Tag Archives: legal

Mon 12th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
University of Cambridge loses box opposite Cambridge.com - University “seriously misdescribed” website in attempt to win transfer of site. The University of Cambridge has lost a cybersquatting dispute against the owner of Cambridge.com. The panel found that the University and its lawyers Stobbs IP Limited also “seriously misdescribed” contents of the domain name owner’s website. Kirkland Holdings LLC bought the Cambridge.com domain name in 2010 for $85,000. It subsequently created a website for Cambridge, United States and Cambridge, UK on the ... read more ...
Sat 10th October 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Better Pay Attention As ICANN Opens Up Comment Period For Changes To UDRP & URS - “The report makes it clear that UDRP reform is going to be on the table and well as the addition of NEW RPM meaning its possible that a new procedure in addition to The UDRP and the URS might be recommend. “The UDRP was created in 1999 to resolve disputes concerning disputes over entitlement to domain names registered at the second level of the DNS. It is an ICANN Consensus Policy that is applicable to all gTLDs, including those launching under the New gTLD Program. The uniform operation of ... read more ...
Fri 9th October 2015
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Now this is a good UDRP panelist… - Panelist spends a few extra minutes to avoid an injustice. A UDRP panelist who doesn’t take the easy way out in a case where the respondent doesn’t reply? Meet Nick J. Gardner. Gardner decided a recent case in which German company MAGIX Software GmbH filed a UDRP against the U.S. owner of MusicMaker.com. The domain name was registered in 1996. Given that it was so long ago, the whois lists the owner as The Music Connection, and Music Maker is a descriptive term, Gardner decided to do some basic ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Gay fails village test, again - Queue the complaints about ICANN again…even though it’s not its fault. dotgay LLC, an applicant for the .Gay top level domain name that was seeking community status, has once again failed (pdf) to convince an independent panel that it qualifies. The company lost its Community Priority Evaluation last year, with the panel ruling in part: “The applied-for string neither matches the name of the community as defined by the application nor does it identify the defined community without over-reaching ... read more ...
Thu 8th October 2015
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World Trade Centers wins 89 domain names, including 9/11 names - Group takes over domain names registered on and after 9/11. World Trade Centers Association, Inc. has won 89 domain names in a cybersquatting dispute. The group filed a cybersquatting complaint with Czech Arbitration Court over 90 domain names, all of which included some reference to WTC or World Trade Center, such as 9-11WTC.com, RememberWTC.org and WTCForum.com. A panelist ordered that 89 of the domain names be transferred to World Trade Centers Association. It declined the transfer of ZWTC.com, ... read more ...
Thu 1st October 2015
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BMW wins B.MW domain name cybersquatting case - Domain name owner had a plausible defense, but didn’t bother to respond to the allegations. Car company BMW has won rights to the domain name B.MW through a cybersquatting arbitration proceeding through World Intellectual Property Organization. .Mw domain names are country code domain name for Malawi. .Mw domain names use the same UDRP rules applicable to other domains, such as .com. BMW argued that the domain name registrant surely knew of the company, and that offering the domain name for sale ... read more ...
Tue 29th September 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Florida Owner of UberPromotions.com Sues Uber.com For Trademark Infringement - UBER PROMOTIONS, INC. a Florida corporation filed a federal lawsuit today against the the world famous Uber.com whose formal corporate name is UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC for trademark infringement, unfair competition under the Trademark Act of 1946, under Florida law and under common law. The Florida corporation alleged they had a website for transportation services started in Gainesville Florida in 2006, home of the Florida Gators, several years before what we all know as Uber.com started. Here are ... read more ...
