Tag Archives: legal

Fri 3rd August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guy insane about CentralNic domains sues ICANN and Network Solutions - Hi Andrew: Quick work … I’ve not even received my ‘official’ AO440 forms, that need mailing to the above mentioned; and here thank’s to your effective journalistic efforts, they now know that my aggrieved plodding is moving forward. FYI ~ I DID NOT withdraw from the UDRP “Expert” services of Nominet! Nominet … DID NOT … do the work contracted, ample documents were presented to Visa for a charge back; and they conceded, now I’m moving forward, then back. I’m well ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Nat Cohen wins retreat domain name hijacking assign opposite sauna for SHA.com - Spanish spa and wellness center brought UDRP in bad faith. Nat Cohen’s Telepathy has successfully defended the domain name Sha.com from an attack by Albir Hills Resort, S.A., known as SHA Wellness Clinic. The panel also determined that SHA Wellness Clinic was guilty of attempting reverse domain name hijacking. I’ve got to say, this was a no brainer for the three person panel. First, SHA’s attorney said the resort had been “operating in the market for 15 years”. ... read more ...
Thu 2nd August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger gets another UDRP win for Kevin Ham - Vertical Axis can keep Detur.com domain name. Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis has won a UDRP over the domain name Detur.com with the help of domain name attorney Ari Goldberger of ESQwire.com. The complaint was brought by Detur International B.V., a tourism company that started in Turkey. Among Detur’s complaints: that the domain name linked to travel sites and that it forwarded to snog.com, which it characterized as a site with “sexy photos”. Vertical Axis claimed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP row orders VS4.com transferred - Three character domain name lost in UDRP. A single member UDRP panel has ordered the domain name VS4.com be transferred to adult entertainment company VS Media, Inc. The company claims trademark rights to the term VS. It also owns the domain names VS1.com, VS2.com, and VS3.com. The owner of the domain name didn’t respond to the accusations. From what I can tell, the whois record for the domain name changed shortly before the case was filed. At that time, the email ... read more ...
Wed 1st August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media and Donuts respond to lawyer’s accusations about TLD eligibility - Companies respond to allegations about their eligibility to run top level domain names. This morning I (and a handful of other bloggers) received a copy of a letter written by McCarter English partner Jeffrey Stoler calling into question Demand Media’s and Donut’s eligibility for applying for new top level domains. The crux of the issue that Stoler brings up (pdf) is ICANN’s three strikes rule. The rule says that if you’ve been on the losing end of three ... read more ...
Tue 31st July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GmbH applicant files U.S. heading application - Company wants to trademark GMBH. TLDDOT GmbH, an applicant for the top level domain .GmbH, has filed an intent-to-use trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the mark “GMBH”. Seriously. GmbH is basically the equivalent of an LLC (Limited Liability Company) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other Central European nations. The application lists three goods and services: 1. Advertising and commercial information services, via the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff loses domain name quarrel with Democrats - Jack Abramoff fails in arbitration over domain name. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) can keep the domain name JackAbramoff.com, a National Arbitration Forum panel has ruled. Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff filed the complaint arguing that the DCCC was using the domain name to disrupt his business, which includes speaking engagements and selling books. The democrats forward the domain name to a page on its web site blasting Abramoff and his connection ... read more ...
Thu 26th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fire your UDRP lawyer, Thursday edition - I could have saved this complainant some money. Here’s an easy way to waste a few thousand bucks: file a UDRP against infringement on a subdomain. This is easily one of the weirdest claims I’ve seen in a while and it involved the domain names windoows.net and windooows.com. The domains are clearly typos of the term “windows”, although they are used as lead gen sites for house windows, not Microsoft Windows. And it wasn’t Microsoft that filed the complaint; ... read more ...
Wed 25th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Tickets applicant files heading applications for new tip turn domain - Company files trademark applications for .tickets and dottickets. .Tickets is up there on the list of most contested top level domain applications. Five companies have applied for the name. Applicant Shubert Internet last week filed two intent-to-use trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The applications are for “.tickets” and “dottickets”. In addition to goods and services related to event ticketing, the company says the names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google loses brawl with oogle.com owner - Google fails to win arbitration case over high traffic typo. A National Arbitration Forum panelist has ruled that the owner of Oogle.com can keep his domain name despite Google’s claims that the registration of the domain name amounts to cybersquatting. Google was upset that the domain name forwarded to porn and scammy survey sites. The first issue of contention between the parties was when the current owner registered the domain name. Google claimed it was 2004; ... read more ...
Tue 24th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UN (still) seeking for IGO exclusions in new tip turn domain program - Wait, you mean the application period has closed? The Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) of the United Nations has sent a letter to ICANN asking for restrictions on applying for Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) names and acronyms as top level domains. Now, I realize things move slowly at the United Nations. But this letter is dated July 11, well after the full list of applied-for names has already been released. The author of the letter is clearly not ... read more ...
Mon 23rd July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NYC condo house of directors fails to take down dispute site - Resident set up site to complain about board of directors. From what I’ve heard, the boards of directors of many New York condos and co-ops would make for great reality show fodder. Here’s just one example: The board of directors of Towers on the Park Condominium filed a UDRP against a resident who registered TowersonthePark.com and used it to criticize the board. The resident, Paul Adao, created a web site to complain about various activities of the board of ... read more ...
