USPTO wising adult to new TLD frontrunning - Cancels two approvals, more to come? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is finally catching on to a game I’ve reported about many times: trying to sneak through a trademark on a top level domain name. The USPTO has a policy of not issuing trademarks for top level domain names. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to get one, which may give them some negotiating or legal power for TLDs. One common trick is to use a Wild West Domains domain reseller account ... read more ...

SOPA goes to Ireland - Ireland may enact a SOPA-like law without much debate. The Stop Online Piracy Act in America may be “dead” for now, but the United States isn’t the only country that wants to fiddle with the internet. Net heads in Ireland are revolting against a proposal from Sean Sherlock, Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation in Ireland. His proposed law would curtail access to websites in Ireland by forcing ISPs to block sites that are reported to link to infringing ... read more ...

Senator Reid Postpones Tuesday Vote On PROTECT IP (PIPA) - In a statement just released by Nevada Senator Harry Reid he has postponed a Senate vote scheduled for next Tuesday on the  PROTECT I.P. Act: “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act. “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million ... read more ...

Feds Shut Down Megaupload.com & Charge 7 People & Make Arrests In New Zealand - According to the Washingtonpost.com, “one of the world’s largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, while it  founder and several company executives” were arrested in New Zealand charged with violating piracy laws. “The  indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. ” The Justice Department said in a statement said that: “”Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size ... read more ...

National Association of Realtors goes after GayRealtor.com - Association files arbitration case targeting gay real estate referral site. The National Association of Realtors has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name GayRealtor.com. [Update 3/8/12: The NAR won the case] The domain name is owned by gay real estate agent Jeff Hammerberg. Hammerberg runs the web site GayRealEstate.com, which helps connect home buyers and sellers with gay real estate agents. GayRealtor.com appears to ... read more ...

Research paper could save brands $185,000 on a “defensive” new TLD - Why most brands don’t need to apply for a new TLD strictly for defensive reasons. One of the more perplexing commonly held beliefs about new TLDs is that brands need to apply for one merely to protect their brand. This false notion is due to both a lack of understanding about the new top level domain rules and registry providers/consultants’ desires to not turn away potential business. But explaining this to a brand owner in a clear and simple way is not easy. ... read more ...

Marchex & Berryhill Beat Back UDRP on Phones4u.com -  Marchex  represented by John Berryhill, Ph.d., Esq beat back a UDRP challage on the domain name phones4u.com. There were two Complainants Phones4U Limited and Mobileserv Limited of Staffordshire UK. Here are the relevant fact and findings by the three member panel: “”Each of the Complainants is an English company within the Phones4U group of companies (“Group”), trading in the UK under the “Phones4U” name since May 1995, whereby Mobileserv Limited is the immediate parent company (“Parent”) ... read more ...

JoePaterno.xxx adult for sale on eBay - Joe Paterno triple x domain name among those for sale on eBay. I guess it could be more tasteless. A Florida man has placed JoePaterno.xxx up for sale on eBay for $3,400. But thankfully the seller doesn’t have a description referring to the child sex scandal at Penn State. So it could be more tasteless. The Joe Paterno name is just one of the interesting .xxx domains I found for sale on eBay today. Earlier this week I discovered someone selling FoxStudios.xxx (which ... read more ...

$85k of your $185k new gTLD app goes to haunt costs - What should happen to the extra $85,000? When you write that check for $185,000 for your new top level domain application, $85,000 of it is going to rather interesting uses. $60,000 of it will go to a reserve fund for “risk costs”. In other words, lawsuits. $25,000 of it goes to cover historical costs of the new gTLD program. In other words, money that has already been spent. This brings up some interesting questions. First, what happens if the risk costs don’t ... read more ...

Justin.tv wins evidence over Twitch.tv copycat - Arbitration panel find in favor of Justin.tv over video game site. The creators of Justin.tv launched Twitch.tv last June as a topic-specific video site about video games. The site quickly ballooned, snagging 8 million unique users by July. It didn’t take long for someone to capitalize on a typo of the domain name. Twich.tv (omitting the second ‘t’) was registered in July. Twich.tv copies Twitch.tv’s content. Making matters worse, when someone visits the ... read more ...

Insurance association claims rights to AutoOwner.com and others - Insurance company says it should get AutoOwner.com. Is it generic? Auto-Owners Insurance has filed UDRP cases against the owners of four domain names that it thinks infringe its intellectual property rights, including AutoOwner.com. The insurance company’s web site is www.auto-owners.com. The other domains in dispute are autoownersinsurance.com autoownersinsurance.org autoowners-insurance.com Although “auto owner” is certainly a generic term, I’m sure the ... read more ...

Telepathy Beats Back UDRP On Libertad.com But Doesn’t Find Reverse Hijacking Or Latches After 12 Years - Telepathy, Inc. represented by ESQwire.com Law Firm just beat back a UDRP on the domain name libertad.com. The three member panel found that the term is generic, the Spanish word for liberty. There is an interesting discussion on the topic of latches as the complainant waited some 12 years to bring this complaint and also a dissenting opinion by the Honorable Neil Brown who thought like I do, that the complainant certainly waited too long to bring the complaint. Here are the relevant facts and discussion. The ... read more ...

jp.net: another instance because brands might need to change their domain name strategy - Brand owners may need to rethink why and when to defensively register domain names. Last week I wrote an article suggesting that trademark holders many need to change the way they defensively register domains for their brands in light of the new top level domain launch. One of the issues I discussed was third level domains and how brands can’t do much about them, except for certain country code top level domains. But an example of an exception to this rule — which ... read more ...

