - Company got trademark for “PLA”, sues to get domain name. If you have a short list of “nice guys” in the domain name industry, Nat Cohen of Telepathy certainly shows up near the top. A company called Project Leadership Associates Inc. is now trying to sue Telepathy to get the domain name PLA.com. Those are the company’s initials, and it says it has a registered trademark. PLA tried to negotiate with Cohen to buy the domain, and according to PLA’s court ... read more ...
Tue 31st August 2010
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NBC Tries to Wriggle Out Of $1 Million Women.com Sale - NBC wants lawsuit over domain name dismissed. NBC Universal has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit filed by DONE! Ventures over DONE!’s failed purchase of Women.com. DONE! claims it had an agreement to buy women.com and women.net from NBC, and that NBC later backed out of the deal that was brokered by Sedo. NBC’s first line of defense is that it hadn’t reached an agreement with DONE! because communications only referred to Women.com, not .net — so ... read more ...
Tue 10th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AntiCybersquatting Lawsuit Filed Against ChicagoRestaurant.com - Shunned by UDRP, former domain owner takes his case to court. After losing a UDRP case for the domain name ChicagoRestaurant.com, Chicago Restaurant Entertainment Guide, Inc., has filed an in rem lawsuit against the domain name alleging cybersquatting. Before you yell “that’s a generic!”, you should know that this domain name was allegedly stolen. The plaintiff had registered the domain and kept the whois email in the name of a technology service provider. ... read more ...
Fri 6th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Responds in Domain Case, Says Assignee is Lying - Zuccarini responds to contempt charges, alleges contempt himself. The ongoing battle of John Zuccarini and the assignee in Office Depot’s cybersquatting case is getting even more interesting. To bring you up to speed: -Zuccarini was found to have cybersquatted on Office Depot -DS Holdings “bought” the judgment Office Depot won, so now it is owed the money (the IRS also has a tax lien) -Zuccarini’s other domain names were to be used to satisfy the judgment ... read more ...
Fri 21st May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Internet Brands Inc. Sued Over Acquisition Earnout - Plaintiffs allege company withheld payments from 2008 acquisition. Internet Brands, Inc., which owns Autos.com and Loan.com, has been sued (pdf) by two people who sold the web site ModelMayhem.com to it in 2008. Although Internet Brands has not yet responded to the suit, it’s a reminder of the challenges of selling domain names or web sites with “earnout” or residual terms on future revenue or traffic. Donald and Tyler Waitt sold their popular Model Mayhem ... read more ...
Tue 16th February 2010
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‘Halvarez’ Caused $2M Loss to SnapNames Customers - Size of bidding scandal becomes clear. A document filed today (pdf) in a lawsuit against Oversee.net and SnapNames shows that the total loss to U.S. customers from the bidding scandal was about $1 million, including interest. The total damages for all customers can be extrapolated to be about $2.0 million. The document was a declaration of Lance Martinez, General Counsel of Domain Services for Oversee.net, filed in response to the court questioning if the case was ... read more ...
Tue 9th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Simple Math during Play in SnapNames Lawsuit - How much did customers overpay thanks to Halvarez? Last week I reported about how the judge in the California lawsuit against SnapNames questioned how much money was at issue. In order to qualify for class action status, at least $5 million must be at stake. In questioning the total number, the judge noted that the plaintiff in the case had lost a whopping $20. If ‘halvarez’ participated in 50,000 auctions at an average overpayment of $20, that would be only ... read more ...
Thu 14th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Goodwill Drops Lawsuit Over Goodwill.com Domain Name - Lawsuit dismissed, domain name no longer resolves. Goodwill has voluntarily dismissed its case against Cyber2Media over the domain name Goodwill.com. Goodwill Industries International, Inc., filed the case against Cyber2Media following the auction of the expired domain name on NameJet. Cyber2Media bought the domain name for $55,978 in the auction. It was then parked. In its suit, non-profit Goodwill claimed trademark infringement, unfair competition, violation ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net Asks Court to Dismiss SnapNames Lawsuit - Defendants file motion to dismiss lawsuit over bidding scandal. Oversee.net and SnapNames have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it in wake of the SnapNames insider bidding scandal. The lawsuit seeking class action status was filed by Stewart Resmer, who overpaid for a SnapNames auction by $20 in 2006 due to the insider bidding. In its motion to dismiss (pdf), Oversee.net and SnapNames argue: -Resmer doesn’t have any standing to name Oversee.net ... read more ...
