StinkySocks.com UDRP was a stinker - Domain registered at least 6 years before hockey league was created.
No surprise here: a National Arbitration Forum panel has determined that a case against StinkySocks.com was a stinker.
Complainant The Trimount Company, Inc DBA StinkySocks Hockey, runs an adult hockey league in Boston. It started using the StinkySocks name as early as 2006.
The problem is that the owner of the domain name registered it in 2000. Thus, there was no way it registered the domain name in bad faith so it could charge ... read more ...
Tag Archives: legal
Wed 30th December 2015
Tue 29th December 2015
TGW.com saved in uncanny UDRP - No reverse domain name hijacking, but TGW.com to remain with owner.
A three-person National Arbitration Forum panel has denied a case seeking transfer of TGW.com and thegolfwarehouse.com.
The complainant, RG Golf, Inc. (“Complainant”) filed the case against The Golf Warehouse, Inc.
The Golf Warehouse has owned the domain names since 1997. But there’s a bit of history between then and now.
In 2000, The Golf Warehouse filed a UDRP against the complainant in this case for GolfWarehouse.com. The ... read more ...
Thu 24th December 2015
Mrs Jello sues to retard Camilla.com transfer - UDRP panel ordered generic domain name to be transferred to Australian company.
Mrs Jello LLC, a company formed by the late Igal Lichtman, has filed a lawsuit to block the transfer of Camilla.com after an adverse UDRP decision.
Camilla Australia Pty Ltd tried to buy the domain name for AUS $50,000 to upgrade its domain Camilla.com.au. When it was rebuffed by Mrs Jello, it decided to file a UDRP. Mrs Jello had purchased the domain name for $16,100.
Shockingly, a three member UDRP panel found in favor ... read more ...
Mon 21st December 2015
Frank Schilling gets RDNH win on 3 minute domain name - Complainant failed to disclose prior negotiations.
With the help of attorney John Berryhill, Frank Schilling has successfully defended his three letter domain name DKY.com in a UDRP. And, even though Berryhill didn’t ask for a finding of reverse domain name hijacking, the panel rightfully determined the complainant to have filed the case in abuse of the policy.
The complainant was Dumankaya Yapi Malzemeleri San. Ve Tic. A.S of Istanbul, Turkey, represented by AYDIN AYDIN Law Firm, Turkey. It started ... read more ...
Mon 14th December 2015
.Eco crook files heading focus for .Eco - What is planet.ECO up to with its latest trademark filing?
A company that appears to be out of the running for the .Eco top level domain name has filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “.Eco”.
planet.ECO LLC was one of four applicants for the .Eco top level domain name. Rival applicant Big Room won a Community Priority Evaluation for .Eco, meaning it will get rights to run the domain name exclusively.
Two other applicants, Donuts and Minds + Machines, filed with ICANN for the Independent ... read more ...
Fri 11th December 2015
ICA issues matter on terrible Camilla.com UDRP decision - Policy and advocacy group takes unusual step of issuing statement about a particular UDRP case.
The UDRP for Camilla.com was truly horrible. A three-person panel essentially stole a valuable, generic domain name from the heirs of the late Igal Lichtman, commonly known in domain name circles as Mrs Jello. It ruled that a company that didn’t have any sort of trademark rights in the name “Camilla” at the time the domain was registered should get the domain name.
Internet Commerce Association, ... read more ...
Google files censure to take down Adsense click rascal site - Site purported to offer “no risk” way to increase Google Adsense revenue.
Google has filed a cybersquatting complaint against the owner of the site AdsenseClickers.com in order to take over the domain name. [Update 1/11/16: Google won the case.]
Until recently, the website at AdsenseClickers.com offered a service to help people boost their Google Adsense pay-per-click revenue. The service promised to send only real, natural traffic and promised “zero risk” to customers, but I wouldn’t believe ... read more ...
Wed 9th December 2015
Verisign appeals XYZ justice loss - Case will continue in Court of Appeals.
Just days after .XYZ asked a court to force Verisign to pay its legal bills in a lawsuit; Verisign upped the ante by appealing the case.
In late October, judge Claude M. Hilton granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment in the false advertising case brought by Verisign. On November 20, Hilton released his opinion, noting that XYZ’s claims were just puffery and opinion.
Last week, XYZ said the case was “exceptional”, and Verisign should be required to ... read more ...
