Tag Archives: legal

Mon 2nd March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yet Another Hurdle for New Top Level Domains - Getting your TLD approved by ICANN doesn’t mean it will go online. Section 1.2.3 of ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook for new TLDs points out a stark reality for new TLDs: they may not work. Worse, they may work in some places and systems and not others: All applicants should be aware that approval acceptance of their applications by ICANN and entering into a registry agreement with ICANN does not guarantee that the new gTLD will immediately function throughout the ... read more ...
Sun 1st March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Psion Wants Intel’s Netbook.com Under Cybersquatting Statute - Netbook trademark owner claims Intel violating Cybersquatting law. Last month I warned about registering domain names with “netbook” in them. Although the term is generally thought of us an inexpensive laptop used for accessing the internet and for light computing tasks, a company named Psion has a trademark to the term for computers. It has sold a laptop called Netbook. Recently, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) filed to have Psion’s trademark stripped due to non-use. ... read more ...
Fri 27th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN’s Registry Continuity Plan Has a Big Hole - Guidelines for new registries doesn’t make sense; but therein lies a business opportunity. If you want to apply for a new top level domain from ICANN, you need to provide lots of financial documentation about your ability to run the TLD. ICANN is mum on how much money you need on the balance sheet, but that’s not all. The new TLD guidebook states that your company must provide: documentary evidence of ability to fund ongoing basic registry operations for registrants ... read more ...
Wed 25th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN to Study Price Caps on Domain Registrations - As part of new TLD process, ICANN commissions study on pricing restrictions for registries. After receiving a number of comments about lack of pricing limits in new TLD registry agreements, Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has commissioned a study to determine if price caps should be implemented. A number of domain owners were concerned that the first draft registry agreement for new top level domains did not have price caps, and that existing ... read more ...
Tue 24th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotMobi Steps Up Enforcement for Non-Compliant Domain Names - Registry to take additional measures against buyers who haven’t developed domain names. It’s taken a long time, but buyers of premium .mobi domain names appear to finally be developing their domain names. dotMobi says it will take additional measures against those who have not taken this step as required in their purchase agreement. I’ve written several times about lack of enforcement of dotMobi’s premium domain buyer rules, but the registry finally started ... read more ...
Mon 23rd February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
One More Reason Not to Move your Domain Names Offshore - Fred, In practice, you can read the NAF Model Complaint form here: http://domains.adrforum.com/resource.aspx?id=755 “The Complainant will submit, with respect to any challenges to a decision in the administrative proceeding canceling or transferring the domain name, to [b](choose one jurisdiction:[/b] a) the location of the principal office of the concerned registrar or b) where the Respondent is located, as shown by the address(es) given for the domain name holder in the Whois ... read more ...
Thu 19th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Issues Latest New gTLD Guidebook - ICANN responds to comments from first draft guidebook. [I’m on a plane to New Orleans so have had little time to review ICANN’s many documents released today. But here’s a summary.] After receiving hundreds of comments, mostly requesting major changes or clarifications to the original draft of the new TLD handbook, ICANN has made a good effort to acknowledge the comments. It released a 154 page analysis of the comments received and its response to them. ... read more ...
Wed 18th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign to Pay $6M More to ICANN in FY 2010 - Proposed budget includes increased contractual fee from VeriSign. Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published its Proposed Framework for FY10 Operating Plan and Budget (pdf). ICANN’s Financial Year 2010 runs July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Despite the possibility of declining domain registrations, ICANN will get a $6 million windfall thanks to a fixed fee provision in its dotcom agreement with VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). VeriSign will ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hells Angels Sue Alleged Cybersquatter for $2 Million - Clearly ignorant cybersquatter can now answer question “What’s the worst that can happen?” There are two types of cybersquatters: big, systematic cybersquatters and small, just-don’t-know-any-better cybersquatters. Sometimes it’s the big guys that get hit with lawsuits, but a recent case shows even the small time cybersquatter can be hit hard. That’s the case of Fawn and Terry Myers, who are named in a lawsuit alleging they registered about 20 domain ... read more ...
Tue 17th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arbitrator: Viacom is a Jackass - Arbitrator decides Viacom shouldn’t get Jackass.com. “We look like Jackasses.” This is a follow up to a story Domain Name Wire first published in December. Viacom (NYSE: VIA.B), parent company of MTV, filed a UDRP complaint to get the domain name Jackass.com. As I pointed out then, Viacom had an uphill battle. Not only is the term Jackass generic, but it was facing an domain registrant that wouldn’t step down. In fact, Viacom is lucky that it lost this ... read more ...
Mon 16th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Holders Continue to Reclaim .Me Domain Names - Sprite.me and Firefox.me go back to their rightful owners. When .me launched to the general public last year, it was clear that a lot of people hadn’t heard of cybersquatting. Domain names like Porsche.me, Toyota.me, and Firefox.me were snapped up (and not my their familiar namesakes). Many of these domains were picked up at auction for a substantial amount of money. Why did .me attract so many deep pocketed cybersquatters? I can only surmise that .me attracted ... read more ...
Sun 15th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Single Letter .Biz Domains Closer to Reality - Public comment period open for 1 and 2 character .biz domain names. Last Friday Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opened up a public comment period on .biz registry NeuStar’s proposal to offer one and two character .biz domain names. NeuStar has cleared the initial hurdle at ICANN, which found no significant security, stability, or competition issues to releasing the short domain names. NeuStar’s original proposal was to offer a request ... read more ...
Fri 13th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Take Your Pick: Your Safety or ICANN Participation - Next ICANN meeting in Mexico City should be postponed and moved to a safer location. The next Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting is in Mexico City March 1-6. I’ve never been to an ICANN meeting, but would like to. Mexico City is just a short flight from Austin so it would seem ideal. Except that I don’t carry kidnapping insurance. ICANN is an international organization. It’s great that it holds meetings all across the world. ... read more ...
