Tag Archives: legal

Fri 1st February 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
If ICANN and WIPO can’t approve with WHOIS, who can? - Technically ICANN and WIPO’s whois records aren’t compliant. Since the meltdown of Registerfly.com several years ago, ICANN has continued to promise to better police compliance with the registrar accreditation agreement (RAA), including the WHOIS provisions of the RAA. I have recently heard that one of the clauses of the RAA which ICANN Compliance is looking at is this one: 3.7.7.1 The Registered Name Holder shall provide to Registrar accurate and reliable contact ... read more ...
Thu 31st January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Two Parked Pages: McLaren.net Lost In A UDRP; McLaren.biz Saved in UDRP - In two separate UDRP decision are out today, one on the domain name McLaren.net the other on the domain name McLaren.biz, the two separate UDRP panels awarded one of the domains and refused to transfer the other to the same complainant, Of course the most famous trademark holder of the term “Mclaren”, is the car maker, but they didn’t bring the complaints. Instead the complaints were brought by McLaren Health Care Corporation whose federally registered trademark was just issued last year: Complainant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
McLaren wins McLaren.net, loses McLaren.biz domain disputes - Health care company files a bad case against someone named McLaren. McLaren Health Care Corporation has won a UDRP for McLaren.net while losing one for McLaren.biz. In the case of McLaren.net, the owner of the domain didn’t submit a formal response to the UDRP. He claimed his last name was McLaren, but without providing proof nor a formal response, the panel found against him. The respondent noted that he received the complaint over Christmas and did not have time ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
American Automobile Association sues owners of AAAclubs.xxx and other domains - AAA sues to stop adult entertainment site from using AAA in its name. The American Automobile Association, commonly known as AAA or “Triple A”, has sued the owner of AAAclubs.xxx, AAAclubs.com, AAAclubs.net, and AAAclubs.us. According to the lawsuit (pdf), AAA became aware of the defendant in December 2011 when it filed a trademark application for “AAA Clubs of America” for use in conjunction with discount programs. AAA offers discount programs to its membership. AAA ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kieren McCarthy to turn Executive Director of IFFOR - McCarthy takes bigger role in IFFOR and group offers policy making services. Former ICANN General Manager of Public Participation Kieren McCarthy will become Executive Director of IFFOR this April. McCarthy has been IFFOR’s manager of public participation since 2011. He will replace outgoing executive director Joan Irvine. IFFOR, which stands for International Foundation for Online Responsibility, was set up as part of the .xxx domain name launch. IFFOR gets $10 ... read more ...
Wed 30th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Best Selling Author Kevin Trudeau Saves 18 Year Old Domain Trudeau.com From UDRP - The domain name of a common last name Trudeau.com was saved in a UDRP today. How common is the name “Trudeau”? Consider that  Pierre Trudeau was twice the prime minster of Canada and hat the domain holder is the best selling author Mr. Kevin Trudeau and that the founder of the company filing the complaint was a Mr. Joseph-Arthur Trudeau. The domain name Trudeau.com was registered on October 11, 1995. Yes 1995. So this domain is 18 years  old which could be a record for the age of a domain ... read more ...
Tue 29th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Why Did It Take 12 Years For This Trademark Holder To File & Win A UDRP? - The Complainants Columbia Insurance Company of Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America; and H.H. Brown Shoe Company, Inc. of Greenwich, Connecticut, United States of America, just won a UDRP on the domain name carolinaboots.com. The trademark holder didn’t own a trademark on the term “carolina boots” but owned a trademark on the term CAROLINA which covered shoes and boots. The trademark holder registered the domain name carolinashoe.com on August 13, 1999, but didn’t register the domain ... read more ...