The late Igal Lichtman, aka Mrs Jello, loses a terrible UDRP decision - Panel re-writes UDRP and “registered in bad faith” requirement.
The heirs of the late Igal Lichtman, commonly known in domain name circles as Mrs Jello, have lost a UDRP decision for the common name Camilla.com.
The case was filed by Australian clothing company Camilla Australia Pty Ltd, which uses the domain Camilla.com.au.
A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel determined that, even though the domain name was registered prior to the Complainant having rights in the (common ... read more ...
Mon 7th December 2015
Domain Owner sues National Arbitration Forum and complainant after losing UDRP - Lawsuit names UDRP complainant and National Arbitration Forum.
VirtualPoint, Inc., which operates the site UDRPSearch.com, has filed a lawsuit after losing a UDRP for the domain name WindCreek.com.
The company filed the suit (pdf) against not only the complainant in the case but also the National Arbitration Forum.
Against complainant Poarch Band of Creek Indians, VirtualPoint alleges that the group fraudulently obtained its Wind Creek trademarks and manipulated evidence by searching for a specific ... read more ...
Sun 6th December 2015
.XYZ asks Verisign to compensate $1.6 million in fees from lawsuit - The .XYZ domain name registry has asked a court (pdf) to force Verisign to pay $1.6 million in fees and expenses related to the lawsuit Verisign filed against it.
Verisign, the $10 billion (market cap) company that runs .com, sued XYZ for false advertising claims.
The judge overseeing the case eventually granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment.
But that was after XYZ paid $1.6 million in fees and expenses to defend itself, a massive sum for the startup. XYZ claims the ongoing costs of the suit ... read more ...
Fri 4th December 2015
SK Lubricants Guilty of Reverse Domain Hijacking on ZiC.com - SK Lubricants Americas of Houston, Texas was just found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the three letter .com domain name ZIC.com
The domain owner was represented by ESQwire.com
The Domain Name was originally created on September 6, 2003 but the current owner obtained the Domain Name on February 28, 2015 and is offering it for sale, and is in the business of selling domain names.
The domain name is parked.
The Complainant offered $3,000 to buy the domain and then filed this UDRP ... read more ...
Thu 3rd December 2015
China to make Real Name Verification on .Com Domain Names - The government of China is clamping down on registrants of .com domain names.
Regulations that have prevented Chinese residents from using many new top level domain names will soon affect .com and .net domain name registrations, too.
The rules will apply to .com and .net domain name registrations starting March 1, 2016, according to documents obtained by Domain Name Wire.
At that time, domain name registrars in China will have to obtain Real Name Verification and Domain Name Verification for each ... read more ...
Mobile phone association Digicel fails to take down "sucks" site - Cybersquatting complaint against gripe site fails.
The non-commercial gripe site at DigicelSucks.com.Mobile phone company Digicel, which is based in Jamaica, has failed to take down the gripe site DigicelSucks.com through a cybersquatting complaint.
The site consists of commentary abut the mobile carrier along with aggregated tweets of people bashing Digicel.
Digicel was quick to file a UDRP cybersquatting complaint against the domain name. DigicelSucks.com was registered on October 12 of this year, ... read more ...
Wed 2nd December 2015
Domain Name Appraisal fraud still creation a rounds - After all these years, it’s still going strong.
It’s one of the oldest scams in the books, and apparently it’s still working.
The domain appraisal scam goes like this: someone says they’re interested in buying your domain name, and they think it’s worth a lot of money. But before they can go through with the purchase, you need you to get an appraisal from a specific service. Once they get a validation of the value, they promise to buy the domain name.
Once you pay for the appraisal, however, ... read more ...
Tue 1st December 2015
It's #GivingTuesday, though this classification wasn't really charitable - Charity technology provider makes ridiculous arguments in a UDRP.
It’s fitting that WIPO just published a UDRP decision for networkofgiving.com (and .org) on #GivingTuesday.
The complaint was filed by Edatanetworks Inc., a company that provides customer loyalty technology and counts charities as its clients. It claims to have used the “Network of Giving” marks since about 2007…two years after the current registrant of the corresponding domain names registered them.
The current registrant ... read more ...
Mon 30th November 2015
Whoa, this association totally doesn't know UDRP - Company says .Com domains must be used commercially, and offers to pay money in return for getting a domain name through UDRP.
BURRI public elements AG of Glattbrugg, Switzerland has filed one of the most misguided UDRPs I’ve ever seen.
