Tag Archives: legal

Sun 2nd September 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
9 Seized Gambling Domains Are Put Up For Sale Including Bookmaker.com TruePoker.com & DoylesRoom.com - Nine domain names that were previously seized by the US Government’s Homeland Security Department have been put up for sale or license. The nine domains include a great generic domain name, Bookmaker.com, and a couple of formerly large poker sites, TruePoker.com and DoylesRoom.com. It’s not clear who is selling the domains, the US government or the former owners. The domain names are all now registered to a “US Poker Marketing Affiliate, LLC” of Las Vegas which has an email contact of ... read more ...
Fri 31st August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Macth.com owners sues Match.com and CitizenHawk after losing UDRP - Domain owner files complaint to halt transfer of domain name after losing UDRP. The owner of Macth.com has sued online dating company Match.com and domain name recovery firm CitizenHawk after losing a UDRP for her domain name. In a complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida (pdf), Liz Eddy is asking for declaratory relief and financial penalties. She says Macth.com is a generic typo. Eddy lost a UDRP for Macth.com on August 15. She alleges that Match.com ... read more ...
Thu 30th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Where do many cybersquatters live? - Oh, more thoughtfully composed and helpful info from WIPO: Still no delineation for 3rd Level Sub-Domains as a contributive source to these problems! Clever coding to isolate 3rd from 2nd, making 3rd look guilty when 2nd is far, far more guilty. The US Federal District Court, Eastern District Virginia I await comment. Cheers, Graham. Here is some useful information, for the less informed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP cybersquatting complaints boost in initial half of 2012 - Two largest UDRP services saw increased activity in first half of the year. The number of cybersquatting complaints filed in the first half of 2012 was up 9% compared to the first half of 2011. That’s according to data provided by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the two largest arbitration services for the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP). WIPO received 1,764 cases in the first half of this ... read more ...
Wed 29th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rising Star AG forgets to replenish RisingStar.com, files UDRP 2 years after (and loses) - Rising star or a falling star? Here’s an interesting UDRP over a great generic domain name, RisingStar.com. Investment company Rising Star AG, which owns RisingStar.ch, bought the domain name RisingStar.com for $5,000 in 2006. It forgot to renew the domain name in 2010 and it went to auction on SnapNames, where it sold for $3,300. (Rising Star claims it sold for $1,000, but it apparently doesn’t know how to search on Google.) For some reason Rising Star AG waited ... read more ...
Tue 28th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum continues to palm infancy of cases to name panelists - Seven panelists hear nearly half of all NAF UDRP cases. Zak Muscovitch has updated his National Arbitration Forum (NAF) panelist study originally released in 2010. The results published on DNAttorney.com have basically the same conclusion as his original report: the National Arbitration Forum hands most of its caseload to a select group of panelists. Just seven American panelists heard nearly half of all of NAF’s caseload from March 5, 2010 – July 4, 2012. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Royal Bank of Scotland files 34 UDRPs - Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services goes into overdrive with large client. Royal Bank of Scotland and its National Westminster Bank Plc have decided to go bulk in cracking down on cybersquatters. The company just filed 34 UDRP cases covering 35 domain names in one fell swoop. This is hardly the bank’s first foray into UDRP. UDRPSearch.com lists 133 cases (including the new ones) filed by Royal Bank of Scotland and 116 filed by National Westminster Bank plc. Based ... read more ...
Fri 24th August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Judge Rules Poker Is a Game Of Skill & Doesn’t Violate Gambling Laws - A federal Court has just ruled that Poker is a game of skill rather than luck opening the door to a huge change in the treatment of Internet gambling in the US The case UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Vs. LAWRENCE DICRISTINA was decided by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The case seemed to turn on the testimony of Randal D. Heeb, “a respected economist, statistician, and player in national poker tournaments”, who testified as an expert on game theory. The opinion ... read more ...