Mon 28th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
When Chanel takes over a domain name, it sends a warning to others - Domains used to warn others that Chanel will pursue them. French fashion house Chanel has aggressively pursued counterfeiters and cybersquatters over the year. But what it does with many of the names it recovers is rather unique: it sends a warning to would-be counterfeiters and customers of counterfeit goods. Michele Neylon discovered one such example today. Here’s an example of one of the sites it took over: Chanel’s message warns counterfeiters that the company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign’s patents: who will a association go after? - Company’s patent portfolio isn’t limited to domain name industry. Last week Verisign said it would consider ways to monetize its patent portfolio. The company’s patent portfolio is quite broad. In addition to covering domain names, it has patents and patent applications covering everything from digital cameras to online payments to databases to telecom. Who will it go after? Let’s take a look at some of the potential targets. Competing domain registries Verisign ... read more ...
Fri 25th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Heads up, competing registries: Verisign competence start reporting the patents - Verisign evaluating how to make money from its patent portfolio. Competing domain registries, watch out. Much of yesterday’s Verisign investor conference call was focus on patents and Verisign figuring out how to profit from them. While saying it was too early to talk specifics, Verisign CEO James Bidzos said the company has many options. We have a large number of patents — a portion of our patents read directly on registry operations so we think that there are ... read more ...
Thu 24th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Publishes “Thought Paper” On Domain Seizures Without Discussing Protecting Rights - ICANN just issued a “thought paper“” entitled “Guidance for Preparing Domain Name Orders, Seizures Takedowns” According to ICANN this  “thought paper” offers guidance for anyone who prepares an order that seeks to seize or take down domain names. ” However having read through the paper, what I don’t see discussed is the legal rights of registrants and protections they should be given from domain seizures. The “thought paper” from what I read assumes the domain holder in question ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ally Financial sues cybersquatter who forked domains to Chase.com - Bank files anti-cybersquatting lawsuit after domain owner refused to hand over domain names. Ally Financial (GMAC) has filed a lawsuit against a Scottsdale man who allegedly registered domains including the Ally brand and forwarded the to its rival Chase.com. According to the suit (pdf), Donald Jones registered a handful of domain names including AllyBankLoans.com, AllyBancShares.com, and AllyNationalBank.com. Ally alleges that he then forwarded these domain names ... read more ...
Wed 23rd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A protected approach to offload your infringing domain names? - Lawyer lets you offload your trademark-infringing domain names. About five years ago I was talking to a domainer who had some trademark-infringing domains in his portfolio. He didn’t want them. He just wanted to get rid of them. “What if there was a service where you could push your infringing domains to and they’d take care of it?” he asked. “You just transfer your domains and they put up a notice on the domain that the trademark owner can claim their domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guy files UDRP opposite his brother - Something tells me these guys didn’t get together for Christmas this year. You know familial relations have hit a new low when you filed a UDRP against your brother. That’s what happened in a recent case filed with National Arbitration Forum. Reed Bousada owns an interior design company. According to his complaint for the domain name Bousada.com, it looks like his brother Jay registered Bousada.com and let him use it for his business for a while. Something happened ... read more ...
Mon 21st January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Two cases uncover a craziness of RDNH - Two cases, three different view of reverse domain name hijacking. Two recent UDRP cases show the inconsistency of how reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH) is applied. In the first case, Intelligentsia Coffee Tea, Inc. v. Ashantiplc Ltd, the panel found against the complainant in a dispute over Intelligentsia.com. In this decision, two of the three panelists said it is the Respondent’s job to prove RDNH. The majority write: A majority of the Panel notes that Complainant ... read more ...
Thu 17th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Files Memorandum In Support Of Dismissing Suit Over .Web - ICANN filed this  memorandum in support (pdf) of its motion to dismiss over lawsuit that IMAGE ONLINE DESIGN, INC a previously applicant for .Web filed against ICANN last year. Here are the highlights of the ICANN filing: In 2000, IOD executed a release in favor of ICANN so that ICANN would consider IOD’s application to operate a .WEB TLD. IOD knew that ICANN might decline to award IOD the requested TLD, or might award the TLD to a different entity, but IOD specifically released ICANN from ... read more ...
