Tag Archives: legal

Wed 22nd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP row refuses to give lapsed domain to prior owner - Domain owner that offered to sell domain name to respondent let it expire. A UDRP panel has refused to transfer the domain name iSound.com back to a previous owner who let the domain name expire. Jeremy Same filed the case against Richard Weston / dreamGEAR, LLC for the domain name iSound.com. Same’s company owned the domain name, and previously offered to sell it to the respondent, which has a number of trademarks for i.sound and claims to have sold over $50 million ... read more ...
Tue 21st January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Big company’s website dangling interjection to 2013 RAA - Sports site suspended because someone didn’t click on a confirmation email. It’s not exactly Amazon.com, but a website belonging to a large company has been suspended thanks to a whois verification snafu. Fixtures365.com, a sports betting site, has been suspended because the owner did not respond to a verification email. As of January 1, domain name registrars operating under the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement must suspend sites when they cannot verify ... read more ...
Mon 20th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panel: .Kosher tip turn domain focus is Kosher - Application for .kosher top level domain name can proceed after surviving objection. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has ruled that a community objection against .kosher has failed. The case was really an issue of competitive advantage, as the objector is in competition with the domain applicant in the business of certifying that products are kosher. The case was filed by Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, which describes itself as the ... read more ...
Fri 17th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts loses .Insurance though can keep .Insure - New top level domain mega-applicant Donuts is no longer in the running for the .insurance top level domain name as a result of a community objection decision. But it has survived an objection against its .insure application, for which it is not in a contention set. Panelist Mr. Juan Fernández-Armesto ruled in Donuts favor on one of the .insurance objections as well as the .insure one, but against Donuts on another community objection against .insurance. In the cases ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Health field tarry village objections - .Health applications move forward after lengthy objection process. The objection process against .health top level domain names is over. Both DotHealth, LLC and Donuts have survived community objections filed against their applications. They previously survived limited public interest objections. The community objections were filed by the ICANN At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). Panelist Jan Paulsson took a bit different approach to this determination than other ... read more ...
Mon 13th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RPG Life Sciences Ltd guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Company filed dispute against domain name clearly being used for another legitimate purpose. Pharmaceuticals and biotech business RPG Life Sciences Ltd. of Mumbai has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in a domain name dispute. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Nicholas Weston found that RPG Life Sciences had filed a UDRP in bad faith in an attempt to get the domain name RPGlife.com. The domain name is owned by a Wisconsin man who ... read more ...
Fri 10th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panelist awards .charity to Famous Four formed on PIC - Panelist approves of Famous Four application for .charity while killing Donuts’ rival application. A Public Interest Commitment for the .charity top level domain has resulted in Famous Four “winning” the contention set for the domain. The Independent Objector (IO) filed community objections against both Famous Four’s and Donuts’ applications for .charity, along with Famous Four’s application for a Chinese equivalent. The cases were consolidated, and the ... read more ...
Thu 9th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uh oh: .Basketball village conflict fails, .sport prevailed. - Panelist in .basketball decision uses different interpretation of guidelines to come up with a different conclusion than panelist in .sport. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has determined that community objections filed against two applications for .basketball have failed. Comparing this decision to a recent one upholding a community objection to .sport, it appears we may have another case of inconsistent rulings. The .basketball community objection ... read more ...
Wed 8th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panel orders HP.nu to be eliminated to Hewlett-Packard - HP gets two letter ccTLD in WIPO decision. Hewlett-Packard has won the transfer of the domain name HP.nu in a UDRP decision at World Intellectual Property Organization. .Nu is the ccTLD for the island state of Niue. The operators of .nu use the standard UDRP for handling domain name disputes. The domain name owner tried to put up a defense that he registered a bunch of short .nu domain names and was not targeting HP with his registration. Nunames offered a promotion ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Brazilian association guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Dental company went after domain name used by Korean dentist. A three person WIPO panel has found JJGC Industria E Comercio de Materiais Dentarios S.A. of Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. The company, which specializes in dental implants, filed its case over the domain name NeoDent.com. It uses the domain name NeoDent.com.br. NeoDent.com is owned by someone in Korea who actually uses the domain name for a dental practice called ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gold is not a clearly defined community, row rules - Rival applicants fails to eliminate Donuts’ .gold top level domain application. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has ruled that “gold” is not a clearly delineated community, and has thus rejected a community objection filed by World Gold Council against Donuts’ application to run .gold. World Gold Council (WGC) is a rival applicant for .gold. It did not apply under community status. In one of the shortest community objection decisions to date, ... read more ...
Tue 7th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Republican National Committee loses quarrel over .republican - RNC loses objection against Demand Media’s application to run .republican top level domain name. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has lost a community objection it filed against Demand Media’s application to run the .republican top level domain name. The RNC, which uses the domain name gop.com, is behind an application for the .gop domain name. This case is really interesting, as panelist Brigitte Stern provided a very detailed analysis of the language ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: A record series of RDNH filings - More complainants than ever were found guilty of trying to steal domain names using UDRP. 2013 saw a record number of UDRP complainants found guilty of “Reverse Domain Name Hijacking,” which is essentially using the UDRP in bad faith to attempt to obtain a domain name. As of the middle of last month, 24 complainants had been found guilty of abusing the UDRP. Nat Cohen has a lengthy article explaining why the number may have spiked in 2013. One hypothesis is that, ... read more ...
