Tag Archives: legal

Mon 22nd February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is this retreat domain name hijacking? - Cybersquatting case between vineyards should have never been filed. A single-member UDRP panel has denied a California company’s attempt to get the domain name WilsonVineyard.com. I think the panelist should have also considered reverse domain name hijacking. The complainant is Wilson Vineyards, a California vineyard that uses the domain name WilsonVineyards.com (plural). The respondent was Wilson Vineyard, a Pennslyvania vineyard that uses the domain name WilsonVineyard.com (singular). Based on ... read more ...
Thu 18th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BrandShield takes a opposite plan in a universe of many TLDs - How should brands manage infringement in a world of many top level domain names? Brandshield suggests taking a common sense approach. Brands face new challenges in a world of many new top level domain name options. Brand protection company BrandShield, spun-off from a registrar in 2013, recommends that companies focus on infringement that really matters. In 2000, Yoav Keren and two colleagues launched a registrar reseller based in Israel called Domain The Net. Keren was a senior advisor in the Israeli ... read more ...
Tue 16th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name financier gets RDNH win - China ready, but not ready for a UDRP. Domain name investor Warren Weitzman has successfully defended his domain name ChinaReady.com, and the panel found complainant China Ready and Accredited Pty Ltd to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the case. The complainant uses the lengthy domain name chinareadyandaccredited.com. It claimed first use of the “China Ready” mark dating to 2012. But Weitzman registered ChinaReady.com back in 2006. See the problem for the complainant? ... read more ...
Fri 12th February 2016
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Rightside Establishes Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise in China & Plans To Be Licensed in 2016 - Rightside (NAME) announced today its expanded operations in China by establishing a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE). Rightside says that there are almost 90,000 domains registered in the their portfolio of 39 new gTLD’s in the Chinese market, with .LIVE, .NEWS, and .PUB being the most popular. There are currently 5.4 million new TLDs registered in China, which represents 45% of all new TLD registrations. China is requiring all domain name registries to acquire a license for their domain ... read more ...
Thu 11th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Halle Berry wants her domain name - Actress files complaint against owner of HalleBerry.com. Actress Halle Berry has filed a cybersquatting complaint in order to obtain the domain name HalleBerry.com. The case was filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) with World Intellectual Property Organization. The domain name is owned by Alberta Hod Rods, a company that has registered many celebrities’ domain names. The company has already lost cases filed by Pamela Anderson, Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock and Cameron ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Carman's Fine Foods is a retreat domain name hijacker - Australian company nailed for abusing cybersquatting dispute policy proceedings. An Australian seller of cereals and granola has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking in a .au Dispute Resolution Policy dispute. Carman’s Fine Foods went after the owner of Carmans.com.au, whose name is Ross Wayne Carman. Mr. Carmen used the domain name for one of his businesses. The complainant made some silly arguments, including: The Respondent’s surname is distinct from his former business ... read more ...
Wed 10th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Music domain name applicant fails in village bid - A second applicant fails to get community status for .music top level domain name. DotMusic Limited, an applicant for the .music top level domain name, has failed to pass its Community Priority Evaluation. Had it passed, the group would have automatically been awarded .music. Now an auction will be held to determine who gets to operate the domain name. The applicant scored 10 out of 16 points (pdf) on its application. 14 are necessary to get community status. It scored 0 out of 4 on “community ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign files opening brief in interest opposite .XYZ - David v. Goliath battle continues in appeals court. Verisign has filed its opening brief (pdf) with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, in its dispute with new top level domain name company XYZ. In October 2015, a federal district judge dismissed Verisign’s lawsuit against the operator of the .xyz domain name. Verisign subsequently appealed. Verisign argues that the district judge misapplied the standards for summary judgment and misinterpreted statements of fact. At the heart of Verisign’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FundMe.com and GoFundMe.com in heading spat - Two similarly-named companies are on a collision course. Not to be confused with GoFundMe.The owner of FundMe.com has filed a lawsuit against personal fundraising site GoFundMe.com over the similarity of their names and trademarks, and a bit of nuance around types of crowfunding. FundMe.com has a trademark related to business funding. GoFundMe is a site for personal or charitable crowdfnding. Earlier this year, legal counsel for GoFundMe sent a cease desist letter to FundMe.com regarding FundMe.com ... read more ...
