What a infamous UDRP decision - UDRP makes it hard for entrepreneur to start his consulting business. UDRP mostly gets it right. It sometimes gets it wrong. Other times it gets it absolutely, disgracefully wrong. Consider the case of a Minnesota man who wants to set up a consulting firm. He comes up with the reasonable name Fresh Look Consulting, LLC. So he files for his company name with the state on October 3 of this year. Then he registers the domain name FreshLookConsultingLLC.net on October ... read more ...

New TLD module has dual hearings on Capitol Hill within one week - Get ready for representatives to pretend like they know about domain names. ICANN and its new top level domain name program will be put under the microscope in Washington, D.C. twice over the next 7 days. Tomorrow morning the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a hearing called “ICANN’s Expansion of Top Level Domains”. As usual, the deck is stacked against ICANN. Three of the five witnesses will be against the program in ... read more ...

Wave59 guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Arbitration panel says software company changed dates in UDRP. Stock trading software company Wave59 has been found guilty of attempted reverse domain name hijacking by a National Arbitration Forum panelist over the domain name W59.com. Wave59 originally said that it started using the abbreviated W59 mark in 2009. It has a design trademark that includes W59 in it. After the owner of the domain name pointed out that he registered the domain nearly six years before ... read more ...

Homeland Security Seizes 11 More Domain Names - Homeland Security/ICE has seized 11 more domain names. Domains seized yesterday were: 007disk.com 007disk.net 82movie.com 82movie.net 82us.com bzserv.info itvwmg.com ktvwmg.com wmgitv.com wmgus.com wmgus.net Of these domain names, 007disk.com, has a PR of 2 and had as many as 4K visitors a month a and 82movie.com got as many as 9,000 visitors a month, according to Compete.com   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...

MGM Files Federal Trademark Lawsuit Over Poker Domains - According to Vegasinc.com, MGM Resorts International filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Thursday against four individuals and two companies it claims have been infringing on its trademarks by registering poker website names that include the names of MGM casinos in Las Vegas. The lawsuit alleging trademark infringement was against the owners of: bellagioonlinepoker.com circuscircuspoker.com excaliburpoker.com luxorpoker.com mandalaybayonlinepoker.com mgmpoker.com ariapoker.com In ... read more ...

Mike Tyson wins heavyweight cyber fight - Tyson gets domain name MikeTyson.com. Knock out! A World Intellectual Property Organization has determined that retired Boxer Mike Tyson should get the domain name MikeTyson.com. The domain name was originally registered in 2001, but it expired in 2004 and was picked up by the current owner. The registrant appears to have gone by the name “In Stealth Mode”, according to historical whois records and a former placeholder on the domain name. The content of the page ... read more ...

Panelist: UDRP is not a sword - A well reasoned opinion on registration in bad faith. A recent UDRP decision for scrubology.com includes an excellent analysis of the registration in bad faith element of UDRP. Here are the facts: – Respondent registered scrubology.com in 2005 – Complainant RXGear, LLC filed a trademark for scrubology claiming a first use in commerce date in 2010 This case looks dead on arrival, doesn’t it? But RXGear’s attorneys, Wolf, Greenfield Sacks, P.C. (an intellectual ... read more ...

ANA to ICANN: Your attention accord explain is a lie - Group cites widespread opposition as proof of lack of consensus. I’m going to rip off the title of this post from a video released yesterday by Association of National Advertisers (ANA). (embedded below) In the video, ANA says ICANN’s claims that the new TLD program was the result of many years of consensus building is “absolutely false”. Its proof? 103 organizations have “signed on” with ANA to oppose new TLDs. Now, it’s true that there are a lot of ... read more ...

Ndamukong Suh might not be on a margin though he’s still winning - Suspended football player wins rights to domain name. Detroit Lions star defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh may have to sit out a couple games because of his stomping incident last week, but he’s still winning off the field. A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has awarded him his namesake — NdamukongSuh.com. The domain name was registered to Tim Evans of Athlete Web Design. He registered the domain name in 2009. According to the complaint, he offered ... read more ...

Arbitration row gives Noah Cyrus domain name - Youngest Cyrus gets domain name. Noah Cyrus, the eleven year old sister of Miley Cyrus and sondaughter (oops) of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, has won rights to the domain name NoahCyrus.com. The domain name was registered in 2006 just as Cyrus became a household name thanks to the Disney channel’s Hannah Montana TV show. But she got her start in acting with a role in the TV show Doc when she was just three years old. She had the lead role in the film Ponyo in ... read more ...

