Tag Archives: legal

Fri 27th May 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Falwell domain quarrel could have implications for giveaway debate on internet - The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing a case about a domain name critical of Rev. Jerry Falwell. A lower court decided that the domain Fallwell.com was basically trademark infringement. Celebrities usually win rights to their domain names and variations thereof. But politicians do not–sites critical of politicians are generally considered free speech. I’d say the main issue in this case is whether Falwell is a celebrity or politician. He is certainly ... read more ...
Mon 23rd May 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2 domain name attention conferences flog off this week - This week has been marked on the domain name industry’s calendar for quite some time. Anticipation is growing for 2 different and unique domain name conferences kicking off later this week. In Seattle, the Domain Name Roundtable runs May 25 to May 27. This event is put on by the folks at Name Intelligence, one of the most popular domain name research companies. You may know Name Intelligence for its popular WhoIs.sc site. The Domain Name Roundtable looks to ... read more ...
Tue 3rd May 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pope site goes to charity - Rogers Cadenhead has donated his BenedictXVI.com domain name to charity. My question: will a charity effectively use this domain name? I assume it will try to generate advertising from the domain for funding purposes? Nope. It will just us the domain to tell people what the charity is. And to reinforce the after-the-fact-message that Cadenhead registered the domain to keep it away from pornographers and casinos. Umm, yeah. For more on the BenedictXVI.com domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wal-Mart fights for domain names - Wal-Mart is fighting to get domain names from some of its critics, and recently took the domain name walmartfacts.biz away from Jeff Milchen, a self-described Wal-Mart critic. This is according to a recent ZDNet Blog posting. Whether or not you think Wal-Mart is good or evil, I think most of us agree that buying a “gripe” domain is fair so long as the domain is used to post true complaints about an institution or company…and no money is made from the site. ... read more ...
Wed 20th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
And a Popesquatting leader is… - A number of people registered domain names of potential new Popes. And the person I covered in our previous posting won by registering BenedictXVI.com. According to an article in Wired.com called Picking the Pope’s Domain Name, Rogers Cadenhead is seeing 100 hits a minute to the domain name. The domain name currently forwards to his blog, which as Google Adsense on the right side. The ads are about Rome and the Pope, and he’s getting some click-throughs. Let’s ... read more ...
Tue 19th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“Popesquatting” provides new reasons to register domains -

Rogers Cadenhead opines on his blog about betting on who will be a subsequent Pope. He’s not betting income during a sportsbook, though instead by gnawing adult a half dozen domains that competence be a subsequent Pope (e.g. ClementXV.com). He doesn’t consider they have suppositional value.

It’s a good blog posting…read it here.

Via: domainnamewire.com

Mon 18th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Security Concerns Boosted VeriSign’s Dot-Net Bid - According to an article in the Washington Post, security was a top reason Verisign was selected to continue maintaining the .net domain extension. After Telecordia recommended Verisign, message boards were up in arms over the selection. After all, ICANN and Verisign had gone to court in the past. The scorecard Telcordia used in its recommendations placed a higher value on “The ability to run a secure and stable registry” than “promoting greater competition”. ... read more ...
Fri 15th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Diary of an internet millionaire, aged 221 /4 - The Times UK has a personal piece by Benjamin Cohen, the person at the center of Apple’s wrath over the itunes.co.uk domain name. Although the piece is more about Cohen’s ability to get positive press, it’s worth reading. For more on the itunes.co.uk challenge between Cohen and Apple, see the following: -New York Times covers itunes.co.uk domain name dispute -Apple fans don’t understand domain name rights -ITunes.co.uk Owner to Appeal Domain Order to High ... read more ...
Thu 14th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Avoiding domain name scams - Avoiding domain name scams isn’t always easy. Massive phishing attacks so far have attacked mostly financial institutions. But I suspect we’ll start to see phishing attacks on registrars such as Network Solutions and Register.com. TheSpiderTrap discusses a recent attempt to steal a domain or force a transfer. While past “renewal” schemes have been done through the postal mail, this one was through e-mail. Always, always, always make sure the URL you go ... read more ...
Tue 12th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.pro domain name woes - CNN has covered the current issues regarding the .pro domain name extension. .Pro was designed to be for credentialed professional organizations, including doctors, lawyers, accountants, and engineers in the US, Canada, Germany, and UK. Originally, firms could only get a third level domain, such as myname.law.pro. Recently the EnCirca allowed professionals to get a second level domain, such as myname.pro if they also owned a third level domain. Last month, EnCirca ... read more ...
Mon 11th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Travel, .Jobs domain names closer to fruition - News is flowing after ICANN’s latest round of meetings: “ICANN is pleased to announce the designation of two new sponsored Top-Level Domains (sTLDs), .JOBS and .TRAVEL. The ICANN Board approved the designation at the 22nd ICANN International conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The announcement marks the culmination of the independent evaluation and contract negotiation process for these two sponsored Top-Level Domains that was outlined in an ICANN request ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New York Times covers itunes.co.uk domain name dispute - The New York Times has an article today about the legal battle over the itunes.co.uk domain in the UK. I’ve weighed in on this debate several times. For more information, see these posts: -Apple fans don’t understand domain name rights -ITunes.co.uk Owner to Appeal Domain Order to High Court -Apple wins cybersquatting battle…for now ... read more ...
Mon 4th April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gripe site wins heading case - A San Diego man won a trademark infringement suit for his domain www.bosleymedical.com. The man set up the site to gripe about Bosley’s hair restoration program. According to an AP article, “The appeals court, mirroring rulings by at least two other circuit courts of appeal, said the so-called “gripe site” was not infringing on a copyright [sic] because the Web site was not created to make a profit or to confuse Bosley’s customers and potential clients. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN meetings start in Argentina -

