Tag Archives: legal

Fri 5th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Canadian Court Rules Domain Names Are Property - Ruling on appeal gives victory to Tucows, expands scope of domain names as property. The Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled in favor of Tucows on its appeal over a domain name dispute, setting a precedent for domain name registrants that their domain names are property. In 2009, Brazilian company Lojas Renner S.A. (a subsidiary of JC Penney) filed a UDRP against Tucows for the domain name Renner.com. Tucows acquired the domain name when it bought MailBank. Tucows ... read more ...
Thu 4th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger Wins A Short But Sweet UDRP - A very short but spot on UDRP decision. I’m often critical of UDRP panelists for shirking their duties. But I’m not going to complain about the decision on a recent case defended by Ari Goldberger. Goldberger defended the domain name OrganizedPlay.com, which was registered by Blue Sandbox when it expired. The complainant, OrganizedPlay Corporation, said it owned the domain name before it accidentally let it expire. A three member National Arbitration Forum wrote ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rock On! Queen Awarded Domain Name WeWillRockYou.com - Arbitration panel awards WeWillRockYou.com to rock band. Here’s a follow up to a story I first reported in June. The rock band Queen filed a domain name dispute over the name WeWillRockYou.com. We Will Rock You is one of Queen’s greatest hits. The song later became the name of a musical that still tours the globe to packed houses. A World Intellectual Property Forum has found in Queen’s favor, ordering the domain name transferred. The panel did question why ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Patent Licensing Firm Gets Hands on “Domain Name Redirection” Patent - Company acquires patent to license or sue. Publicly traded Acacia, which some would call a patent troll, has acquired a patent “relating to domain name redirection technology”. I reached out to the company to find out the specific patent. But it turns out the company’s short, uninformative press release about the acquisition is all the company will disclose. When Acacia acquires patents it actually enters into a contingency agreement with the patent holder ... read more ...
Wed 3rd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is .NGO a First Defensive TLD Registration Announcement? - Registry behind .org wants .ngo. This week Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced it will apply for the .ngo top level domain name when ICANN opens up its application process next year. Could this be the first example of a “defensive” TLD registration? PIR runs the .org registry, and .ngo for non-governmental organizations is definitely competitive to .org. Others had expressed plans for .ngo as well, and PIR certainly doesn’t want another group running a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wikipedia Takes Down Web Hosting Site - Wikimedia wins dispute over web hosting comparison site. Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation Inc. has won a case against the owner of WebhostingWikipedia.com, which will be transferred to Wikimedia as a result. From reading the case decision, it’s fairly clear the owner of the web hosting comparison site at WebhostingWikipedia.com had no idea that Wikipedia was a trademark. So let’s be clear: the generic term is wiki. Wikipedia is a specific site. If you want ... read more ...
Tue 2nd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ClickBank Cracks Down on Questionable Sales Practices - Payment processor and affiliate network changes guidelines for promoting products using its services. I’ve had a ClickBank account for over a decade. In college I used Clickbank to sell thousands of dollars worth of product a month. But over the past decade it seems there’s been a race to the bottom in info product pitches, especially in the “make money online” category. And ClickBank is home to a lot of them. Today ClickBank announced new promotional guidelines, ... read more ...
Mon 1st August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Its-A-Ten.com Sued for Trademark Infringement, But Lawyers Forgot Something - A reasonable lawsuit but someone forgot to do a domain lookup. Hair care products company It’s a 10, Inc. has sued the owners of Its-a-ten.com and Its-a-10.com for trademark infringement. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allegedly used the domain names to sell It’s a 10 haircare products and then threatened to divert customers if the site’s distributor could no longer sell It’s a 10 products to it. OK, pretty straightforward. But that’s not the interesting ... read more ...
