Tag Archives: legal

Mon 10th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Universal Postal Union loses objections to .mail tip turn domain name - Group that runs .post fails to end bids for .mail top level domain name. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has lost community objections against five applications for the .mail top level domain name. UPU filed objections against all five active applicants for .mail, including Amazon.com, Google, Donuts, WhitePages TLD and GMO Registry. The objections on community grounds seemed like quite a stretch, although not as ridiculous as the United States Postal Service’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company uses UDRP to go after passed man’s domain name - French publication files publication to try to get domain name from deceased man. Société Du Figaro S.A. of Paris, France, a news publication, has lost a UDRP it filed against a dead man. The group filed the UDRP against the domain name figaro.tv. The domain name is registered to Stefan Blumtritt of “Cut Company” in Germany. Société Du Figaro S.A. pointed out to the panel that the domain name owner apparently died last year. This was certainly helpful information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How common difference like Pizza, Money, and Shopping finished adult in a Trademark Clearinghouse for new TLDs - The Trademark Clearinghouse for new TLDs is giving some people first dibs on domains like realestate.guru and pizza.restaurant. The .info domain name got seriously gamed when it had its trademark sunrise period in 2001. There was no pre-verification mechanism to determine if trademarks used to claim a .info domain met requirements. As a result, 20,000 sunrise registrations were later deemed invalid. Many more were accepted under rather lax standards. The same thing ... read more ...
Fri 7th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BidPal cybersquatting lawsuit is possibly dubious or feeble researched. You decide. - Lawsuit falsely presumes domain owner is offering to sell the domains. And that’s just part of the problem. In December I wrote about a UDRP for BidPal.com filed by BidPal, Inc. I noted that the UDRP decision against the complainant was probably correct, but that BidPal’s lawyer screwed up the research as well. BidPal, Inc. has now filed a federal lawsuit(pdf) to get the domain name as well as “BidPal” in several other extensions. It also found itself a new ... read more ...
Thu 6th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Government weighs in on .wine debate - U.S. government advises against giving additional protections to second level .wine and .vin domain names. Lawrence Strickling, Administrator of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), has sent a letter to ICANN regarding additional protections for .wine and .vin domain names. Many governments have asked for additional safeguards around these domain names with protection for geographic names at the second level. Strickling writes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IBM files initial Uniform Rapid Suspension box for new TLDs - Company wants IBM.guru and IBM.ventures domain names suspended. IBM has filed what I believe is the first dispute under Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) for new top level domain names. The company filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum for the domain names ibm.guru and ibm.ventures. Both domains were registered on January 31 at a premium during the Early Access Program phase of the .guru and .ventures domain launches. The domains were registered with whois ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google’s .search tip turn domain name focus survives objections - Two objections against .search domain name fail. Google’s bid to run the .search top level domain name has survived community objections brought by competition groups. The objections were brought by FairSearch and Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, both organizations made up of Google competitors. This is FairSearch’s third failed objection against Google. It also objected to .fly and .map. The panelist in both .search objections granted that both ... read more ...
Wed 5th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paris Hilton wins box to take down sex video site - Arbitration panel sides with celebrity in domain name dispute. Socialite Paris Hilton has won a cybersquatting case she filed against the owner of a site that offered her sex tapes. Hilton filed the case with World Intellectual Property Organization against the owner of parishiltonpornvideos.com last year. The decision was just handed down in her favor. Unless the owner of the site files a lawsuit, that means the domain name will be transferred to Hilton within ten ... read more ...
Tue 4th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Does a UDRP do some-more mistreat than good? - In this post, Nat Cohen makes the argument that damage caused by the UDRP outweighs its benefits. Why are we weakening ownership rights throughout the entire Internet space and subjecting millions of dollars of domains to attempted seizures each year so that mostly low value cybersquatted domains can be removed from circulation? The UDRP is gaining popularity as a means for companies to seize valuable domains without paying for them. So many companies are now using ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts and Famous Four remove .rugby domain name match - Donuts and Famous Four lose .rugby match. Look closely at this picture and you might see Paul Stahura wincing in pain.The International Rugby Board (IRB) has effectively killed off its two competitors for the .rugby top level domain name by winning a community objection. The IRB filed the objection against competitors Donuts and Famous Four media. IRB’s objection made similar arguments as those in .basketball, .ski, and .sport/sports. The objectors lost the case ... read more ...
Fri 31st January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why cybersquatting won’t be a large understanding in new TLDs - Cybersquatting is motivated by profit, and it will be difficult to make money cybersquatting on new TLDs. Much of the talk and consternation over introducing new top level domain names has focused on protections for intellectual property owners. Trademark holders have been worried about having to protect their brands in hundreds of new domain name extensions. When it comes to cybersquatting, I think it’s clear that it won’t be nearly as big of a deal as it has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NC State University loses domain name brawl for Wolfpack.com - Arbitration panel rules that NC State shouldn’t get Wolfpack.com domain name. North Carolina State University, whose athletic teams are called the Wolfpack, has lost a domain name arbitration case for the domain Wolfpack.com. The university filed the case against a company that registered the domain name in 1997. The university argued that the domain name was registered for the purpose of selling it, and used an unsolicited 2007 letter from the domain owner offering ... read more ...