Apple starts forwarding iPhone4s.com to the web site - Company forwards domain name after recovering it from cybersquatter. Apple has started forwarding iPhone4s.com — a domain name it recovered from a cybersquatter that showed porn — to the iPhone page on Apple.com. The domain name started forwarding to Apple’s web site yesterday. Earlier this month Apple filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum to get the domain name and six others, all of which forwarded to mobile porn sites. Just before Thanksgiving ... read more ...

Video orator companies to face off in court - Company files lawsuit against competitor over trademark and domain name. You know those annoying pop up video spokespeople that walk across your screen on certain web sites? Apparently competition to sell web site publishers a video spokesperson is rather intense. Live Face On Web, LLC has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court against WebsiteTalkingHeads.com, a competitor, claiming trademark infringement and cybersquatting. The defendant allegedly registered ... read more ...

eBay lays explain to Dominican Republic domain names - A rare case over .do domain names. eBay has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization for four domain names that use the Dominican Republic top level domain .do. The four domains are: ebay.com.do ebay.do paypal.com.do paypal.do What I find interesting about this case is what you see if you visit any of the domains: DOMAIN FOR SALE info@ebay.do We have adquire this domain in a bulk domain purchase and due to the nature of the domain name it is ... read more ...

Another Thanksgiving & Another 131 Domain Names Seized By Homeland Security - Last year we wrote a post right after Thanksgiving entitled: “While You Were Eating You’re Turkey Homeland Security Was Seizing 9 Domains“. Well I could have repeated the headline today except the number would be 131 domains rather than just 9. Looks like Homeland Security is going to make domain seizures on Thanksgiving as common in the US as Turkey and Stuffing. Here are the domain names seized yesterday. Most of the seized domain names look like they were allegedly selling sports jerseys ... read more ...

Court of Justice of a European Union: “EU Cannot Order ISP’s To Prevent bootleg Dowloading Of Files” - “In the present case, the injunction requiring the installation of a filtering system involves monitoring, in the interests of copyright holders, all electronic communications made through the network of the internet service provider concerned. That monitoring, moreover, is not limited in time. Such an injunction would thus result in a serious infringement of Scarlet’s freedom to conduct its business as it would require Scarlet to install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its ... read more ...

French tech discussion LeWeb loses plea for LeWeb.com domain name - Large European tech conference fails to obtain ideal domain name. French tech conference LeWeb has lost a domain dispute with the owner of LeWeb.com. The conference, which attracts 3,000 people, uses the domain name LeWeb.net. Conference organizers claimed that many of its attendees reported confusion when they visited LeWeb.com by mistake. This is no surprise — typing .com instead of any other top level domain name is a common mistake. The World Intellectual Property ... read more ...

Apple gets control over porn domain names - Owner of domain names agrees to give domain names to Apple after company filed complaint. Apple is now the proud owner of iphonesex4s.com and six other (mostly) explicit domain names. The company filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum against the owner of the seven domain names last month. All of the domain names forwarded to a mobile porn site when visited on a mobile device. Apple terminated the case after the owner of the domains agreed to turn ... read more ...

SAP Continues to Struggle with UDRP - Company has lost 5 of last 15 decided cases. Software giant SAP continues to struggle with its efforts to corral domain names through the UDRP Process. Although it has won two thirds of its cases, as far as big complainants go SAP may as well have a failing record. Sure, it wins most of the UDRP cases it files. But it loses more than most complainants. The latest loss: SAPApps.com. What makes this case (and some of the other losses) interesting is that the respondent ... read more ...

Kudos to this UDRP panelist for giving it thought - Initially, this seemed to this Panel to be a simple and straightforward case of abusive domain name registration, the Respondent having registered the Domain Name well after the registration of the Trademarks, redirecting it to its own website under a different domain name, where it sells competing products and not having responded to letters of summons from Complainant, nor having filed a response and apparently having another, similar domain name transferred to a third party after receiving a letter ... read more ...

Jelly Belly and Original Gourmet Foods not being so sweet - Companies head to court over “original gourmet” name. This trademark dispute has little to do with domain names but does involve my favorite candy company, Jelly Belly. Original Gourmet Food Company, Inc., has filed a dispute (pdf) in U.S. District Court for declaratory judgment over the “original gourmet” name. The food fight started when Original Gourmet tried to extend the use of its “Original Gourmet” name to cookies with a trademark filing. Jelly ... read more ...

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland loses quarrel opposite critique site - Arbitration panel determines KennethCopelandBlog.com can remain with current owner. Televangelist Kenneth Copeland has lost a domain name dispute with KennethCopelandBlog.com, a criticism site. Kenneth Copeland is a televangelist who preaches the so-called prosperity gospel. The message is that the more money people give to the church, the more they’ll get out of God. (A beautiful business model if you ask me.) The critical site is maintained Rich Vermillion, who ... read more ...