 
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Lawsuit filed to redeem stolen OnlineMBA.com domain name - Company files lawsuit after losing UDRP. After failing to recover the allegedly stolen domain name OnlineMBA.com through a UDRP, the previous owner of the domain name has turned to the courts. CMN.com, LLC, which generates leads for education companies, filed a lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court in Virignia late last week to recover the domain name. It says that an unknown person gained access to its email address, and used this to hijack the domain name. Plaintiff CMN.com says the domain thief ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD foe news is worthless - Getting answers to the wrong questions… ICANN released a report yesterday called “Phase I Assessment of the Competitive Effects Associated with the New gTLD Program”, undertaken by an outside research firm. I found the report mostly worthless. This is partly because the new TLD program’s focus on increasing choice and competition is based on the wrong premise. That premise is that there is a lack of good available second level domain names to register. The reality is there are plenty of good ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sen. Cruz Asks The GAO to Determine Whether Obama Has "The Power to Give Away a Internet" - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is also running for President, along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday “requesting an affirmative determination of whether the Obama Administration’s plan to transfer U.S. ... read more ...
Mon 28th September 2015
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Blackjack.com: A singular RDNH in an "outside a scope" UDRP - Panel rules reverse domain name hijacking in Blackjack.com dispute. A three person National Arbitration Forum panel has found the complainants in a UDRP over Blackjack.com to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking. You’re probably not surprised about an RDNH in a case for a million dollar generic like Blackjack.com. What is unique is that the panel also found the entire case outside the scope of the UDRP. Most of the time, when a panel comes to this determination, it doesn’t consider RDNH. ... read more ...
 
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Uniregistry takes over .HIV domain name - Company takes over struggling top level domain name. Top level domain name registry Uniregistry has taken over ownership and management of the .HIV top level domain name. .HIV launched as a “social cause” TLD about a year ago. It came with a high registration price of about $200, but the registry promised to donate money to HIV/AIDS charities with each visit to a .hiv site. The idea didn’t take off, with only about 500 registrations in the zone file to date. So earlier this year the .hiv backers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP finds laches and that heading is also generic - Panelist questions why case was filed 16 years after domain was registered, and notes that the trademark is also generic. When is a trademark also generic? You probably didn’t know that the hardware chain True Value Company has a trademark on the term “Green Thumb”. It has a registered trademark on the term dating to 1987. I always thought the term meant someone who is good with gardening. I’m not alone, either. Apparently, in the same year of True Value’s trademark registration, a dictionary ... read more ...
Fri 25th September 2015
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Ashley Madison takes down WasHeOnAshleyMadison.com - Arbitration panel awards domain name to dating site owner. Avid Dating Life Inc, the company that operates the AshleyMadison.com site for affair dating, has successfully convinced an arbitration panelist that it should get the domain name WasHeOnAshleyMadison.com. Avid Dating Life filed a UDRP with the World Intellectual Property Organization, arguing that the registrant of the domain name was cybersquatting. Panelist John Swinson agreed. The domain name was registered to someone listed as “Calico ... read more ...
Thu 24th September 2015
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Male encouragement association nailed for RDNH over Maximize.com - Nucell, LLC, seller of a “male enhancement” product, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Maximize.com A three person Czech Arbitration Court panel wrote a scathing finding of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), and it was warranted. The owner of the domain name bought it in 2008 for $10,000. The complainant, which may not have been an active company at the time, started harassing the domain name owner a few years later, according to the decision. It doesn’t ... read more ...
Wed 23rd September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An engaging craziness in UDRP rulings - This panelist has a different standard for the first element of UDRP. This morning I was reading the UDRP decision for CallFinder.com. Panelist David Einhorn got the answer correct — the domain name shouldn’t have been transferred to a company that got a trademark for CallFinder many years after the domain name was registered. But I was surprised to see that Einhorn found that 800 Response Marketing, LLC failed to prove the first prong of the UDRP. The first prong basically says that the domain ... read more ...
 
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UDRP row doesn't give behind OnlineMBA.com, stolen from Moniker - Company says domain name was stolen from its Moniker account, but UDRP panel determines it didn’t prove trademark rights. An Austin company that once owned OnlineMBA.com has failed to recover the allegedly stolen domain name through a UDRP. Mascot Media Circle, LLC has owned the domain name since 2010. This summer it realized it was no longer in control of the domain name, and alleges that it was stolen from its Moniker account. This sounds plausible, given the number of security issues discussion ... read more ...