Thu 23rd August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oakley finds that UDRP is not a surefire approach to take down a tawdry web site - If a domain name says the goods are fake, that’s not confusingly similar. On the face of it, it might seem appealing for a trademark owner to use UDRP to take down a web site selling counterfeit goods. But trademark holders need to understand that UDRP is for cybersquatting, and not all sites selling counterfeit goods meet the three requirements of winning a UDRP. The latest example is Oakley, which failed to recover the domain name MyFakeOakleySunglasses.com. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Above.com settles lawsuit with Verizon - Company settles cybersquatting lawsuit ahead of trial. Above.com and related parties have settled a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by Verizon. The case was filed in February 2011 and Above.com was served during the DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica. The suit alleged that the defendants used a number of false identities to traffic in trademark-infringing domain names. It alleged the company has registered, used and/or provided Above.com privacy service to ... read more ...
Wed 22nd August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feds Seize 3 More Domain Names - Homeland Security announced that it has  seized 3 more domain names today. “Seizure orders have been executed against three website domain names engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android cell phone apps” “The department said that this is the first time website domains involving cell phone app marketplaces have been seized.” “The three seized domain names – applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com – are in the custody of the federal government.  ” “Visitors ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN terminates dual domain name registrars - Two small registrars get the ax. ICANN’s contract compliance efforts with domain registrars seem to go in fits and starts. The past couple months have been active, and this month the company fully terminated two accredited domain name registrars. Just yesterday ICANN sent a notice of termination to Ynot Domains Corp in New York. Ynot was canned for not escrowing registration data and being late on accreditation fees. The registrar was tiny, with just 24 .com domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
North Carolina food smoothness use files UDRP opposite Takeout.com - Local restaurant food delivery service wants a big prize: Takeout.com. Oh, I can’t wait to see the result of this UDRP! A North Carolina company that delivers food from local and chain restaurants has filed a UDRP for the domain name Takeout.com. The complaint was officially filed by Tarheel Take-Out, LLC, which runs the web site TarheelTakeout.com. According to the founder’s LinkedIn profile, he also owns RaleighTakeout.com. Takeout.com was originally registered ... read more ...
Tue 21st August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Constituencies blast ICANN’s “closed door” Verisign .com agreement renewal - Groups want explanation for lack of thick whois in contract. Three ICANN entities have signed a letter (pdf) blasting ICANN for its “closed doors” decision to renew the .com agreement with Verisign without requiring thick whois. “Thick whois” refers to a whois in which the registry manages/holds registrant information, rather than each individual registrar. The letter was sent by the At-Large Advisory Committee, the GNSO Business Constituency, and the GNSO ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn settles lawsuit opposite Oversee.net - Long legal battle between Moniker founder and Oversee.net is over. Moniker.com founder Monte Cahn has dismissed his lawsuit against Oversee.net regarding money he said he was owed under a bonus plan. Cahn joined Oversee.net after Seevast sold Moniker to Oversee.net. Cahn left Oversee at the end of 2010. In May 2011 he filed a lawsuit against the company arguing he was due part of a $13 million bonus plan. Having read many of the documents and examinations filed with ... read more ...
Mon 20th August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Melbourne IT Suggests Special Domain Protections For “High At-Risk Marks” In New gTLD’s - Melbourne IT the registrar/brand protection company published a paper that “makes the case that, despite the current protections ICANN has put in place, there is still a set of High At-Risk Marks (HARM) that remain particularly attractive to unscrupulous persons and organizations who will attempt to register these marks at the second level of new gTLDs”. Basically Melbourne IT proposes to create a new set of rules and rights for holders of these High at Risk Marks. The proposal is pretty in-depth ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP panelists don’t do their pursuit determining retreat domain name hijacking - Panelists don’t always consider RDNH when asked, and both WIPO and NAF don’t seem to care. On Friday I wrote about the UDRP decision for AboutDotMed.com et al. This morning I read the decision for J-brand.com. In both cases the respondents won. In both cases the respondents asked for reverse domain name hijacking. But in neither case did the panelist make a decision (either way) about reverse domain name hijacking. Yet the World Intellectual Property Organization ... read more ...
