Tag Archives: legal

Tue 4th August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arrest for Domain Theft Gets Major Media Attention - Arrest grabs headlines and shines light on daily plague to domain industry. First ever domain thief mugshot. As far as theft is concerned, it doesn’t get much more intriguing than this. It involves the internet, intellectual property, the first arrest of its kind, and a celebrity. It’s a perfect storm and is shining light on one of the plagues of the domain name industry: domain theft. Domain Name News broke the story yesterday about an arrest in the theft of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ancestry.com Warns about Country Code Domains in SEC Filing - Company cites global domain name protection as risk in S-1. Ancestry.com has filed to go public. It’s another example of a great business built on a generic, category-killer domain name. But in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company cites challenges acquiring country code domain names as a risk: If we are unable to protect our domain names, our reputation and brand could be affected adversely. We have registered domain names for ... read more ...
Mon 3rd August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Greg Ricks Responds To C & D Letter By Filing Suit - The Las Vegas Sun, is reporting that Greg Ricks,  known to most in the domain community, filed a suit last week in U.S. District Court for Nevada against a company who sent him a C D letter on the domain DateCheck.com DCAEV Inc., has a trademark on the term “Date Check” and owns “date-check.com“. Date-check.com,  promotes incall and outcall escorts services around the country. Ricks registered the domain,  DateCheck.com in 1999. Ricks, DateCheck.com, is going to a landing page, but is ... read more ...
Sun 2nd August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge: There Can Only Be One “Hot Russian Brides” - Matchmaking company wins rights to domain name. Retired New York State Supreme Court justice Ralph Yachnin has ruled that only one company has rights to the term “Hot Russian Brides” in web addresses. Acting as an arbitrator for National Arbitration Forum, Yachnin found in favor of internet company Romantic Tours, Inc, which operates HotRussianBrides.com. The company was awarded the domain name “HotRusianBride.com”. Notice the typo of Russian and the singular ... read more ...
Thu 30th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sears and Diners Club Lose Domain Disputes - Two big companies fail to impress domain arbitrators. To big companies — merchandiser Sears and credit provider Diners Club International — found themselves on the losing end of domain disputes yesterday. Sears lost a challenge for the domain names my-gofer.biz/info/net/org and mygofer.info. Sears has been using the trademark in commerce for a delivery service. But the domain owner, Dann J. Flesher, has been using the my-gofer.org domain name for an actual business ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wikipedia Says Domainers are Cybersquatters - Domain Name Wire has been mentioned in the discussion at Wikipedia on the proposed new Domaining page. Consequently, I am going to post here my comments to the Wikipedia staff. They have reduced my original submission to about 10 or 20% of the original content I provided them … which was a rather thorough resource page on domaining. My response to Wiki staff on this continuing issue … I would like to respond with a few comments. I do understand that the number of links I submitted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wal-Mart and Union Fight Over Domain Names - Two entities square off in Canada. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. is squaring off against a union — in cyberspace. According to a story on Dow Jones Newswire, the retailer filed an injunction against United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) to try to stop them from using the domain name walmartworkerscanada.ca. UFCW Canada national president Wayne Hanley said the injunction request is an assault on freedom of speech and its ability to communicate with Wal-Mart workers. Maybe ... read more ...
Wed 29th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You Make a Call: JosephSchlessinger.com - Yale professor wins domain name case. Was it the right decision? I came across an interesting WIPO domain dispute today for JosephSchlessinger.com. The case was brought by Joseph Schlessinger, a professor at Yale. The case initially caught my eye because, even before reading it, it was clearly brought by a person claiming common law rights to his name as a trademark, yet I had not heard of the person. It gets more interesting when you go to the web site, which ... read more ...
Tue 28th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Roy Messer Defends Rent A Car Domain Name - National Car Rental loses case over domain name. Roy Messer, perhaps most famous for selling Vodka.com for $3M, has successfully defended the domain name NationalRentaCar.com through UDRP. The majority of the panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to Vanguard Trademark Holdings’ trademark “National Car Rental”, but that the domain name was not registered in bad faith for several reasons. Among them, Messer provided a sworn declaration under ... read more ...
Mon 27th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hells Angels Cybersquatter Pays Up - Cybersquatter hands over domains — and up to $15,000 cash. In terms of domain name cybersquatting and trademark settlements, it’s hardly the biggest judgment. The difference is that this one involves someone who will actually have to pay up and it will certainly hurt his pocketbook. Earlier this year Domain Name Wire wrote about a lawsuit filed by Hells Angels against Terry Myers. Myers registered a bunch of domain names that included Hells Angels Motorcycle ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AAA Auto Club Loses Dispute Over AAA.net - No, AAA doesn’t own exclusive rights to ‘AAA’. [Editor’s note: If you don’t have time to read this entire article, skip to the quote from Houston Putnam Lowry at the end. He believes the entire business model of registering generic domain names for later sale is prohibited under UDRP.] In a brazen attempt to get control of a three character domain name, automobile club AAA has lost an arbitration case for AAA.net. AAA argued that the domain name was confusingly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WSJ: What’s Chinese for .limitedgovernment? - Editorial says internet governance should stay as it is. I’ve long argued that the current ICANN set-up — with some oversight from the United States government — is ideal. I have some grievances about how ICANN is unaccountable to anything except itself, but believe there shouldn’t be a “United Nations” governing it. Of course, many people and governments outside the United States think they should have a hand in how the internet’s naming system is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LACOSTE Bullies Domain Name Owner, Loses - Designer threatens person with last name LaCoste. Famous designer Lacoste Alligator S.A. has threatened a Massachusetts woman over her company name and domain name, which happens to be the woman’s last name: LaCoste. In October 2008 the designer sent a cease and desist letter to Audrey LaCoste, demanding that she cease using the domain names LaCosteHealingJewelry.com and LaCostJewelry.com for her business. Perhaps scared of the lawyer’s harsh language and threats ... read more ...
