Nirvana gets domain names from Australian male who demanded $1.5 million -
Panels say it Smells Like B.S.
Nirvana LLC — the company that owns the intellectual property from the late grunge band Nirvana — has won control of five domain names registered by an Australian man.
The company filed UDRP and aUDRP disputes against Darren Wilcox (Willcox) for the domain names nirvanadrums.com.au,
nirvanadrums.net.au, nirvanadrums.com, nirvanadrumsfilm.com and nirvanadrums.net.
Wilcox argued that he registered the domain names because of the concept ... read more ...
Tag Archives: legal
Thu 20th November 2014
Tue 18th November 2014
UDRP order changes entrance subsequent year to frustrate “Cyberflight” -
Registrars will be required to lock domain names prior to registrant finding out about UDRP case.
ICANN has announced a July 31, 2015 implementation date for amended rules under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
The new rules were designed to thwart a practice of “cyberflight”, in which the owner of a domain name subject to a UDRP transfers the domain to another registrar to evade the policy.
Under the amended rules, registrars will have ... read more ...
Guy tries to heading one of Rick Schwartz’s domain names -
This one will be interesting.
This morning I was perusing recently filed trademark applications when I came across an application for Trademarking.com.
When I checked the whois on the domain name, I saw that the domain was registered to domain name investor Rick Schwartz. But the company that filed the trademark was Trademark King in Indiana.
TrademarkKing.com (with two k’s) is registered under whois privacy, so I thought perhaps the trademark applicant owns this ... read more ...
Fri 14th November 2014
Bespoke.com saved in UDRP, though no RDNH and unimaginable dissent -
Domain bought for $18,805 earlier this year saved in UDRP, but it was closer than it should have been.
In September, I wrote about the domain name Bespoke.com being hit with a UDRP after the buyer paid $18,805 to buy it in an expired domain name auction.
A three person WIPO panel has denied the UDRP, but one panelist dissented and the panel did not find reverse domain name hijacking. I find the dissent appalling.
Originally, it appeared that the complainant may have ... read more ...
Thu 13th November 2014
Nat Cohen’s Telepathy Files Federal Lawsuit Over The Domain SDT.com - Domain investor Nat Cohen’s Telepathy, Inc. just filed a federal lawsuit against SDT INTERNATIONAL of Brussels, Belgium, over the domain name SDT.com after it rejected a $400 offer that got worked up all the way to $1,000.
Actually the Brussels company filed a UDRP with WIPOUDRP with the case number D2014-1870.
Mr. Cohen is represented by David Weslow, Esq, and decided to take the case to federal court rather than wait for a UDRP panel to decide its fate.
The action “seeks actual and/or statutory ... read more ...
IDN.com owners will remove large if Verisign doesn’t get the way -
They could be forced to buy transliterations within a limited time period.
Verisign has been negotiating its contracts for transliterations of .com for a long time, and last week we got an idea about what the hold up is.
ICM Registry, the domain registry for .xxx and the forthcoming .adult, .porn and .sex top level domains, announced that it finally inked contracts with ICANN for new TLDs. The catch is that ICM had to change how it handled its Domain Matching program.
ICM ... read more ...
Wed 12th November 2014
Internet wins as justice denies suit to seize ccTLDs -
Court rules .ir, .sy, .kp and related IDNs cannot be “attached” as compensation.
ICANN and the internet community at large got a victory this week as a U.S. court denied a request (pdf) to seize country code top level domains (ccTLDs) as compensation in a lawsuit.
A number of claimants that had won a judgement against Iran, Syria and North Korea over terrorism charges had demanded control of the country’s ccTLDs (.IR, .SY and .KP plus IDN versions) as payment.
The ... read more ...
Tue 11th November 2014
Moncler goes on (domain) invulnerability after geese allegations -
Company registers boycott domain names after negative news report.
Luxury Italian coat maker Moncler saw its shares drubbed after an Italian news report suggested that makers of down jackets were plucking geese inhumanely. The company has responded in the press to the allegations, while also quietly scooping up domain names its haters might want to register.
Yesterday, Moncler registered:
boycottmoncler.com /.net, plus boycot with one ‘t’
boycott-moncler.com /.net
ihatemoncler.com
While ... read more ...