Sat 18th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 ways to solve new tip turn domain “metering” problem - Six examples of ways to meter top level domains, but many of them are basically the same things. ICANN plans to allow only 1,000 new top level domain names into the root per year, and as evenly as possible over a 12 months time span. Its initial idea for figuring out which domains go first — so called “digital archery” — was scrapped. Now the non-profit has come up with six new alternatives. It hopes to figure out a solution by December. Here are six examples ... read more ...
Fri 17th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DotMed applicant survives UDRP conflict on the .med code domain names - Panel sees through seemingly spurious claims by medical equipment seller. .Med applicant HEXAP SAS has staved off an attack on its promotional web sites aboutdotmed.com, supportdotmed.com and thedotmed.com in a UDRP. The company behind medical supplies company DotMed.com filed the complaint in June. DotMed.com has nothing to do with top level domain names, but it has applied for a trademark for “dotmed” as a top level domain. It has also been battling trademark ... read more ...
Wed 15th August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Court Uses Case Of CFIT Vs. Verisign To Hammer ICM’s & ICANN’s Motion To Dismiss Manwin Claims - A federal court made a ruling in the case involving Manwin, the owner of YouPorn.com, brought against ICM, the operator of the .XXX extension, and ICANN the non-profit organization which gave ICM the contract to operate the .XXX TLD ICM. The ruling involved ICM ICANN’s motion to dismiss the case. Bottom line ICM ICANN got two of the 2 of the 6 cause of actions thrown out but the court let the case continue on 4 of the 6 claims. The court cited time and time again throughout its ruling the federal ... read more ...
Fri 10th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whitserv says it’s entrance after domain registrars for promulgation renovation notices - Company claims it has patents related to sending renewal notices. Whitserv, a company suing Go Daddy for alleged patent infringement related to sending renewal reminder notices, says it has put other domain registrars “on notice” as well. Last year Whitserv filed suit against Go Daddy for how it sends reminder notices to renew domain names. The company apparently got a victory related to the same patents against another company, so it just sent out a press release: [Whitserv ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wow: Craigslist loses Craigslists.com domain dispute - UDRP panel doesn’t understand that page is just an automated parked page. Online classifieds site Craigslist has lost a case against one Craig Solomon for the domain name CraigsLists.com (note the extra ‘s’ at the end). The National Arbitration Forum panel relied heavily on laches — Craigslist’s delay in filing the dispute — in coming to its determination. Although that’s great news for domain investors, at the end of the day I think the panel was duped. The ... read more ...
Thu 9th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazing! If we hunt for duck in a hunt box, you’ll get duck associated results - Lawyer manipulates parked page links in UDRP. Here’s a fun fact: if you search for “chicken” in the search box of a parked page, you’ll get search results related to chicken. And if you are a complainant basing your allegations of targeted infringement on said search results, you’re probably not going to win your case. That’s what just happened with a case brought by Raising Cane’s USA, LLC. The company owns chicken finger restaurants and apparently ... read more ...
Tue 7th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Living Social finally goes after LivingSocal.com, though owners has a good defense - LivingSocal.com — a typo of LivingSocial.com or short for Living SoCal? Last year Living Social started to go after a number of typo domain names through UDRP. I expressed concern about the domain name LivingSocal.com. Unfortunately, I called this one. LivingSocial just filed a UDRP against LivingSoCal.com. (The complainant’s identity hasn’t been unveiled, but it’s a good bet.) Is it a typo of LivingSocial.com? Sure, it’s off by one letter. But SoCal is ... read more ...
Mon 6th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vikings’ Adrian Peterson fights for adrianpeterson.com - NFL running back chases domain name. [Update: Adrian Peterson lost, mostly because his lawyer screwed up.] A domain name arbitration case for adrianpeterson.com has been filed with National Arbitration Forum. Although National Arbitration Forum doesn’t publish the name of the complainant until a dispute is decided, you can bet the case was filed by Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson. Historical screenshots of the page show that it used to resolve to some ... read more ...