Sun 31st July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Neustar Announces .Biz Price Increase - .Biz registration and renewal prices increase in six months. Neustar has informed its registrars and ICANN that it will increase its annual prices for .biz domain names effective February 1, 2012. The new price will be $7.85, or 55 cents more than the current $7.30 per year. That’s about 7.5%. This wholesale price does not include ICANN’s 18 cent “tax” per domain year registered. Neustar’s notice to ICANN does not include a reason for the price increase. Price ... read more ...
Sat 30th July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HP Loses First Round of HP Pre Battle - Company stunningly loses a domain arbitration case over HPPre.com. With the HP Pre 3 getting ready to hit the market, HP filed a domain name dispute with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name HPPre.com. Here’s what happened: -The day after HP announced its acquisition of Palm (maker of the Pre), the registrant registered the domain name -The registrant created a splog at the domain name that grabbed stories about Palm products from sites such as Engadget -The ... read more ...
Thu 28th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook Files Suit Against 25 Domain Holders & 119 John Doe’s - As ElliotsBlog.com reported earlier Facebook filed a massive cybersquatting suit against 25 named domain holders including corporations and individuals as well as 119 John Doe defendants whose identity is yet unknown to Facebook.  In all about 126 domains with known owners and 119 domains with unknown owners. The lawsuit starts off quite ominously. The Defendants Are Typosquatters. “They Exploit and profit from Internet Domain Names that are confusing similar to Facebook mark”. Interestingly ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking: British High Court Rules ISP MUST Block Access To Sites Which Provide LINKS TO Pirated Movies - According to the BBC in a landmark decision, A High Court judge in Britain has ruled that British Telecom (BT)  must block access to a website which provides links to pirated movies. The case involved a site call Newzbin 2 which had links to pirated movies. This is a landmark case since its the first time that an ISP has been ordered to block access to such a site.” “It paves the way for other sites to be blocked as part of a major crackdown on piracy.” The court said in part “In my judgment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook Files Massive Cybersquatting Lawsuit - Lawsuit goes after typosquatters who redirect to survey offers. As reported on Elliot’s Blog today, Facebook has filed a lawsuit against dozens of people for allegedly typosquatting on its domain names. One of the interesting aspects of this case is what the defendants are allegedly doing with the domain names. Instead of parking them with traditional pay-per-click providers, they are forwarding them to survey sites that mimic Facebook in some way. This type of ... read more ...
Wed 27th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domain Theft Hits Startup & Forces Them Into a Name Change - Last friday, through a compromised email address, someone hijacked and stole the Lissn.com domain. After gaining access, they were able to transfer the domain to their own overseas registrar. The hackers redirected Lissn to a server in the Netherlands, kept our homepage, and replaced the login button with a message that read “Lissn is currently down for maintenance, sorry for any inconvenience,” further confusing visitors coming to try the latest features.” Websites are hacked and domains ... read more ...
Tue 26th July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Caught Off Guard After Being Named in Apparel Counterfeiting Lawsuit - Domainer with parked domain name ensnared in lawsuit. Imagine you’re a domain investor, just going along and buying domain names and parking them like everyone else. You know you may get hit with a cease desist every once in a while from an aggressive trademark lawyer. But that’s about it. But then one day you find yourself named in a massive apparel counterfeiting ring. That’s what happened to VL Raymer. Raymer owns the domain name Primp.com and has owned ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Meme Site “Texts From Last Night” Gets Into Domain Name Dispute - Popular site wants typo of its web address. Meme site “Texts From Last Night“, which publishes drunken texts (and texts about drunken nights) has filed a dispute against the owner of a similar domain name. The site, hosted at TextsFromLastNight.com, is asking World Intellectual Property Forum to award it the domain name TextFromLastNight.com (where ‘text’ is singular). Texts From Last Night was founded in 2009 and receives over 400,000 unique visitors per ... read more ...
Mon 25th July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Not To Do with a “Sucks” Domain Name - Here’s a “sucks” UDRP the complainant will easily win. Living Spaces Furniture, LLC recently filed a UDRP against the owner of LivingSpacesSucks.com. Thinking this was perhaps a site created by a disgruntled customer, I typed in the URL and found this: This will be a slam dunk for the furniture company. You can generally own a “sucks” domain name under a couple circumstances: 1. You actually use it to criticize the company 2. You don’t benefit financially ... read more ...