Fri 7th November 2014
Law Enforcement Cracks Down on a Dark Web, Seizes 400 .onion domains - We have had news stories before about international law enforcement agencies banding together to take down websites that deal in illicit goods or counterfeit merchandise. Yesterday the U.S, Canada and European agencies made another round of takedowns, the difference this time is that they hit the “Dark Web” websites using stuff like the onion router or TOR.
USA Today covered the story:
Police in 17 countries arrested at least 17 website administrators, vendors and cybercriminals as part of the ... read more ...
.XXX modifies domain relating module for new adult TLDs -
ICM Registry shortens window for claiming matching domain names due to ICANN requirements.
ICM Registry, the company behind .xxx and the soon-to-be-released .porn and .adult domain names, announced today a modified domain name matching program for .xxx domain name owners.
Previously, the company planned to reserve any domain names registered in .xxx in its new top level domain names so they could be registered by the .xxx owner. However, ICANN would not allow ICM ... read more ...
Wed 5th November 2014
CyclingTips.com.au owners guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking -
Company went after CyclingTips.com.
Law firm ESQwire.com has scored yet another Reverse Domain Name Hijacking victory on behalf of a client.
Wallace Media Pty Ltd, which operates the cycling website CyclingTips.com.au, filed the case against the owner of CyclingTips.com. Wallace Media complained that people looking for its site often leave off the .au, leading them to the respondent’s domain name.
There were a lot of issues at play in this case, including when ... read more ...
Yoyo.email, owners of 4,000 .email domain names, gets a “win” in court -
Company reaches agreement with company that won URS case against it.
Yoyo.email, the controversial company that registered over 4,000 .email domain names, got a win in court today after settling with one of the companies that filed a Uniform Rapid Suspension case against it.
Yoyo registered thousands of .email domain names matching the monikers of big brands, such as 7eleven.email, Geico.email and Budlight.email. It plans to use the domain names for a certified email ... read more ...
Tue 4th November 2014
John Berryhill fills Noah’s Ark, gets another retreat domain name hijacking win -
Domain attorney defends owner of Squirrels.com in his latest animal-related UDRP.
Domain name attorney John Berryhill is either Noah, busily filling up his ark, or he has a fetish with animals.
He’s successfully defended UDRP filings against Pig.com, Elephant.com, Ant.com and Elk.com. Now you can add Squirrels.com to the list.
World Intellectual Property Organization has just handed down a decision in Squirrels LLC vs. Giorgio Uzonian for the domain name Squirrels.com.
As ... read more ...
Mon 3rd November 2014
Registrant Of Playboy.London Wants To Keep The Domain For His unborn Child Hoping Its A Boy - Standard.co.uk just published a blog post entitled “Property boss at war with Playboy over Dot London domain name”
Michael Ross, director of CNM estates, registered the domain name Playboy.London after the publishing company failed to register the domain name in the Sunrise period that was opened to trademark holders
According to Mr. Ross, he received a strongly worded letter from its Los Angeles lawyers demanding he transfers the domain immediately.
However Mr Ross, “who once visited the Playboy ... read more ...
Mon 27th October 2014
Turkish grill sequence guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking -
Develi Restaurant chain guilty of abusing UDRP.
A restaurant in Turkey has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name develi.com.
The complainant runs a restaurant chain called Develi and uses the domain name DeveliKebap.com.
A key problem for the complainant was that Develi is also the name of a city in Turkey. Although the complainant has trademarks including “Develi”, these are figurative marks as part of a drawing.
In fact, when ... read more ...
Sun 26th October 2014
ICANN: no preference nonetheless on Morocco meeting -
Organization is considering its options due to possible travel restrictions.
ICANN today responded to rumors about postponing next February’s meeting in Morocco by saying it has not yet made a decision. However, it confirmed that it is considering a postponement related to the Ebola outbreak.
While Morocco itself is not at the center of the outbreak in Western Africa, host officials are concerned that future travel restrictions might limit the ability for people ... read more ...
Fri 24th October 2014
After Suspended 2,359 Domains, London’s Police IP Crime Unit Gets £3 million in Funding - According to a press release out overnight, The City of London’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has been given £3 million in funding to ensure its existence to at least 2017.
