Tag Archives: legal

Thu 16th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hewlett-Packard Wants .HP Domain Name - Technology company requests exception to ICANN rule. Technology behemoth Hewlett-Packard — better known as HP (NYSE: HPQ) — wants ICANN to reconsider its rule that new top level domain names must be at least three characters. HP wants to apply for .hp, which is forbidden because two character top level domain names are currently reserved for country code domain names. In a letter to ICANN, the company said it may be at a competitive disadvantage to competitors ... read more ...
Wed 15th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Does Vint Cerf Think About New Top Level Domains? - Father of the Internet thinks there needs be a solid rationale for adding new TLDs. Domain investor George Kirikos recently found an article by Tim Berners-Lee, a key inventor of the World Wide Web, explaining his opposition to adding new top level domain names. It got me thinking, “what do other important people in the internet world think about new TLDs?” The answer for Vint Cerf was right under my nose on Domain Name Wire. Cerf is considered a “father ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Financial Firm Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Arbitrator finds Versa Capital Management guilty of misusing UDRP proceedings. Lately it seems that UDRP arbitration panels are ignoring the question of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), which broadly defines when I company misuses or abuses the UDRP proceedings process. Panels aren’t required to consider RDNH, and many have decided to skip the issue altogether. (There are no penalties for committing RDNH.) But I guess it takes a particularly egregious and ... read more ...
Tue 14th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Resounding Opposition to New Top Level Domains - Most constituents opposed to new TLDs; propose major overhaul. The comment period for the second draft of ICANN’s new top level domain name applicant guidebook concluded yesterday. Most commentors suggested ways to fix the process and rules, but these same commentors are opposed to any adoption of new top level domains. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find more than one comment in favor of new TLDs from an organization other than those trying to launch new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Countries Could Force Use of Country Code Domains - India law may require hosted email providers to use .in. An amendment to information technology laws in India may require hosted email providers to use the .in country code domain name and use local servers. This would make their data subject to Indian law. Apparently this stems from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, after which the government of India had difficulty getting network information from the terrorists’ Blackberries. If the information is housed outside ... read more ...
Mon 13th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s D-Day for ICANN Comments - Want to speak your mind? Today’s the day. If you have an opinion (and you should) about the second draft of ICANN’s plans to inundate the web with more top level domain names, today is the deadline to submit comments. As was the case last time, major corporations are waiting until the last day to submit comments. So far the trend seems to be that companies are saying “we submitted comments last time, you did nothing about them, so please refer to our previous ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New York: Deciding Between Domain Names and Trash Service - City points out an obvious reason why it may not want its own top level domain name. In comments (pdf) to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), New York City Senior Counsel Katherine Winningham says application fees for new top level domain names are too high: “Based on the current economic situation and its impact on governmental entities, [New York City] again wishes to voice its concern that the application, operational, and dispute resolution ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Appraisal Scam Migrates to TropicalNames.com - Warning: avoid purchasing domain name appraisals from TropicalNames.com. The domain name appraisal scam — which was reborn with a different tact last month — has changed its target domain name appraisal service. A new scam email requests a domain name appraisal from TropicalNames.com. TopicalNames.com was just registered on April 2. Last month’s e-mails tried to get users to pay for domain name appraisals at a bogus outfit called Pozde.com. The emails offer ... read more ...
Sat 11th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Pol for Politicians? Easier Said Than Done. - Op-ed suggests .pol to avert political cybersquatting. But the devil is in the details. Matthew Sanderson, a political law attorney at Caplin Drysdale in Washington, published an op-ed in the Washington Post today suggesting a new .pol domain name. This domain name would be reserved for politicians as a way to avoid “political cybersquatting”, whereby people snap up domain names of politicians to grab internet traffic. The proposal makes sense on the surface, ... read more ...
Fri 10th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Terminates Parava Domain Name Registrar - Parava Networks and DropLimited.com get the boot. It’s all over for Parava Networks, a domain name registrar that manages valuable domain names such as Marc Ostrofsky’s MutualFunds.com. Yesterday ICANN sent a termination notice (pdf) to Parava, notifying the registrar that it is losing its accreditation. Parava received a breach notice in February for failing to pay its fees, not escrowing whois data, and not taking steps to correct invalid whois information. Parava’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tim Berners-Lee’s Thoughts on New Top Level Domain Names - Inventor of world wide web opposed to introduction of new TLDs. In 2004, prior to the approval and release of the .mobi top level domain name, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a paper explaining the dangers of the introduction of new top level domain names. George Kirikos recently discovered the paper and summarized it in comments to ICANN for its new top level domain proposal. Kirikos’ summary and comments are below, but you can also read Berners-Lee’s entire paper here. (The ... read more ...
Thu 9th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SmoothMove.com: Worst UDRP Decision Ever? - SmoothMove.com decision may not be worst, but it should be high on the list. My blood is boiling. I think I just read one of the worst UDRP arbitration decisions ever. Michael Berkens got screwed, and I hope he takes action. In this case, Berkens registered the domain name SmoothMove.com in 2003 and has parked it since then. All of the links have been generic in nature. Then along came Traditional Medicinals Inc, an herbal medicine company that happens to have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Silicon Labs Gets Its Name Back - Billion dollar company let domain name expire, but wins it back in arbitration. Last month Domain Name Wire wrote about Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a billion dollar company that let the domain name SiliconLabs.com expire. (The company’s web site is at SIlabs.com). Silicon Labs filed for arbitration at National Arbitration Forum. This week an arbitration panel awarded the domain name back to the company, and the name should be transferred within the next few ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FTC Guidelines Could Affect Bloggers - New guidelines target at endorsements and reviews. New guidelines from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission could have an impact on bloggers writing product reviews. The guidelines (pdf) were published back in November, and a comment period has been extended and is ongoing. The guidelines are related to endorsements and making sure they’re valid, as well as disclosing “material connections”. One example in the guidelines is a video game blogger who receives ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympics to ICANN: We’ll Sue You - International Olympic Committee threatens legal action against ICANN over new TLDs. In a sternly worded letter to ICANN (here), International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it reserves the right to “take action against ICANN for damages resulting to the IOC or the Olympic Movement from the implementation of the gTLD proposal.” IOC is concerned about the time and expense of protecting its brand as ICANN rolls out new top level domain names, such as .web. That IOC ... read more ...