Fri 20th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“Occupy” is a new “Sucks” - The term “occupy” can be similar to “sucks” in a domain name — an indication of a gripe site. The first element of the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) that a complainant must prove is that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights. But what about when it comes to satirical or gripe sites? Generally speaking, the first element of the policy can be overcome by the respondent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CraigsList sues JamesList, a “Craigslist for a rich” - Confusingly similar yacht sales platforms. If you’ve never heard of JamesList, it may be because you aren’t in the market for a Yacht. Or you wouldn’t think of buying one used. Craigslist has sued (pdf) Jameslist, a classified site for luxury goods such as yachts, jets, and helicopters, for trademark infringement. Craigslist says JamesList’s name is confusingly similar to it, and that JamesList purposely selected its name to sound similar. Craigslist may have ... read more ...
Thu 19th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Brothel beats Victoria’s Secret in titillating domain name dispute - …and it’s seriously a fascinating UDRP case. An Australian brothel has rebuffed an attempt by lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret to take its domain name VictoriasSecrets.com.au. The decision was handed down on a couple weeks ago and a Domain Name Wire reader just brought the case to my attention. The subject matter certainly makes for an interesting story, but the story goes much deeper than that. Let’s get the fun stuff out of the way: the respondent sent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kohls loses UDRP over 4 minute Kols.com domain name - KOLS.com was registered three years before Kohls.com. Retailer Kohls.com has lost a UDRP dispute for the domain name Kols.com, which it claimed was a typo of its domain name Kohls.com. The respondent, Fox Business Systems / KansasNet, said it registered the domain name as an acronym for “Kansas Online Systems” and had intended to develop it. It hired a number of developers over the years but none of them completed the project. One of those developers parked the ... read more ...
Tue 17th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DoorKings.com: this is because we sinecure a domain profession for UDRP - A complainant’s UDRP filing should be pretty simple, if it knows what it’s doing. John Berryhill was ready. His client, United Marketing Group, Inc, had to prove to a WIPO panel that its domain names DoorKings.com and DKSOpeners.com were registered in good faith after DoorKing, Inc. filed a UDRP complaint. So he dutifully explained that, as a reseller meeting certain conditions, United Marketing Group had rights or legitimate interests in the domain names. Then ... read more ...
Mon 16th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dyson sells bladeless fans, though doesn’t possess a term - UDRP is was not creative for taking down site selling knock-offs. You may be familiar with Dyson, the company that makes mundane things (like vacuum cleaners) cool. One of its latest creations it the bladeless fan, which cools you off without the need for a spinning blade (and for about 10x the cost of an equivalent traditional fan). Enter bladelessfanonline.com, a site that Dyson claims is selling knock-off Dyson fans. The company filed a UDRP against it. It may ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
That’s some (un)intellectual property - Attorney starts blog covering overzealous intellectual property enforcers. I write a lot about companies that seem to think they have universal rights to generic terms. Whether it’s a UDRP or a trademark lawsuit, some companies seem to think they control terms such as entrepreneur, elk, and (ironically) “legal advice“. That’s why I think I’m going to like a new blog from Brian Hall, an attorney with Traverse Legal. UnIntellectualProperty.com covers cases ... read more ...
Fri 13th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Class Action Suit Filed Against Microsoft For Overcharging For Pay Per Click Ads On Parked Domain Names - MediaPost.com is reporting that Microsoft has “been hit with a potential class-action lawsuit for allegedly overcharging marketers for pay-per-click ads”. The suit was filed Wednesday in a federal court in Seattle by Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles, “steaming from ads that Microsoft allegedly served on parked domains and “errors” pages”. “Web users tend to reach those sites by accident, after mistyping the addresses of sites they intend to visit.” “Lane’s Gifts says in its complaint ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Default settlement released opposite Paris in domain fight, indemnification conference on tap - Paris may face damages in reverse domain name hijacking case. A Texas district court has filed an entry of default against Ville de Paris in a domain name squabble. The case involves Parvi.org. The city of Paris won a UDRP case for the domain name in 2009. When Paris filed the complaint it agreed to jurisdiction in Texas for matters stemming from the dispute. Domain owner Jeffrey Walter took advantage of the jurisdiction, filing a lawsuit against Paris in U.S. District ... read more ...
Thu 12th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICE Seizes 70 More Domains - According to an announcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) today they “seized 70 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise”. “The 70 websites seized are part of Project Copy Cat, an iteration of Operation In Our Sites (IOS), and closely mimicked legitimate websites selling authentic merchandise and duped consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods. Many of the websites so closely resembled the legitimate websites that it would be difficult ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owners of FirstDibs.com and 1stDibs.com duke it out in court - 1stDibs.com says owner of FirstDibs.com is cybersquatting. The registrants of FirstDibs.com and 1stDibs.com are embroiled in a court battle, with the latter saying that FirstDibs.com infringes its trademarks. The owner of FirstDibs.com is seafood wholesaler Seafood Supply Company of Dallas, Texas. 1stDibs.com is an online retailer offering upscale home decor, jewelry, and real estate. In a lawsuit (pdf) filed in New York late last month, 1stDibs.com said it first ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Intel gets dual strikes in Mexico - Company loses two UDRPs for Spanish language domain names. Big brands occasionally lose cybersquatting disputes. But two in a row with similar circumstances? That’s what happened to Intel south of the border. The company just got back-to-back losses on two Spanish language domain names including the word “Intel”. Both of the domains are registered to different people in Sonora, Mexico. The first case involved intelcompras.com. IntelCompras.com is an active business ... read more ...
Mon 9th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign “Domain Exchange” obvious focus says use would be useful for typosquatters - Application filed shortly after pulling ICANN request admits a domain exchange service could be a boon for typosquatters. In April 2010 Verisign asked ICANN to allow it to introduce a “Domain Name Exchange” service. The service would have allowed registrars to exchange one domain name for another. The use case VeriSign proffered was that a web host that offers short term packages could swap out a domain if a customer canceled their account. The new service request ... read more ...