The IP Crime Group report 2013/2014 notes PIPCU has already investigated more than £29 million worth of IP crime and has suspended 2,359 domain names.
IPCU was also involved in the review of Nominet’s domain registration policy.
“PIPCU uses several methods to address intellectual property crime including ... read more ...
Thu 23rd October 2014
Wiley Rein Files Suit Over 14 Stolen Domain Names: 9 Are 3 Letter .com’s - The law firm of Wiley Rein this week filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of an e-commerce company that had 14 domain names stolen by computer hackers based in China from a Godaddy Account.
The case, Acme Billing Company v. John Doe, was filed on October 21, 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by David Weslow of Wiley Rein LLP.
The domain names mentioned in the suit include these 3 lettered .com’s:
AIJ.com
HIE.com
SJS.com
FJD.com
IIW.com
XJN.com
HBU.com
PWP.com
XPE.com
Along ... read more ...
Lawsuit filed to redeem stolen 3 minute domain names -
Suit alleges 35 domain names were stolen from a GoDaddy account.
Acme Billing Company filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court this week to recover 14 stolen domain names, including 9 three letter domain names.
The suit alleges that an unknown person stole 35 domain names from Acme Billing Company’s GoDaddy account. The company became aware of the theft in early August and worked with GoDaddy to recover 21 of the domain names. It filed the suit in an ... read more ...
Tue 21st October 2014
AnnualCreditReport.com goes after a large typosquatter -
Company behind government-mandated free annual credit report site demands control of 227 typos.
Central Source, a company created by the three major U.S. consumer credit bureaus, has filed an in rem lawsuit against 227 typos of its AnnualCreditReport.com domain name.
This is the sixth cybersquatting lawsuit the company has filed this year to crack down on people typosquatting its domain name.
A test of the domain names shows that most use Moniker forwarding to land ... read more ...
ICANN struggles to kick relate cover after .Gay decision -
Many responses to .gay community application decision are oversimplifying what happened…and getting it wrong.
In headlines and tweets, it’s pretty easy to knock ICANN for a recent decision not granting .gay applicant dotgay llc community status for the domain name.
The reality, for anyone who takes the time to understand it, is that ICANN didn’t determine anything about whether there’s a gay community. Nor did it (or anyone) block dotgay llc from using ... read more ...
Mon 20th October 2014
High Court in a UK: ISP Must Block Sites Selling Counterfeit Goods - According to Theguardian.com, The High Court in the UK has ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISP) must try to block sites selling counterfeit goods at their own cost.
“The case was brought by luxury brands in the Richemont/Cartier group, demanding that the UK’s five major ISPs – BSkyB, BT, EE, TalkTalk, and VirginMedia – block six websites sporting fake versions of their brands and selling counterfeit goods.
Richemont stated that these were the first in a line-up of 239,000 potentially ... read more ...
2 impression domains get immature light underneath new TLDs -
ICANN Board approves resolution paving way for two character second level domains.
Last week’s ICANN meeting started with good news for new top level domain name applicants: governments said they weren’t concerned about two letter second level domain names under new top level domain names.
It got better as the week went on, with the Governmental Advisory Committee formalizing its position on two character domain names and then ICANN’s board approving a resolution ... read more ...
YourNeighborhood.co owners tries to “pull a quick one” in UDRP -
Trademark disclaims rights to “YourNeighborhood”.
Eric Levy, who runs the neighborhood information site YourNeighborhood.co, has lost a UDRP against the domain name YourNeighborhood.com.
He’s lucky the panelist didn’t bother to find him guilty of reverse domain name hijacking, too. The panelist determined that he was “trying to pull a fast one”, though.
Levy’s filing claimed that the YourNeighborhood mark was “well-known” and that Complainant has ... read more ...
Thu 16th October 2014
Governments import in on village and two-letter domain names -
ICANN GAC concerned about community priority evaluations but not two-letter domain names.
The Governmental Advisory Committee to ICANN has issued its GAC Communique (pdf) from this week’s meeting in Los Angeles.
There are a couple notable items on it related to new top level domain names.
First, the GAC noted apparent inconsistencies with recent Community Priority Evaluations and asked ICANN to consider an appeal process. Based on the language, it appears governments ... read more ...