Fri 22nd July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Craigslist Sues Sellers of Phone Verified Accounts, Fights Posting Spam - Classifieds site goes after company selling “phone verified accounts” and helping people auto-post to Craiglist.org. Craigslist has sued a Colorado man and associated businesses for helping people circumvent tools created to block spam on its site. The online classifieds site claims the defendants offer services that make it easier for people to submit automated postings to Craiglist, against the sites terms of service. It alleges that the defendants sell “phone ... read more ...
Thu 21st July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Warner Bros Fighting for Hangover 3 Domain Names - Movie studio goes after most obvious domain names for its next Hangover movie. Last month I wrote about how Warner Bros had registered five domain names related to the next installment in its popular Hangover series, including Hangover3movie.com, HangoverMovie3.com, Hangover-3.com, the-hangover-3.com, and theHangoverMovie3.com. I also noted that someone already owned Hangover3.com, and that I didn’t expect the company to shell out big bucks to buy the domain name. I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Walmart Challenges Non-Profit Over OurWalmart.org Domain Name - Company files dispute to get OURWalmart.com domain name. [UPDATE: The original story said the case was against OURWalmart.com. It was actually against OurWalmart.org, which is indeed owned by the non-profit. Additionally, WIPO has handed down a decision in favor of Wal-Mart. The story has been corrected.] Walmart has started a fight with non-profit OUR Walmart over the domain name OurWalmart.org. OUR Walmart, which stands for “Organization United for Respect at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawyers Fight Over Monte Cahn’s Laptop - Court denies temporary restraining order for Monte Cahn’s laptop. The latest legal battle in Monte Cahn v. Oversee.net et al is over a laptop. Lawyers for the defendants want to get their hands on the Moniker founder’s laptop, which they say is Oversee.net company property. They claim the laptop may include confidential emails and other information about both this case and other legal matters. The defendants filed for a temporary restraining order to get the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
R.J. Reynolds Sues eCigarette Web Sites - Tobacco company claims sites sell liquid nicotine products using their famous cigarette brands. The intellectual property holding company for R.J. Reynolds has filed two trademark lawsuits in North Carolina against online retailers selling liquid nicotine products. The suits allege that the web sites sell products bearing the images of their famous Camel and Winston marks, such as in the image to the right. The first suit is against YourECigarette.com and its owner. ... read more ...
Wed 20th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A Harvard Law School Professor Publishes A Study Of UDRP Decisions Involving “Fair Use” & Finds Cases Turn On Nationality - A professor from Harvard has just released a 48 page study he conducted on UDRP decision involving “Fair Use” of a trademarked term. You can download the study here (pdf) The study entitled, An Empirical Analysis of Fair Use Decisions under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy  is authored by David A. Simon a Harvard Law School professor. “For over ten years, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) has resolved nearly 20,000 domain-name disputes brought before ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Football League Fights Over Super Bowl Web Site - NFL wants to take over Super Bowl web site. The National Football League’s lawyers may be busy trying to settle the lockout, but its lawyers have time to play games with domain names, too. The NFL just filed a domain name dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name SuperBowlConcierge.com. The domain name is owned by Houston, Texas based EE Nation, which offers a number of travel services. SuperBowlConcierge.com is focused primarily ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Power Tools Company Loses IXO.com Complaint - Three letter domain name saved by National Arbitration Forum. Here’s a follow up to a domain name dispute I wrote about last month regarding a three letter domain name. A National Arbitration Forum panel has denied the complaint for IXO.com brought by Robert Bosch GmbH, which has a line of power tools called IXO. The decision is in German, so I’m relying on Google’s translator here. But essentially the panel ruled: 1. The owner has a legitimate interest in ... read more ...