Tag Archives: legal

Mon 5th March 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
US Wants To Extradite Kim Dotcom - According to nzherald.co.nz, The United States Government has filed its application to have Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and three associates extradited to face charges. The four face charges of conspiring to commit racketeering, conspiring to commit money-laundering, copyright infringement and aiding and abetting copyright infringement. A date for the extradition hearing has been for August. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO creates critical and argumentative preference on acronym domains - Majority of panel rules that CEAT.com should be transferred to tire company. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel has handed down a decision over CEAT.com, and it is sure to be controversial. The complainant is a tire company in India, and the respondent was Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis. As one of the larger domain portfolio holders, Vertical axis registers many two, three, and four character domain names. And although a simple search for “CEAT” ... read more ...
Sat 3rd March 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Court Awards TM Holder Of “Two Plus Two” $60K and The Domain Name Twoplustwo.com From Dutch” Boyd - According to a story today in Parttimepoker.coma federal court has awarded the Trademark Holder of the term Two Plus Two, $25,000 in statutory damages and $33,985.45 in attorney’s fees against poker player Dutch Boyd who registered the domain name Twoplustwopoker.com. The owner of the trademark, Two Plus Two Publishing filed a lawsuit over the domain Twoplustwopoker.com  on December 9, 2009 against poker legend Dutch Boyd on was got the domain name on July 14, 2004. Two Plus Two Publishing alleged ... read more ...
Thu 1st March 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Suddenly, people happier with ICANN - Satisfaction with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers skyrockets. ICANN is the domain industry’s favorite punching bag. But people want to punch it less this year. Every year on the Domain Name Wire survey I ask people to rate their satisfaction with ICANN. They can select “Good”, “Acceptable”, or “Poor”. And every year save for 2006, more people have rated it poor than good. But that changed this year, as more rated their satisfaction ... read more ...
Wed 29th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fantasy Island earnings home to Columbia Pictures - Colombia Pictures wins dispute over domain name. “The domain! The domain!” Fantasy Island has been returned to Columbia Pictures — in cyberspace, that is. The company just won a domain name dispute for FantasyIsland.com. You can’t blame the company for not registering FantasyIsland.com when the show first aired in the 70s. Although you can question why it waited until now to file this complaint. One possibility: there’s talk of a reality TV show in the ... read more ...
Tue 28th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feds Not Only Seize The Domain Name Bodog.com But Indict The 4 Owners/Operators Including Calvin Ayre - Last night Calvin Ayre broke the news that the domain name Bodog.com had been seized by the federal government. Today the Feds broke the news to Mr. Ayre that he has been indicted along with three others described by the Feds as the “owners or operators of the site, Calvin Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney.” Ayre is accused of operating an illegal gambling business involving sports betting and conspiring to commit money laundering. According to Forbes.com, “None of the ... read more ...
Mon 27th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here’s A UDRP That Will Drive The TM Crowd Nuts MariahRadio.com - In A UDRP issued today a one member panel denied the complaint of a trademark holder on the domain name MariahRadio.com While we often write about questionable to outright awful UDRP decisions where domain names are taken away from the holders this one might drive the trademark crowd crazy. The complainant had a TM on the exact term “Mariah Radio” The Domain name was going to a parked page. The domain holder didn’t file a response to the UDRP. The case seems to have turned on the fact that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Investment organisation files cybersquatting box to take down site that calls it a Ponzi Scheme - Company files cybersquatting lawsuit to get control of inflammatory web site. San Francisco based investment firm New Island Capital has filed an in rem case against NewIslandCapital.com. The company uses the domain name NewIslandCap.com. This should be a cautionary tale for any financial firm that doesn’t shore up important domain names. The registrant of NewIslandCapital.com has put up a page page that reads: New Island Capital ↗ Distinguishable This company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AOL targets Huffington Post Union of Bloggers (HPUB) - Site hit with domain dispute. The Huffington Post Union of Bloggers (HPUB), a site and organization formed by former Huffington Post bloggers and other writers, may lose its main domain name. A case against HuffingtonPostUnionofBloggers.org was filed at National Arbitration Forum today, presumably by HuffPo owner AOL. While the site owns the shorter HPUB.org domain name, it forwards that name to the longer one, and the longer one is what’s indexed by Google. Losing ... read more ...