The company filed a UDRP against Markus Burri, also of Switzerland, to try to get the domain name Burri.com.
The complainant argued:
The Respondent has no legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name, because he is not using it for commercial purposes. ... read more ...
Tue 24th November 2015
New Forests Asset Management is a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker - Company filed dead-on-arrival UDRP after failing to purchase domain name it wanted.
After failing to buy NewForests.com, the asset management firm went the unethical route.New Forests Asset Management Pty Limited of North Sydney, Australia has been found to have engaged in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking over the domain name NewForests.com. The asset management firm uses the Australian country code domain name NewForests.com.au.
The company filed a UDRP against NewForests.com despite not having been ... read more ...
Fri 20th November 2015
Judge: .XYZ statements were puffery and opinion - Judge explains why he dismissed Verisign’s lawsuit.
Daniel Negari has lots to smile about today.Judge Claude M. Hilton has issued his reason for granting .XYZ’s motion for summary judgment in a battle with .com giant Verisign.
The judge granted the motion for summary judgment on October 26. In an opinion released today, Hilton said that .XYZ’s and Daniel Negari’s statements were a combination of fact, opinion and puffery.
For example, saying “all the good real estate is taken” is merely ... read more ...
Judge In 1st Verisign vs. XYZ Case Publishes 15 Page Opinion - The federal judge CLAUDE M. HILTON who granted a summary judgement in favor of .XYZ and Daniel Negari last month throwing Verisign’s case for false advertising out, today handed down a 15 page Memorandum Opinion supporting the summary judgement decision and of course its very interesting.
Here are the highlights:
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Defendants XYZ.COM, LLC and Daniel Negari ‘s (“XYZ” or “Defendants”) Motion for Summary Judgment.
Plaintiff Verisign, Inc Defendant XYZ ... read more ...
XYZ & Negari Beats Verisign In Federal Court, Again: CentralNic Too - .XYZ has just won another court battle against Verisign (VRSN).
Back three weeks ago a Federal Court dismissed a case brought by Verisign against XYZ.com, the registry for .XYZ and Daniel Negari personally alleging false advertising by granting XYZ and Negari a short summary judgement opinion.
Now in a second case in Verisign sued XYZ.COM, DANIEL NEGARI and CentralNic, which is the back-end provider for the .XYZ registry, for tortuous interference and business conspiracy relating to changing ... read more ...
Thu 19th November 2015
RDNH should have been deliberate in BankWell.com decision - Panelist gets decision correct but doesn’t consider reverse domain name hijacking.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has denied New Canaan, Connecticut-based Bankwell Financial Group in its cybersquatting complaint against Bankwell.com.
However, panelist Peter Dernbach did not consider if Bankwell engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the case. He probably should have.
The same owner has had the domain name since he registered it in 2003. Bankwell wasn’t formed ... read more ...
Tue 17th November 2015
Electronic Frontier Foundation takes down travesty malware site - Site was spreading malware under “Pawn Storm”.
It’s a bit ironic, really. Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends privacy and online freedoms, was itself spoofed in an attempt to spread malware.
The organization has won control of the spoof site, ElectronicFrontierFoundation.org, through a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization.
The domain name was used as part of “Pawn Storm“. A spear-phishing attack included a link to the fake site. The perpetrators, ... read more ...
Mon 16th November 2015
9 years later, Twitter gets Twitter.com.au - Company finally gets hold of Australian domain name.
Twitter has won a cybersquatting complaint against the owner of the Australian domain name Twitter.com.au. The company filed the complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization.
Jason Boyce registered the domain name in 2006, just as the Twitter service was in development. Twitter hadn’t bothered him about the domain name (at least formally) until 2012, when it objected to Boyce’s trademark filing for Twitter.com.au.
Now, in 2015, it ... read more ...
Read this UDRP before induction Monte Carlo domain names - Group waits for gambling use before filing claims.
Société des bains de mer de Monaco has lost a UDRP it filed against the domain names MonteCarlo.biz and MonteCarlo.ws.
This is an interesting case. The complainant is primarily owned by the government of Monaco. It has won previous UDRPs related to gambling and Monte Carlo.
In the UDRP, the complainant stated that it monitors domain names with “Monte Carlo” in them. It doesn’t claim exclusive used to the term Monte Carlo, but as soon as the ... read more ...