Fri 24th July 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Hotels.com Loses Appeal To TradeMark Hotels.com - Hotels.com lost its bid to register a trademark on “hotels.com” when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled the mark was a “too generic term” to be trademarked. The decision handed down yesterday, upholds the ruling by the Trademark Appeal Board, of March 2008, which denied Hotels.com’s application for a trademark,  also calling it too generic. The appeallate court in upholding the denial of the trademark, stated in part: There are a “large number of similar usages of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EducationDynamics Snags a Generic Domain Through Arbitration - After losing challenges for three generic domains, school referral service wins a biggie. EducationDynamics, LLC has made several attempts to get generic domain names through UDRP domain arbitration. It has lost cases for earn-your-degree.com, graduateschool.com, and graduateschools.com. But on Wednesday the company scored a victory, winning the generic domain name eLearner.com through arbitration at National Arbitration Forum. EducationDynamics does have a trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademarking Generic Domain Names Just Got Harder - Court rules Hotels.com can’t be trademarked. A federal appeals court has ruled against Hotels.com in its bid to trademark its name. The court ruled that “Hotels” is generic and descriptive of its business. Here’s what it means for domain name owners: 1. Generic domain names are harder to trademark and thus harder to protect. For example, Candy.com would likely not be able to get a trademark. However, the use of a generic term not related to the principle ... read more ...
Thu 23rd July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Arbitration is Like The Energizer Bunny: Keep Filing and Filing and… - There’s no limit to the number of times a complainant can file a UDRP. I’ve written a few times about domain arbitration cases in which the complainant re-files a case for the same domain name. It seems kind of like an appeal process for the complainant (an opportunity not afforded to respondents). After seeing varying panel responses to refiled cases, I was confused about what the rules are for filing a case for the same domain twice. Perhaps that’s because ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Games Lawyers Play, UDRP Edition - Complainant tries to pull a fast one on arbitration panel. Today I was reading through the domain arbitration decision for ComPart.com, a domain owned by Vertical Axis. The complainant, a German company called Compart, said that the parked page at Compart.com was showing ads related to its software business. The complainant specifically said the parked page showed ads of direct competitors, such as software4students.co.uk and 31touchdownloads.com. That would be ... read more ...
Wed 22nd July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum Panelist Sued for Judicial Misconduct - Arbitrator sued in Houston for allegedly presuming guilt. One of National Arbitration Forum’s (NAF) most prolific arbitrators, The Honorable Carolyn Marks Johnson, has been sued in Houston for alleged judicial misconduct. Judge Johnson has been an active domain dispute arbitrator with NAF. A 2001 analysis of UDRP cases (pdf) showed that, not only was she handed a disproportionate number of complaints by NAF, but she also found in favor of the complainant 97.2% ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Brady Quinn’s Domain Name Intercepted - Cleveland Browns quarterback loses arbitration for BradyQuinn.com. Brady Quinn’s domain name has been intercepted. The Cleveland Browns quarterback filed for arbitration at National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name BradyQuinn.com from a Florida man. He lost the case, failing to persuade an arbitrator that the domain name was registered in bad faith. The case hinged on when exactly Quinn got common law rights to the name “Brady Quinn”. The respondent ... read more ...
Mon 20th July 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UDRP Panel Is Barred From Deciding Credit Disputes Forever, Why Is it Still Honest Enough to Decide Domain Disputes? - Last week the Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson,  filed a lawsuit against the National Arbitration Forum, the largest arbitration company in the country for consumer credit disputes, alleged that the agency deceived consumers into thinking it was a neutral arbitrator for debt collection matters, when in fact it was working FOR the creditors. Swanson said that credit card companies, banks, retail lenders, and cell phone companies increasingly place, in the fine print of their consumer agreements, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Think Tank Loses Hilarious Arbitration for .Com of Its Name - Conservative “think tank” gets mud on its face by not registering .com domain name. Many domain arbitration decisions are dry reads. But I found myself cracking up this morning reading the case of SutherlandInstitute.com. Southerland Institute is a Utah-based conservative group that purports to promote family, limited government, and religion. Its web site is SutherlandInstitute.ORG, and it failed to register the .com version of its name. Nick West registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Thought Convergence Answers Jay Westerdal’s Complaint - Company denies Westerdal’s counterclaims. Thought Convergence (TCI) has filed an answer to Jay Westerdal’s counterclaims in an ongoing lawsuit over TCI’s acquisition of Westerdal’s company Name Intelligence. The 12 page response (pdf) basically denies all complaints Westerdal made. So what’s next, now that both sides have lodged their allegations at each other? Most likely a settlement. “Neither side will want to air their dirty laundry with so may people ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum Settles Suit with Attorney General - National Arbitration Forum to cease credit card and consumer arbitration under agreement. Just one week after the Minnesota Attorney General filed suit against National Arbitration Forum, the two sides have settled. As part of the agreement, National Arbitration Forum will no longer perform arbitration for credit card and other consumer arbitration. National Arbitration Forum is one of the two largest arbitrators for domain name disputes under UDRP, but the case ... read more ...
Fri 17th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Nominet in Spat Over Nominet.name - UK registry operator sends demand letter, then files UDRP. UK registry operator Nominet, which oversees the .uk country code, has filed for arbitration to get the domain name Nominet.name. Nominet began communicating with the domain’s owner last year, and in April sent a demand letter requesting the domain be turned over. The demand letter can be viewed at NotNominet.name. The owner was defiant, writing on his web site: …This site and the domain name has NOTHING ... read more ...