Sun 26th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer awarded $30k after being named in fraudulent counterfeiting lawsuit - Judge says sanctions warranted against plantiffs and lawyer. Remember domain investor VL Raymer, who found herself wrongly named in an alleged counterfeiting ring of Primp products last year? Well, justice has been served. Apparently the case didn’t just stink against Raymer, who owns Primp.com. The plaintiffs who own(ed) the Primp trademark also allegedly omitted some other important information against other defendants in its lawsuit and when it filed for a temporary ... read more ...
Fri 24th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Loses UDRP On Youtube.com.pe - In a UDRP decision just handed down Google lost its case to acquire the domain name youtube.com.pe .Pe is the ccTLD (country code) for Peru. The domain holder was a company known as “googel ltd. which is located at Two Stooges LLC, China.” (The original decision was written in Spanish and we used Google translate to translate the decision to English) Basically the panel held that the domain name registration which predated the trademark application of Google of YouTube in Peru gave the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Mississippi House Proposes Bill To Legalize Gambling & To Seize Domains - The MISSISSIPPI House Legislature just proposed a bill that would legalize gambling and as part of the bill give the state the power to seize domain names. The Bill entitled the “MISSISSIPPI LAWFUL INTERNET GAMING ACT” The Bill would allow all sorts of legalized Internet gambling would subject to heavy licensing, regulation, and taxation and would establish a commission to oversee the gaming Regarding domain names the Bill provides that the “commission may commence an in rem action against ... read more ...
Thu 23rd February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Mike Mann’s Domain Asset Holdings Loses The Domain Name LifetimeAssistance.com in UDRP - Mike Mann’s company, Domain Asset Holdings, LLC of Potomac, Maryland, USA. just lost the domain name Lifetimeassistance.com in a one person UDRP panel decision. The domain name at issue was owned by the complainant and dropped.   Domain Asset Holdings picked to domain name off the drop on the same day Here are the facts and findings of the panel “Complainant’s prior registration of the Domain Name expired on October 6, 2011.” “Complainant inadvertently failed to renew the Domain Name’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FCM.com “A Domain Acquired In A Phising Scam” Taken In A UDRP - In a one panel decision issued today a the domain name FCM.com was handed over to the previous owner of the domain name. Its an interesting decision because other panels have refused to allow the UDRP system to recover domain names that were allegedly stolen. In this case its not even clear that the complainant had a trademark on the term FCM. Here are the relevant facts and findings; “”Complainant is an investment management firm which has operated under the name “Fermat Capital Management” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FCM.com, hijacked from owners in phishing attack, returned to owner - UDRP case returns domain to rightful owner. Fermat Capital Management LLC has won a UDRP for the domain name FCM.com, a domain name it used to own. According to the company, in December it fell victim to a phishing attach targeting GoDaddy customers. The phishing email was sent to the technical contact for the domain and asked him to “log in and reactivate your account”. Unfortunately he fell for it and handed over his username and password to a thief. The domain ... read more ...
Wed 22nd February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Guest Post By Paul Keating ON “ABUSIVE SUPPLEMENTAL FILINGS” The UDRP Case Of AutoOwnersInsurance.com - This Guest Post was written by Paul Raynor Keating, Esq.[1] one of the preeminent attorney’s practicing in the domain industry.  Paul has handled many UDRP’s and had some thoughts about a recent UDRP involving the domain name autoownersinsurance.com. Paul’s post appears unedited: “”The recent decision in autoownersinsurance.com is a perfect example of things going from worse to horrible.  While the decision itself contains many substantive flaws, my overwhelming issue is with the lack ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TD Bank files 15th censure about .xxx - Only 15 UDRPs for .xxx after more than two months (but 15 rapid disputes). TD Bank has filed a UDRP for TDBank.xxx, making it the fifteenth entity to use UDRP in an effort to get control of a .xxx domain name. This seems like a relatively low number to me for a TLD that has been out for over two months. I suspect this is because of the high cost of registration which dissuaded some people from cybersquatting. On the other hand, I figure companies will be quick to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Military Order of a Purple Heart final PurpleHeart.com - Group chartered by Congress targets domain names. The Purple Heart is a military decoration given to those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for the U.S. military: being wounded or killed in duty. The Military Order of the Purple Heart was chartered by Congress in 1958 for recipients of the Purple Heart. The group, which has a web site at PurpleHeart.org, is now asking World Intellectual Property Organization to award it the domain names PurpleHeart.com and purpleheartcardonation.net ... read more ...