Tue 9th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts signs robbery understanding with MPAA - Agreement says Donuts will investigate piracy claims as a last resort. New top level domain name company Donuts has inked a deal with Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in which Donuts will investigate cases of large-scale piracy on the domain names it operates. The deal isn’t a rapid takedown sort of agreement. It only says that the MPAA will be a “Trusted Notifier” of movie piracy sites. If the MPAA gets no resolution from working with a domain name registrar and hosting company ... read more ...
Mon 8th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN taps Göran Marby as new CEO - ICANN names new Chief Executive Officer to replace outgoing head Fadi Chehadé. ICANN announced this morning that it has hired Göran Marby as its new CEO. Marby is currently the Director-General of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority. Prior to that, he co-founded security software company AppGate Network Security, where he served as CEO between 2002 and 2009. He is a Swedish citizen and currently lives in Stockholm. He will relocate to ICANN’s headquarters in Los Angeles. There will be a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN house resuscitates .Hospital tip turn domain name - Objection decision will be heard by new panel. ICANN’s board has approved a resolution that breathes new life into Donuts’ application to run the .hospital top level domain name. Back in 2013, an International Chamber of Commerce panel agreed with the Independent Objectors’ limited public interest objection to the .hospital top level domain name. It was a flawed decision that was inconsistent with similar objection decisions. Two members of the panel came up with their own rules for determining ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN cans Panama discussion over Zika fears - Mosquitos force relocation of June meeting. Late Friday, ICANN announced that it is moving this summer’s meeting scheduled for Panama City due to fears over the Zika virus. The non-profit posted a notice on its meetings page: ICANN56, scheduled to be held in Panama in June 2016, will be moved to another location due to the severity of the Zika Virus outbreak in the Latin America region. A search is currently underway to identify an alternate location where the Zika Virus is not a concern. We look ... read more ...
Thu 4th February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company sues Vox Media, final TheVerge.com domain name - Indiana company that started as a meetup group says popular media site infringes its trademarks. An Indiana company has sued (pdf) Vox Media, publisher of the popular websites The Verge and Re/Code, claiming that the company is infringing its trademark for the term “Verge”. Indy Founders, LLC started a meetup group for entrepreneurs in 2011 and filed a trademark application that same year. It wasn’t a big group; the specimen submitted with its trademark application was a screenshot of its Facebook ... read more ...
Wed 3rd February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Gay domain name applicant denied again - ICANN Board Governance Committee denies one .gay applicant’s request for reconsideration. dotgay LLC has lost again in its attempt to get community status for its .Gay top level domain name application. The company lost its first bid for community status, and then got a second crack at the Community Priority Evaluation process because of a procedural technicality. It lost that bid as well. It then filed a request for reconsideration. ICANN’s Board Governance Committee just denied the request. Unfortunately ... read more ...
Tue 2nd February 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name financier wins domain on NameJet, afterwards wins UDRP - DiamondTrust.com was hit with a UDRP just after selling on NameJet. A domain name investor has successfully defended the domain name DiamondTrust.com in a UDRP filed just after he won the domain name on NameJet. James Kim of South Korea won an auction for DiamondTrust.com for $1,319 at NameJet in October last year. Diamond Trust Consultancy (UK) Limited filed a UDRP against the domain name the following month. Kim said that he registered the domain name for its descriptive value and was unaware of ... read more ...
Fri 29th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another Reverse Domain Name Hijacking decision, though I'm not so sure - Was reverse domain name hijacking really justified in this case? I usually gripe about UDRP panels finding in favor of the respondent but not going the extra step of finding the complainant guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. This morning I read a decision from Czech Arbitration Court in which the panelist found the complainant guilty of reverse domain name hijacking, but I’m not sure it was warranted. Perhaps the panelist just didn’t do a good job of wording his decision. NanoTemper Technologies ... read more ...