Tue 22nd September 2015
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MySchool.com lawsuit moves brazen with several twists and turns - Lawyers withdraw, defendant asks for attorneys fees based on comment on DNW. A lawsuit over the domain name MySchool.com is heating up, with the defendant’s lawyers citing a comment made on Domain Name Wire as grounds to recover attorneys fees. Joseph Carpenter, who runs the site MySchool411.com, filed a federal lawsuit to get the domain name MySchool.com. This was after he lost two separate UDRP cases for the domain name. Carpenter has switched lawyers in the case multiple times. Most recently, ... read more ...
Mon 21st September 2015
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UDRPSearch owners gets UDRP win - Company behind UDRP search site wins its on UDRP. Virtual Point, the company that runs UDRP site UDRPSearch.com, has successfully defended a UDRP for the domain name addicting-games.com. Complainant Defy Media runs the online games site AddictingGames.com. Its predecessor-in-interest registered the domain name in 2002; Virtual Point registered the hyphenated version in 2003. The case turned on the trademark dates for “Addicting Games”. Defy Mewdia argued that it was a popular site by the time ... read more ...
Thu 17th September 2015
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Finally! Google sues robocallers Local Lighthouse - Google files trademark infringement suit against bothersome SEO/SEM company. Google has sued Local Lighthouse Corp, which has undertaken a massive robocall and telemarketing campaign and, from personal experience, tried to trick callers into thinking it was associated with Google. It’s likely you’ve received a robocall from these this group, even if you didn’t know who was behind it. The calls suggest the caller is from Google, or representing Google, and needs to talk to you about your search ... read more ...
Tue 15th September 2015
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Panelist finds East End N.Y. Imports Inc. intent in retreat domain name hijacking - Company went after Modway.com domain name, which was registered well before it had trademark rights in the name. One of three panelists in a UDRP decision for Modway.com has determined that East End N.Y. Imports engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the case. The other two, while finding in the domain name owner’s favor, declined to find RDNH. It seems that the complainant’s saving grace for reverse domain name hijacking was that it managed to pull up a couple cases to back up ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Foundation Fitness nailed for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking on Stages.com - Seller of Stages exercise bikes abused UDRP in effort to get Stages.com domain name. Portland, Oregon company Foundation Fitness engaged in reverse domain name hijacking for the domain name Stages.com, a World Intellectual Property Organization panel has ruled. The company sells stationary exercise bikes under the brand Stages Cycling. In this case, the registrant of the domain name bought it in the aftermarket in 2014. This was after trademarks were issued to the complainant. Still, the panel determined ... read more ...
Sat 12th September 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Apple Sued For Trademark Infringement Over "Ear Pods" - Plaintiff Direct Sound was started in November 2000 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Direct Sound is engaged in this business of manufacturing and selling audio headphones and related parts and accessories. Direct Sound owns the trademarks of “E.A.R.PODS” and “e.a.r.Pods.” Direct Sound uses the marks “E.A.R.PODS” and “e.a.r.Pods” on and in connection with its products. On September 8, 2012, Direct Sound filed Application Serial No. 85/724,049 (“‘049 Application”) seeking to federally ... read more ...
Fri 11th September 2015
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Godaddy Wins 5 Year Case Against The Oscars (Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) - According to Variety.com, A federal judge ruled that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences (AMPAS) which owns and broadcast the The Oscars award failed to show that GoDaddy (GDDY) acted in “bad faith” with an intent to profit off of the Academy trademarks. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr., in a 128-page opinion found that GoDaddy met its affirmative good faith safe harbor defense typically granted to registrars for domain name registered to customers According to Variety “The Academy ... read more ...
Thu 10th September 2015
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Lawsuit filed after Materia.com UDRP, and it's an engaging case - Michele Dinoia has cybersquatted in the past, but was Materia.com different? Michele Dinoia has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against California company Materia, Inc., after Materia won a UDRP for Dinoia’s domain name Materia.com. The lawsuit seeks to stay the transfer and seeks a finding reverse domain name hijacking. National Arbitration panelist Richard DiSalle found in Materia, Inc’s favor in a UDRP decision dated August 20. He ordered Dinoia’s domain name registrar, Name.com, ... read more ...