Wed 16th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Another UDRP “Win”: TM Holder Failed To Register The Domain Of It New Product: xboxfitness.com - A couple of days ago we wrote about several UDRP decisions all involving famous trademarks and or common typo’s of them and I blamed the trademark holder for the problem. Today comes another UDRP decision that points out what I was talking about. This case involved the domain names xboxfitness.com and xboxfitness.net Here is part of the opinion of the one member panel that awarded the domains to Microsoft: “”Complainant contends that it announced its newest motion controller for the XBOX at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: a initial loyal laches UDRP decision - National Arbitration Forum panel finds case should be barred based on laches. The doctrine of laches bars bringing a claim after an unreasonable delay in a way that unduly hurts the opposing party. Laches started creeping into UDRP cases over the past couple years. But panels usually mention it as part of what led them to their conclusion. Now a three person panel has decided a case based entirely on laches. This is a big deal as there is now a big precedent to point ... read more ...
Tue 15th January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UDRP: Texaco Gets Control Of Texaco.net; Google Gets GoogleMap.com - Quite a few UDRP rulings out this morning in favor of large public companies and some huge brands. The better question to ask is how did these domain not get registered by the companies in the first place and how secondly what took the companies so long to go after them Texaco won its UDRP on the bang on domain Texaco.net. Texaco.net has a most recent original registration date of 2008 but according to domaintools.com has an original registration date of 1997 Google won its UDRP for GoogleMap.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tracy Morgan goes after TracyMorgan.com domain name - Comedian Tracy Morgan wants control of his domain name. Comedian and 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan has filed a complaint to get the domain name TracyMorgan.com. The UDRP complaint was filed with World Intellectual Property Forum. The case notice was published today. Although the parked page at TracyMorgan.com changes, I’m currently seeing sponsored links for “Tracy Morgan Comedian”, “Alex Baldwin Actor” (Baldwin starred with Morgan on 30 Rock), and “Saturday ... read more ...
Thu 3rd January 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
1st .XXX Domain Sale Of The Year Turns Out To Defensive As Well: Loft.com Buys Loft.XXX - Yesterday we wrote about what looks to be the 1st .XXX domain sale of the year, coming across Sedo.com sales wire at very respectable $17,000 Yesterday when we wrote about the sale the whois was showing the domain still being in escrow at Sedo.com but today the new owners information is showing and once again a .XXX sale looks like a defensive purchase The domain was bought by Annco Inc whose administrative contact is generalcounsel@anntaylor.com Any Taylor is large chain of women stores that has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO perceived record series of cybersquatting cases in 2012 - UDRP cases hit record at WIPO in 2012. World Intellectual Property Organization received a record number of UDRP cases in 2012. The organization’s web site reports 2,879 cases were filed in 2012, compared to 2,764 in 2011. The cases covered a total of 5,081 domain names. That shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Filings in the first half of the year at both WIPO and rival National Arbitration Forum were up compared to 2011. It’s worth noting that total filings ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FTC manners hunt disposition is OK, settles on Google scraping - FTC says it’s OK that Google promotes its own vertical search properties over rivals since it is designed to improve overall search experience. The FTC has closed its investigation of Google and the search giant has agreed to make certain changes to its business practices. One key issue was “search bias”, or Google promoting its own vertical search products over rivals. This was particularly the case with vertical search engines, such as product comparison sites. Some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You’ve got to review this one: Marchex wins Reverse Domain Hijacking charge - UDRP panel finds pet transportation company guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. Marchex, with the help of domain name attorney John Berryhill, has won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking. The case was brought by Airpet Animal Transport, Inc for the domain name PetExpress.com. What makes this case particularly interesting to the public is the volume of the two parties’ pleadings that are included in the decision. The complainant clearly left out important ... read more ...
Mon 31st December 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
House Representative Drafting Bill To Stop ICE Domain Seizures Without Notice or Hearing - According to jdsupra.com, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif),  is drafting legislation that would seek to increase judicial oversight ICE’s ability to seize domain names. To date the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized 1,630 domain names, of which 684 have been forfeited to the government. According to the article “Lofgren’s bill will apparently propose that the government must provide notice and an opportunity to be heard ... read more ...