Thu 30th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Day 1 Donuts Trademark Review: Only 12 of 28 Top Brands Bought The Donuts Block (DPML) - According to the WorldtrademarkReview.com, (WTR) only 12 of the 28 top public companies the publication tracked apparently purchased the Donuts’ domain protected marks list (DPML) trademark blocking product. 7 New gTLD strings all by Donuts went live yesterday. .bike, clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles and .ventures According to the WTR; Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, Samsung, Google, Vodafone, Wells Fargo, Chase, BMW, HSBC, Bank of America and McDonalds and Lego all bought the DPML and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Want to see a new Trademark Claims Notice in action? Here’s an example. - See what it looks like if you try to register a second level domain in a new TLD that matches a record at the Trademark Clearinghouse. One of the rights protections mechanisms for new top level domain names is the Trademark Claims Notice. For the first 90 days after a new top level domain name is available (post sunrise), domain name registrars must post this notice when someone tries to register a domain name that matches a mark registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse. The ... read more ...
Wed 29th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dude, Seriously! What Were You Thinking? The authorised row during NamesCon - A recap of the legal panel at NamesCon. A legal panel is a mainstay at domain name conferences. Earlier this month at NamesCon was no different. Perhaps trying to jazz up a panel full of lawyers, the session was titled “Dude, Seriously?!?? What Were You Thinking?!?” (which looks a lot like the click grabbing headlines on Weather.com). But seriously, it was a good session. Each person gave a story about someone who fought a fight they shouldn’t have or did something ... read more ...
Tue 28th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Captain American, Wolverine, and X-Men discovered in Australian domain dispute - A superhero rescue down under. Disney has rescued a handful of its superheroes from an Australian artist. Disney, along with its Pixar and Marvel divisions, filed a cybersquatting complaint against Australian James Kite for the domain names CaptainAmerica.com.au, Wolverine.com.au, Avengers.com.au, Pixar.com.au, and x-men.com.au. Kite appears to be a cartoon artist and was forwarding some of the domain names to his personal site. As soon as he received the dispute, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UNiDAYS guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Company that uses MyUnidays.com tries to hijack Unidays.com. UK company MYUNiDAYS, which offers products at a discount to college students under the UNiDAYS brand, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in a cybersquatting case. The company uses MyUnidays.com for its web address and filed a cybersquatting UDRP complaint against Unidays.com. UNiDAYS launched in 2011 and obviously chose the MyUnidays.com domain name because Unidays.com was already registered. ... read more ...
Mon 27th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN creates swell on information influence waivers for domain name registrars - ICANN posts its first preliminary determination on a data retention waiver. ICANN published today the first preliminary determination on a registrar’s request to change the data retention requirements in the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The 2013 RAA requires registrars to keep certain information about their customers even after the customer takes its business elsewhere or lets a domain name expire. Some registrars balked at this requirement, arguing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BuyDomains defends UDRP brought by Academy Sports - BuyDomains said it registered AcademyOnline.net as a generic domain name, not because of the sports retailer. BuyDomains, part of NameMedia, has successfully defended a UDRP brought by Academy Sports + Outdoors against the domain name AcademyOnline.net. The company successfully argued that the domain name is made up of two generic words and that the parking page for the domain, which includes links such as “Art Academy” and “Police Academy Online,” was used ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon gets a win in .Amazon quarrel & IO found to have dispute of seductiveness in case - Panelist finds Independent Objector Alain Pellet has a conflict of interest and sides with Amazon.com in domain name dispute. Amazon.com has successfully defended community objections brought against its applications for .amazon and the Chinese and Japanese equivalent top level domain names. At the same time, it has also successfully questioned the Independent Objector’s conflict of interest in filing the cases in the first place. The internet retailing giant argued ... read more ...
Fri 24th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did we know Apple let iPad.com expire? That’s what one internet association (wrongly) claims. - Company uses iPad.com domain as an example of a cybersquatter snagging an expiring domain. But that’s not true. From the “right idea, wrong example” department… Newcastle, England company Zebra Internet Services is now pitching “domain portfolio management” to help its clients protect against cybersquatters that might grab their domain names when they expire. The Journal in Newcastle covered the product launch in a story that kind of misses the mark overall. ... read more ...
Thu 23rd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Nat Cohen sells LGG.com for $175k to association that filed UDRP opposite a domain name - Company pays up after playing dirty in domain name negotiation. This week’s DNJournal sales report includes a $175,000 sale of LGG.com. When reviewing the report, I instantly knew this domain name was familiar. Sure enough, I’ve written about it before. The company that just bought the domain name, a Finnish dairy company called Valio Ltd, filed a UDRP against Telepathy (owned by domain investor Nat Cohen) last year in an effort to get the domain name. Telepathy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cobb International guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Company filed UDRP case even though the domain names at issue were not registered in bad faith. South African firm Cobb International has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in a UDRP decision at World Intellectual Property Organization. Cobb International filed a UDRP for the domain names CobbQ.com and CobbAmerica.com against Chris Holloway, Cobb Depot, Inc., Advanced Outdoor Concepts, Inc in Florida. The respondent in the case was a distributor for ... read more ...
Wed 22nd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TKO: There will be no .sports tip turn domain in a initial round - Objection panel rules that the the sport community would face material detriment for a .sports domain name. Well, at least this decision is consistent. Except it isn’t. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has upheld SportAccord’s community objection against Donuts’ application to run the .sports top level domain name. While this decision (pdf) is consistent with another panelist’s decision in .sport, the rationale again conflicts with the decision ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts has bad fitness of a draw, loses .ski as well - Panelist from .sports decisions also rules against Donuts for .ski. Earlier today I wrote about how Donuts lost a community objection brought against its .sports top level domain name application. It also lost an objection brought against .ski. This was a case of bad luck-of-the-draw: it got the same panelist on this case, Jonathan Taylor, as it did for .sport. Had Jennifer Kirby, who handled the .basketball case, heard this case then Donuts likely would have won. This ... read more ...