Mon 6th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CNN Covers The Selfie Olympics On Twitter While ICANN Bans Registrations In New gTLD’s - In the domain name space The Olympics have been given the strongest protections including  ICANN prohibiting the registration any new gTLD containing the word Olympics in it. However in the rest of cyberspace the Olympics enjoys no such protection. CNN just covered the “Selfie Olympics” that has been trending on  Twitter. Not only is the word Olympics being used in a way on Twitter and with Twitter handle in a way not permitted in new gTLD land, the Twitter account uses the  logo includes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gucci wins 182 domain names in a UDRP - Gucci wins a lot of domain names in a UDRP decision. Italian design firm Guccio Gucci S.p.A. has won 182 domain names in a UDRP. It’s one of the highest number of domain names I’ve seen transferred in a single UDRP, although there have certainly been larger cases. The case was filed against Brian E. Nielsen of “Boise, New York”. There doesn’t appear to be a city of Boise in New York, and Gucci claimed the whois information was bogus. It also alleged that ... read more ...
Sat 4th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Owner Alert: Whois corroboration phishing scams have already begun - New RAA requirement to verify your contact information is great news to scammers. Effective January 1, any domain name registrar that has signed on to the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (that includes all of the big registrars) must verify certain aspects of whois contact information. The registrars must verify this by phone or email. Email will be the most popular method because it’s cheaper. Law enforcement agencies asked for this as a way to reduce bogus ... read more ...
Fri 3rd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts appeals absurd .hospital objection - New TLD applicant asks ICANN’s board to reconsider objection that killed .hospital. A lot of new top level domain name applicants and objectors have filed reconsideration requests with ICANN after landing on the losing side of objections. I stopped writing about these filings after the first few. They’re so plentiful as to no longer constitute “news.” Also, ICANN is rejecting all of the requests, so it seems like a futile practice. But if there were ever ... read more ...
Thu 2nd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: New TLD Objection problems - “Blame part of it on how the guidelines to achieving these goals were actually written. Blame it on weak agreements with incapable arbitration groups that hired incapable panelists.” Well said Andrew! By the way we filed re-consideration requests on the Amazon cases. We will act accordingly to ICANN’s and the ICC’s response. Here it is: http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/reconsideration/request-dotmusic-23dec13-en.pdf (See http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/reconsideration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google’s and Cleveland Clinic’s .Med tip turn domains rejected - Panel determines .med would create likelihood of detriment to medical community. Internet powerhouse Google and one of the world’s most respected health institutions, The Cleveland Clinic, have both seen their hopes for operating a .med top level domain name dashed by an arbitration panel. Both parties were on the losing end of community objections filed by Independent Objector Alain Pellet as part of the new top level domain name objection process. International ... read more ...
Mon 30th December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Anti-Google organisation FairSearch.org loses conflict opposite .map - Panelist unmoved by FairSearch.org’s arguments against Google’s bid to run a .map top level domain name. FairSearch.org, a consortium representing companies that compete against Google, is now 0-for-2 in community objections it filed against Google’s top level domain name applications. Panelist Vladimir Khvalei has determined that the group’s community objection against .map fails (pdf). It previously lost its objection to .fly, and only a determination on ... read more ...
Thu 26th December 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Oscars Files Another Suit Against Godaddy Under ACPA Alleging Continued Violations - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which hands out the Oscars has filed anther lawsuit against Godaddy under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”). This suit filed on Novmeber 15, 2013, “supplements a currently pending action between the same parties asserting the same theories of infringement under the ACPA and related state theories that was filed in May 2010, Case No. 2:20-cv-03738-ABC-CW” This lawsuit names additional parked domain names that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: a 2013 RAA - A new Registrar Accreditation Agreement is finalized and signed by many registrars. 2013 saw the finalization of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which is the contract between ICANN and domain name registrars that offer domain names to the public. It’s the first major update since 2009. This new agreement has major implications for everyone who touches the domain name industry, not just for registrars and domainers. It will affect every person who ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HomeAway sues Airbnb over birdhouses - Airbnb irks rival by launching birdhouse ad campaign. Publicly traded vacation rental site HomeAway (NASDAQ: AWAY) has sued upstart rival Airbnb for trademark infringement after the latter launched an ad campaign featuring birdhouses. HomeAway’s logo prominently features a birdhouse, and the company uses birdhouses as its sort of “mascot.” A birdhouse is featured at HomeAway’s Austin headquarters and new employees design their own birdhouses. In its lawsuit ... read more ...
Mon 23rd December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO row awards StAndrews.com domain name to golf course - Famous golf course to get control of StAndrews.com domain name. A World Intellectual Property Organization UDRP panelist has awarded the StAndrews.com domain name to St Andrews Links, one of the oldest golf courses in the world. This was an interesting case because St Andrew is also the name of the town in which St Andrews Links is located, and also has several other uses. In fact, when I search Google for “St Andrews,” the first page of results has only one mention ... read more ...
Fri 20th December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
More foolish supervision division with new tip turn domain names - The government of India should be thrilled that .ram was applied for as a .brand, which will protect the domain from potentially offensive uses.I’ve written before about hard headed governments and their challenges against particular top level domain names. I was reminded of another such case today, thanks to the Government of India sending a letter (pdf) to ICANN reiterating its opposition to a couple strings. The government is opposed to the delegation of .RAM. ... read more ...