After UDRP and lawsuit, FirstQuote.com given to word company - VeriSign transferred domain last week as result of court order. In June 2010 a UDRP panel found in favor of the respondent for the domain name FirstQuote.com. The owner, who lives in China, paid thousands of dollars for the domain and thousands to defend it in the UDRP. But then in December 2010, the complainant decided to take the matter to court. Because the owner was in China, Aspen Holdings, Inc decided to file an en rem case against the domain name itself. Aspen ... read more ...

Ari Goldberger wins Libertad.com domain case - Nat Cohen’s Telepathy can keep Libertad.com domain name. Ari Goldberger’s ESQwire.com law firm has successfully defended Nat Cohen’s libertad.com domain name in a UDRP case. “Libertad” means freedom or liberty in Spanish. The case was brought by Libertad Servicios Financieros, S.A., a Mexican financial services company. Playing in Cohen’s favor was the generic nature of the domain name, and that he registered 29 other generic Spanish language domain names ... read more ...

For sale on eBay: list of 25M companies that haven’t purebred .xxx - A good way to waste a lot of money and get sued. eBay seller priccut88 wants to help you land in legal hot water — all for a one time payment of just $2,000. The user is selling a list that apparently has 25 million companies that haven’t yet registered their domain in .xxx. Here’s the seller’s description: This is your opportunity to cash in on billion dollar companies that are scrambling to register their domain names that end in .xxx. A recent court ruling ... read more ...

MyVault.com: Inside a UDRP - MyVault.com owner fights back against UDRP complainant. [Update: the complainant withdrew the case.] Over the holidays I noticed a UDRP was filed against MyVault.com at National Arbitration Forum. I was immediately curious as to the backstory on this given how this domain seems generic (and a good domain at that). Since National Arbitration Forum doesn’t publish the name of the complainant until a case is decided, I was left to guessing who filed the case. But I’ve ... read more ...

WhiteHouse Issues 1st Statement On SOPA & PIPA: “We Will Not Support Legislation That Reduces Freedom of Expression” -                         Photo Courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com   Today The Whitehouse for the 1st time has issued a statement regarding SOPA and PIPA saying that; “”We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” Here is the full statement: “Right now, Congress is debating a few pieces of legislation concerning the very real issue of online piracy, including the Stop Online ... read more ...

While You Are Watching SOPA, Leahy Presses On With Protect IP (PIPA) - Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, (D-Vermont) the leading sponsor of “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011″ otherwise known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) said today that he will study the issue of the domain name blocking while pressing ahead with the rest of the Bill. It doesn’t sound like the Senator is dropping the domain blocking provision but recognizes it is a hugely complicated issues which has many groups concerned ... read more ...

Windows Phone site forced to give domain to Salesforce.com - Salesforce.com awarded hyphenated version of popular AppExchange.com web site. A service that helps app creators submit their wares to the Windows Phone marketplace must give its domain name to Salesforce.com, an arbitration panel has ruled. Singapore based App Port LLP hosts its web site at App-Exchange.com. The problem? Salesforce.com owns the popular AppExchange.com and has international trademarks for the term “AppExchange”, including in Singapore. While App ... read more ...

In A Newly Unsealed Order, A New York Court Allows Klipsch Headphones To Disable Websites Selling Counterfeit Goods - According to a story in the Indianapolis Business Journal today, “Klipsch Group Inc. who makes  speakers headphones, won a temporary restraining order against numerous Chinese companies it accused of using the Klipsch name to sell counterfeit headphones.” “The order, unsealed by a federal judge in New York on Tuesday, enables Klipsch to disable websites where the suspected knockoffs are sold and allows it to restrain the funds of the accused.” “Klipsch also can seek up to $2 million per ... read more ...

ICANN to critics: we’ve already finished commander TLD rounds - ICANN says it’s done three pilot rounds of top level domain expansion. A frequent complaint about ICANN’s new top level domain plans in recent months is the scale, with numerous groups asking ICANN to run a pilot program. But in response to an FTC query, ICANN has faced this issue head on by pointing out something obvious: it has already run “pilot” rounds. 1. 2000 proof of concept round which approved seven new TLDs 2. 2004 sponsored top level domain program 3. ... read more ...

6 things that could go horribly wrong with new TLDs - If any of these things happen the new TLD program will have some serious headaches. ICANN officially opens its application window for top level domain names today, giving companies, organizations, and individuals 90 days to submit their plans for a .whatever. The plan has many notable flaws, but six of them seem to me like the biggest break points in the program — things that could delay individual applications or lead to lawsuits against ICANN. 1. Community gaming This ... read more ...

Wow: Judge orders UDRP transfers, including Apple typo, to be reversed - We do things differently in Texas. District Judge Royal Furgeson has ordered (pdf) that World Intellectual Property Organization cases from as early as 2010 be overturned and ordered a number of domain names now owned by Apple and Public storage be transferred back to the typosquatter that previously owned them. Yes, you read that correctly. The case involves domain names that belonged to a company tied up in the courts when UDRP cases were filed against the obvious ... read more ...