Thu 28th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hopscotch.com saved in UDRP, though no RDNH - PR firm filed UDRP after failing to buy domain name. A three-member World Intellectual Property Organization panel hasdenied a UDRP for the domain name Hopscotch.com. It did not find the complainant to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking for the domain name, however. Joseph Lee bought the domain name for over $10,000 in 2010 with plans to create a game site. Complainant Hopscotch Group of Paris is a PR company. The complainant uses the domain name hopscotchgroupe.com and also owns domains ... read more ...
Tue 19th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Plans to Track gTLD Marketplace Health - How are top level domain names doing? We might soon have a way to track them. ICANN has formed a working group to create metrics designed to assess the overall health of the marketplace for gTLDs. Preliminary documents indicate that the scope may include all gTLDs rather than just the ones commonly referred to as “new gTLDs.” Could this be the first step toward a tool that allows ICANN to forecast future revenue? Or for ICANN to use in deciding when to open the next round of gTLD applications? ICANN ... read more ...
Fri 15th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vodex Communications nailed for retreat domain name hijacking - Serial entrepreneur defends 17-year-old domain name. California company filed a UDRP against a domain name registered many years before it existed.Serial entrepreneur Taro Gold has successfully defended his domain name Vodex.com in a UDRP. The panel found complainant Vodex Communications to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the suit. Business telecom company Vodex Communications uses the longer VodexCommunications.com domain name, which it registered in 2012. The company registered ... read more ...
Tue 12th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lighting association Interlight is a retreat domain name hijacker - Poorly formed case was dead on arrival. Indiana company International Lighting Corporation has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Interlight.com. The company uses the domain Interlight.biz, and wanted to upgrade to the .com. However, its case was extremely poorly formed and it was dead on arrival: The owner of Interlight.com has owned it since 1997, well before the complainant received registered rights in the name. It claimed use of the mark dating to 1993 but ... read more ...
Tue 5th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
I'll compensate $500k for your domain name. Psych! Here's a UDRP. - French company files UDRP after offering to buy a domain name for $500,000. Plug “buy followers” into Google and you’ll get 624,000 results. In a rush to look important online, companies spend lots of money buying low-quality social media followers. A French firm that uses the domain name BuyFollowers.fr to sell followers has failed in its attempt to steal the generic domain name BuyFollowers.com through a UDRP, and it appears it may have been a bit dirty in its tactics. By my reading of the ... read more ...
Mon 4th January 2016
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Stanley Pace sues for purported Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Pace sues after losing UDRP to dancewear company. Stanley Pace, a Texas resident who has faced his fair share of UDRP complaints, lost another one last month. A three member UDRP panel ordered the domain name Yumiko.com transferred to dancewear company Yumiko, LLC. He’s fighting back to halt the transfer and is asking for damages under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act for reverse domain name hijacking. Pace filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas on December ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another UDRP that should have never been filed - iCloak.com was registered many years before the complainant had rights to iCloak. A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has rejected a UDRP for the domain name iCloak.com. It’s another example of a case that was dead on arrival, and one that future UDRP rules should prevent from being filed. Simply put, the complainant tried to get a domain name that was registered well before it was in existence. The complainant operates an internet privacy service called iCloak, promoted at the website ... read more ...
Sun 3rd January 2016
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
We Are Sorry To Report That Domain Investor Anthony J. McDermott Passed Away - Unfortunately the new year has started out with some very bad news as we learned that Anthony McDermott, who was a domain investor and one of  the early leaders in the legal internet vertical passed away on December 23rd, 2015 Anthony was the founder and president of SWI Digital, Inc., “a Full Service Multimedia and Lead Generation Company primarily focused in the legal space. At the time I knew Anthony he was based on Ft. Lauderdale and had a large office with a lot of employees signing up lawyers ... read more ...