Tue 12th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal Settlement May Be in a Works - TCI and Westerdal getting closer to resolution. A settlement between Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal over the former’s acquisition of DomainTools’ parent Name Intelligence is closer to reality, court records show. As a result, both parties have requested a postponement (pdf) of deadlines and the trial date. The parties held a mediation session with the Hon. George P. Schiavelli (Ret) on January 6, of which Schiavelli wrote (pdf): “…during the mediation, ... read more ...
Wed 6th January 2010
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Transamerica Dismisses Moniker from Lawsuit, Win for Domain Registrars - Oversee.net and related companies dropped from Transamerica lawsuit. Transamerica has dismissed Moniker, Oversee.net, Domain Systems, and Moniker Privacy Services LLC from its lawsuit over alleged trademark infringement. The parties filed a Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with prejudice on December 28, 2009. Moniker also withdrew its request for sanctions under Rule 11. This is a big win for domain name registrars. Since the beginning, Moniker claimed it was merely ... read more ...
Mon 23rd November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Second Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Oversee.net and SnapNames - Lawsuit claims violation of California law and fraud. Another lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed against Oversee.net over the SnapNames insider bidding scandal. Law firm KamberEdelson LLC filed the case on behalf of its lead plaintiff, Stewart Resmer, in U.S. District Court Central District of California on November 18. Resmer, like Oversee.net, is located in Los Angeles. Among other evidence, the lawsuit cites a now famous January 6, 2008 DNForum ... read more ...
Mon 9th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against SnapNames - Lawsuit filed over bidding scandal. The first class auction against SnapNames over the bidding scandal has been filed. The lawsuit was brought by the Cueto Law Group law firm, and filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court in Florida. The lead plaintiff is Carlos A. Cueto, while the law firm is led by Santiago A. Cueto. I’m checking on the connection between the two people. [Update: Carlos is Santiago’s brother.] According to a press release from the company: The ... read more ...
Thu 5th November 2009
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Go Daddy Scores Victory to Benefit Domain Registrars and Internet Companies - Court dismisses case with prejudice over jurisdiction. Go Daddy Group has scored a legal victory involving jurisdiction, which should be a sigh of relief for other domain name registrars, parking companies, and even the internet industry as a whole. uBid sued Go Daddy for allegedly including domain names that included uBid’s trademarks in both parked domains and for sale in Go Daddy domain auctions. The court didn’t rule on the validity of uBid’s claims, but ... read more ...
Wed 2nd September 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Transamerica Files Amended Lawsuit Against Moniker - Transamerica’s lawyers get a quick education in how the domain name ecosystem works. Life insurance company Transamerica has amended its lawsuit against Moniker, Oversee.net, and many John Does for trademark infringement. The original lawsuit claimed that Moniker used fictitious entities to register trademark-infringing domain names on its own behalf. It frequently used quotes to refer to Moniker’s “clientele” and “customers”, as Transamerica alleged ... read more ...
Tue 18th August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ad.com Sale Falls Through, Lawsuit Filed - Seller files suit after $1.4M deal falls through. Ad.com owner Marcos Guillen has filed a lawsuit against Directi and Skenzo for backing out of its auction purchase of Ad.com. The sale caught mainstream attention when Skenzo bought the domain at Moniker’s TRAFFIC auction in Silicon Valley this past April for $1.4M. But immediately after the sale, issues started popping up. The exact circumstances leading to the failed purchase are not clear, although they are apparently ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AOL Sues Advertise.com for Trademark Infringement - AOL stretches its trademarks beyond belief. Apparently AOL thinks it owns every domain name that is some variation of “Advertising”. The company just filed a lawsuit against Advertise.com. Advertise.com was formerly known as ABCsearch.com until it bought the domain name Advertise.com for an undisclosed price earlier his year. The lawsuit claims: …Advertise.com recently commenced use of the virtually identical and confusingly similar designation Advertise.com ... read more ...
Wed 29th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions Settles Class Action from Frontrunning Practice - Company to provide cash and coupons to class. Network Solutions has settled a class action lawsuit stemming from its controversial practice of reserving domain names queried on its web site. The settlement provides coupons or cash depending on what type of customer you are. If you searched for a domain name at Network Solutions while it used its reservation practice and subsequently registered it during the same session, you will receive a $6 coupon per domain toward ... read more ...
Thu 23rd April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WorldWide Media Sues to Retain SmoothMove.com - Company sues to keep domain after surprise UDRP decision. Michael Berken’s company, WorldWide Media, Inc., has sued Traditional Medicinals Inc., in order to retain the domain name SmoothMove.com. Earlier this month, a National Arbitration Forum panel found that Worldwide Media must transfer its ownership of SmoothMove.com to Traditional Medicinals. Traditional Medicinals offers a laxative tea called Smooth Move. WorldWide Media, represented by attorney Ari Goldberger, ... read more ...