Wed 8th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Edible Arrangements Should Stick to Edibles - Would you like a UDRP with that arrangement? Poor Edible Arrangements. All it wanted to do was swipe the domain name EdibleBrands.com. But it didn’t count on the respondent calling John Berryhill to pick apart the case. Now that food-instead-of-flowers company Edible Arrangements, LLC is getting big, it’s apparently creating a new brand or umbrella company called Edible Brands. It filed for a trademark for “Edible Brands” in January 2009 using a “first ... read more ...
Tue 7th April 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Court Finds You Have No Privacy To Your MySpace.com, FaceBook.com Postings: A Cautionary Tale - A California appellate court ruled that a person does not have a right to privacy for any material they post on their social networking page.  This exact case should also act as a cautionary tale to all parents and their children to understand the possible ramification of a seemingly innocent post on their Facebook.com, Myspace.com, or other social networking pages. Here are the facts:  Following a visit to her hometown of Coalinga, California, Cynthia Moreno, wrote An ode to Coalinga (“The Ode”) ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My ICANN New gTLD Applicant Guidebook Version 2 Feedback - Here’s what I had to say to ICANN. The deadline to submit comments to ICANN about its New gTLD Applicant Guidebook Version 2 is April 13. Yesterday I formally submitted my comments to ICANN. These comments generally summarize articles on Domain Name Wire, including ICANN Shouldn’t Regulate Morality and Community and Geo Rules Should be Nixed from New TLDs. I provided my views and included a short paragraph that sums up my concern: In general, I am very concerned ... read more ...
Fri 3rd April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Loses Bid to Take Decimal.com - Respondent doesn’t respond but still wins case. You know you brought a UDRP arbitration case in bad faith when the respondent doesn’t bother to respond and you still win lose. That’s what happened with the generic domain name Decimal.com. Radiation therapy company .decimal, Inc., which uses the domain name dotdecimal.com, waged the complaint against the owner of Decimal.com. The web site at decimal.com contains nothing other than a message that the domain ... read more ...
Thu 2nd April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Gets Split Decision in Domain Dispute - GoDaddy wins one domain name, loses two others in UDRP. An arbitrator has handed down a split decision in a domain dispute brought by GoDaddy.com at World Intellectual Property Organization. As Domain Name Wire reported back in February, Go Daddy filed four UDRPs at WIPO for a number of domains covered by its trademarks. The most interesting case was against Domainsnext.com, a domain reseller. The dispute involved gotodaddy.com, gotodaddynot.com and gotodaddynot.net. The ... read more ...
Tue 31st March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Scalar Decisions Inc.’s Shameful Domain Strategy - A classic abuse of UDRP. Every once in a while you come across a classic example of abuse of UDRP domain name arbitration. That’s the case with a recent decision for Scalar.com. The perpetrator was Scalar Decisions Inc, a fast growing technology company in Canada, represented by Peter M. Dillon of Siskinds LLP. The victim was Scalar Consulting Group. Here’s what happened in a nutshell: -Scalar Consulting Group registers Scalar.com in 1996 -Scalar Decisions, ... read more ...
Mon 30th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Ford Gets Sued For Using Domain As A “Catch Phrase”: WeSpeakCar.com - In an unusual case, a Pittsburgh auto parts dealer filed a lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. District Court against Ford Motor Co., claiming they used the company’s “catch phrase”, which is also its domain name. Frank’s Auto Supply Inc., claims they have used the phrase,  “We Speak Car,”  in advertising since June 8, 2003. Moreover Frank’s owns the domain name, www.wespeakcar.com. Frank’s alleges that Ford launched a “dynamic and multi-faceted,” advertising campaign for the Ford ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Threatdown: GAC Wants Second Level Place Names Protected - Another reason you need to pay attention to the new top level domain process at ICANN. I think it’s time to start a “Threatdown” for domain owners, a la Stephen Colbert. The threats to domain name owners in the new top level domain process at ICANN are far scarier than Colbert’s perennial threat: bears. Today’s threat is the protection of city and other place names at the second level. We’re not talking about top level domains such as .nyc. We’re ... read more ...
Thu 26th March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PopSci Author Points Out a Obvious About New TLDs - Tom Conlon understands what new TLDs are all about: nothing. Popular Science author Tom Conlon published an article today about .eco specifically, but mostly about the challenges any new top level domain faces. The headline of his article is appropriately named “A New Type of Domain Name, A New Waste of Money”. And for domain names not associated with a trademark, who really cares about anything except “.com”? Sure, a few sites like del.icio.us and last.fm ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Elizabeth Taylor Wants Her Name Back - ElizabethTaylor.com in dispute (again). Actress Elizabeth Taylor wants the domain name ElizabethTaylor.com and she (or her company) has filed a domain dispute with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name. But this isn’t the first time Taylor has tried to get the domain. In June of 2005 she filed for arbitration to get the domain name and lost. Part of the respondent’s defense was that the name Elizabeth Taylor is common. The panel actually decided ... read more ...