ICANN meetings will run from Apr 4 to Apr 8 in Argentina. ICANN’s bulletin equipment include:

-DNS Security
-Domain Name Hijacking
-The World Summit on Information Society
-Regional At-Large meetings with user groups from opposite Latin America
-Whois Policy Development
-Deployment of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs)

Via: domainnamewire.com

Fri 1st April 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Appeals justice upholds Sex.com ruling - As a reminder that domain name hijacking was alive and well even before ICANN’s recent policy changes, a federal appeals court last week rejected Steven Cohen’s appeal last week that he pay businessman Gary Kremen $65M for stealing the domain name sex.com in 1995. Cohen skipped the company shortly after the original ruling in 2001 and hasn’t paid Kremen one cent. However, Kremen did snag a mansion owned by Cohen and received a settlement from Network Solutions. ... read more ...
Wed 30th March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy starts petition to keep WhoIs privacy - GoDaddy, perhaps the most vocal opponent of the recent decision to nix proxy registrations of .us domain names, has created an information site and petition in favor of keeping private WhoIs registrations. You can visit the site at TheDangerofNoPrivacy.com. There are two reasons GoDaddy is upset about losing the right to proxy registrations for .us domain names: 1. I think GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons really believes in the right to privacy, as he invokes images of the ... read more ...
Tue 29th March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple fans don’t know domain name rights - I came across a posting on SpyMac today about the itunes.co.uk domain. The title of the posting shows how little Apple fans understand about domain names. Many of the comments are about how Apple has been wronged and that Benjamin Cohen is a cybersquatter. Among the comments: “The problem I have with this guy is that he claimed to never have heard of iTunes. So what? His ignorance of the fact that he was using a trademark does not make him free to continue to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telcordia: Keep .net domain during Verisign - Telcordia released its official report on which registry it thinks should managed the .net extension going forward (see “Nuetral Party to Evaluatate .Net Applicants by March 28″). Telcordia recommended that Verisign retain management of the domain name extension. Personally, I have no problem with this decision. It’s important to remember that Verisign and Network Solutions are no longer the same companies. The only concern I have is Verisign trying to take ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.net domain name prices might drop - It looks like prices for .net domain registrations might drop under Verisign’s proposed new deal with ICANN. The proposal calls for a registry charge of $4.25 per domain name per year, including a $.75 ICANN tax. Currently, the fee charged to registrars by Verisign is $6. These savings might be passed on to the registrants. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this happens, and is ultimately passed on to .com domains as well. ... read more ...
Mon 28th March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Speaking of cybersquatting… - Now here’s a case where someone uses a trademarked name to capitalize on a situation. Paul Pashibin registered the Internet domain name tcfbankstadium.com on the same day TCF announced a deal with the University of Minnesota for a $35 million stadium sponsorship. Although I blame The University and TCF Bank for not registering the domain name in advance, I think Paul will face an uphill battle if this one goes to arbitration. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ITunes.co.uk Owner to Appeal Domain Order to High Court - The (current) owner of itunes.co.uk is appealing Nominet’s decision that forces him to hand the domain name over to Apple. And with good cause. As owner Benjamin Cohen said in a statement, “I must admit that we were not expecting the decision by Nominet’s appointed expert. Apple chose to launch the UK brand of “itunes” within the UK with the knowledge that we had owned the name for three years before their USA launch and four years before their launch ... read more ...
Fri 25th March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN due $2 domain send tax? - In a disturbing development, ICANN has proposed a $2 fee on the registry for a domain name transfer on its proposed .jobs and .travel domain extensions. However, the language is somewhat unclear: (c) Registry-Level Transaction Fee. Commencing as of the Effective Date, Registry Operator shall pay ICANN a Registry-Level Transaction Fee in an amount equal to US$2.00 for each annual increment of an initial or renewal domain name registration or for transferring a domain ... read more ...
Thu 24th March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
USAToday covers Mattel.org dispute - In an article titled David beats Goliath in domain-name dispute, USAToday reports on the case of Gopi Mattel. Gopi successfully beat Mattel Inc’s assualt on this mattel.org domain name. Mattel Inc. claimed it was trademark infringement and even claimed that Gopi had changed his last name to Mattel solely to register the domain. The artibration panel found in favor of Gopi. Gopi introduced two damning claims: first, Mattel Inc waited 4 years after Gopi registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO publishes domain name brawl formula summary - WIPO has published an extremely useful tool for anyone involved in a domain name dispute that is considering arbitration (or is forced to defend). WIPO has posted a list of common questions in disputes and how the panels generally interpret those questions. The site also includes relevant cases for each of those questions. See the site here. Among the questions: 1.5 Can a complainant show rights in a geographical term or identifier? Consensus view: The report of ... read more ...
Wed 23rd March 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Approves EURid’s Agreement for .eu Domain Name - Following is a press release that details ICANN’s progress on the .eu domain. See “Critical .eu meeting today”. ICANN Approves EURid’s Agreement for ‘.eu’ Domain Name LUXEMBOURG, March 23 /CNW/ – – EURid’s ‘.eu’ Domain Application Approved by ICANN’s Board – PriceWaterhouseCoopers Selected as Validation Agent for ‘.eu’ Domain Name applications – EURid Published a New Timetable for Launch of ‘.eu’ Domain Confirming ... read more ...