Tue 21st February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Manwin Amends Complaint Against ICM & ICANN & Drops 2 State Claims & Talks Of Settlement - According to a Press Release by Manwin Licensing International, they filed an amended complaint in its lawsuit for antitrust violations against the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ICM Registry (ICM). In the PR Manwin says that the amended complaint drops two related state law claims against ICM and ICANN. “While Manwin believes that it would have prevailed on the two state law claims, those claims involved procedural peculiarities of California law that posed risks ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FCC Commissioner Warns Of Treaty That Would Move Control Over Domains From ICANN To The UN & Worse - In a op-ed piece written by Robert M. McDowell who is a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission for the New York Times Today, Mr. McDowell warns of an international movement afoot to give take control to regulate the domain name system away from ICANN and the US and hand it over to the United Nations. As the NYT story is by subscription only we can’t quote much from the story but we will highlight a few quotes: “”On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Over 225,000 Domain Names Are On Godaddy Owned SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM, Like JotForm.com Was - In reading one of the many stories about Jotform.com the site whose domain was seized and then returned by the Government for reasons still unexplained and therefore unknown reasons last week. I came across the servers SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM on which the domain name Jotform.com was placed on a few days ago and then removed from on Friday. According to DailyChanges.com, There are currently over 225,000 domain names on the servers SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM (you might also see the servers listed as ns1.suspended-for.spam-and-abuse.com) The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Twitter takes down fraud domain Twittter.com - Arbitrator orders Twitter.com domain name typo that mimics popular site to be transferred to Twitter. A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitration panel has ordered the Twitter typo Twittter.com (with three t’s) be transferred to Twitter. The domain name should be transferred within ten days. It’s no wonder Twitter was upset about this domain name. It currently resolves to a page on SocialRewardCentral.com that mimics the look and feel of Twitter: Users ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
iPhone4Settlement.com typo already squatted on - Soon-to-be-busy web site already attracting cybersquatters. 25 million people will soon be sent an email telling them to go to iPhone4Settlement.com. And someone has already typosquatted it. iPhone4Settlement.com is the URL selected by Kurtzman Carson Consultants to manage the claims process for a proposed settlement with Apple over antennae problems when it released the iPhone 4. The web address has been featured in countless mainstream articles over the past 24 ... read more ...
Mon 20th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Guest Post By Paul Keating On UDRP’s: “Why Panel Certification is Important” The Case Of HardwareResources.Org - This Guest Post was written by Paul Raynor Keating, Esq.[1] one of the preeminent attorney’s practicing in the domain industry.  Paul has handled many UDRP’s and had some thoughts about a recent UDRP involving the domain name HardwareResources.org. We are publishing the post unedited: “”Although the UDRP has functioned for over a decade, the evidence continues to mount in favor of a certification process so all can be assured that panelists have the proper legal knowledge and address claims ... read more ...
Sun 19th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ashley Madison targets mobile domain - Affairs dating site wants control of AshleyMadison.mobi. I guess if you’re in to cheating on your spouse, it’s probably best to look at dating listings on your mobile phone rather than your home computer. Avid Life Media Inc., the company behind affair personals site Ashley Madison, has filed a UDRP complaint to get the domain name AshleyMadison.mobi. The domain is owned by someone in China. The registrant has listed the domain for sale on Sedo with an asking ... read more ...