Tue 10th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Peaches.com Successfully Defended - Domain owner wins arbitration case. Not so sweet. With the help of attorney John Berryhill, 24-7 Outdoors Inc. has successfully defended its domain name Peaches.com. Domain Name Wire first wrote about this case in December. The complainant, Peaches Uniforms, sells style-conscious scrubs and uniforms to medical practitioners. The panel decided to only look at the “registration in bad faith” clause because it was obvious the complainant couldn’t meet its burden ... read more ...
Mon 9th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Think TradeMark Domains Are Bad; Look What Google & Yahoo Are Doing With iTunes - I’ve been watching Google’s ad results for the term “itunes” for a couple of months and the results under the search term’s sponsored ads are generally for non-apple sites, advertising themselves as the “official” itunes site. A couple of months ago a friends teenager boy asked me to help him an itunes account.  I told him to download the software and then I would come over and set the account up for him. So I get their and he tells me he stuck. He does not know which of the membership ... read more ...
Sun 8th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Think Twice Before Registering NetBook Domain Names - Popular technology gizmo is a trademarked term. Savvy domainers jump on trends and register (or buy) popular new terms before they go mainstream. One term that has jumped into tech talk in earnest over the past year is “netbook”. Netbooks are essentially small and cheap laptops that travel well. This category of laptops is all the rage, and major manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon advertising their latest netbooks. Above: Google Trends for “netbook” ... read more ...
Fri 6th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arena.com Owner Wins Domain Name Arbitration - Panel finds Arena Swimwear’s arguments unconvincing. Sometimes I see a domain name dispute and wonder what the heck the complainant was thinking. When I saw that the one word generic domain name Arena.com was in dispute, I scratched my head. First of all, I’d never heard of the complainant. Second, you better have some damning evidence against the respondent to go after a generic word such as Arena. When I see the domain name Arena.com, I think of sports arenas. As ... read more ...
Tue 3rd February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Red Bull Can Now Energize Mobile Phones - Energy drink seller Red Bull wins rights to RedBull.mobi. Red Bull, famous for giving you an energy boost, can now energize mobile phones with the domain name RedBull.mobi. The company won the domain name in a dispute at World Intellectual Property Association. The respondent, Roy Atar of Israel, defended himself by saying he is commonly known by friends as “Shor Adom”, which translates into English as “Red Bull”. Atar did not park the domain name; it was ... read more ...
Mon 2nd February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RAI.mobi Owner Needs to Put a Foot in His Mouth - RAI.mobi domain owner did himself a disservice in responding to UDRP. It’s difficult to win a UDRP domain arbitration case when you don’t respond to the proceedings. (Difficult, but not impossible). But sometimes not responding to a case is a better idea than responding with a half-hearted story. That’s what happened in the case or RAI.mobi, a generic domain name won by complainant RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. This isn’t a case of someone registering ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Does Vogue Want to Launch .Live Domain? - An example of the confusion that will reign when new TLDs are launched. This morning I saw an ad in the print edition of The New Yorker for Vogue.TV, the popular magazine’s multimedia web site. Here’s the ad: Do you see the part of the ad circled in green? It’s kind of small, so let me blow it up for you: What’s that? Does Vogue want to launch a new top level domain name .live? Of course not. The dot is just a branding thing for its reality model show ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Charges Own Customers with Cybersquatting - Domain name registrar files UDRP complaints for its trademarks. You won’t believe where the domain names are registered. Domain name registrar GoDaddy.com and its parent company have filed 4 UDRP cases with World Intellectual Property Organization this year. What’s interesting isn’t that a domain registrar is protecting its brands. It’s that many of the domains it is trying to get are registered at GoDaddy. Of the four cases, two involve domain names at ... read more ...
Wed 28th January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panel: Taking Domains Offshore is a False Hope - Legal panel at DOMAINfest Global says think twice before moving your domain names or forming your business offshore. Derek Newman Tuesday afternoon at DOMAINfest Global in Los Angeles, a panel of lawyers suggested that moving domain names to offshore registrars or forming your domain company offshore may not be the panacea it seems. In fact, Derek Newman of Newman Newman said you may actually be hurting yourself by setting up an offshore corporation to hold your ... read more ...
Fri 23rd January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
E-Commerce Times gTLD Article Makes Little Sense - Please help me decode this article about gTLDs. I like reading opinions that are opposite mine. They help me either reinforce my opinions or consider the other side of the story. So when I came across an opinion piece by Naseem Javed this morning in E-Commerce Times that was in favor of new top level domains from ICANN, I eagerly started reading it. I quickly became lost as I tried to decode Javed’s marketing speak and sentences that make little sense to me. ... read more ...
Thu 22nd January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Third Eye Blind Wins Domain Name Dispute - Alternative rock group wins bizarre domain arbitration. This is a follow up to the story I wrote in November (Rock Group Wants ThirdEyeBlind.net). Third Eye Blind has prevailed in the dispute. In November I speculated: The owners of ThirdEyeBlind.net seem to be dodging the band by changing its whois information repeatedly. The latest whois information shows the owner is “Third Eye Blinds Curtains” of India. This seems like a ruse to claim that the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
12 Domainer Expenses to Remember on Your Taxes - Here are a dozen expenses domainers should consider when filing taxes. It’s 1099 season, when domain parking companies send a flurry of 1099s to U.S. unincorporated taxpayers informing them how much they paid them in 2008. Although it’s not fun paying the associated federal income taxes (and self-employment tax), here are some expenses you can likely deduct from your revenue this year if you have proper documentation. Don’t leave any stone unturned. 1. Domain ... read more ...