Tag Archives: legal

Mon 10th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Popular .Music Initiative Files US Trademark Application - .Music backer files application for U.S. trademark. Constantinos Roussos has been aggressive in marketing his initiative for a .music top level domain name. He’s also voice displeasure that latecomers could derail his hopes by also applying for the .music top level domain. At the June 2010 ICANN meeting Roussos voiced his displeasure about latecomers to new TLDs “gaming” the system and asked ICANN for an extra point on community application weightings for ... read more ...
Sun 9th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
AVN’s Legal Seminar: National A-1′s Escorts.com: “Justice Department Has No Interest In The Case” - As part of the AVN show in Las Vegas, there was a Legal Seminar held yesterday on issues of import to the adult community. According to AVN.com, One of the speakers  Paul Cambria, who is one of the leading 1st amendment attorneys in the country, who has represented such diverse clients as Larry Flynt, DMX. and Marilyn Manson, spoke about the Escorts.com case and sites that carry ads for adult services. “”Cambria spoke specifically of the recent bust of Escorts.com, whose offices were raided ... read more ...
Thu 6th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Online Impersonation Is Now Illegal In California Punishable By 1 Year In Jail - Beginning on January 1, 2011 it became illegal in California for anyone to impersonate someone else online. According to  Senate Bill 1411, it is now illegal to “knowingly and without consent credibly impersonate another actual person through or on an Internet Web site… for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person.” Here is the law: (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another ... read more ...
Wed 5th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Global Baking Companies Swing For The Fences & Strike Out in UDRP Seeking 25 Parked Domains - This is a pretty interesting UDRP as the  complainants are some of the biggest bakery companies in the world. The Domain Holder represented himself and beat back a claim on 25 domains may of which contained trademarked terms and were all pointed to a PPC page.  Moreover the domain holder rejected an offer by the complainants to buy the domains for $500 each saying “they were worth much more” I’m not sure I have ever seen a global brand lose a UDRP for so many domains in one case. However ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gives ICANN $500k for Sponsorship - Hefty price tags to sponsor March event. I’ve written before about the relationship between ICANN and sponsors of its meetings. It looks like ICANN has upped the ante for its Spring meeting in San Francisco. As Kevin Murphy spotted today, ICANN has new sponsorship tiers for its next meeting reaching up to $500,000. VeriSign, which brings in over a half billion a year in fees on .com and .net through a contract with ICANN, has already signed up at the $500,000 ... read more ...
Tue 4th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lazy Complainants Lose Two Cases to Serial Cybersquatter in One Week - If domain name is registered before a trademark is filed, complainants need to provide good evidence of common law rights. So you’re legal counsel for a company that feels that someone is cybersquatting on your trademark. That someone is “Purple Bucquet” of Panama, which has lost twenty-six UDRP cases since April 2010 to companies as big as Wells Fargo and Intuit. You file a UDRP for the domain name and Purple Bucquet doesn’t even bother responding, yet you ... read more ...
Mon 3rd January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
In 2010: China Shuts Down 60,000 Sites, 4,500 Criminal Investigations & Sends 1,332 To Jail - China was busy this year combating porn. According to a CNN.com story, China closed 60,000 websites related to porn, opened up almost 2,200 criminal cases against almost 5,000 people for “who violated Chinese law by disseminating pornography via the internet or mobile phones.” In 2010 1,332 people received criminal punishment with 58 jailed for five years or more. The office in charge, “received more than 170,000 tip-offs this year, with 534 people getting rewards totaling $81,964 for providing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Convoy (.com) Saved from Attack in Hong Kong - Generic domain name registration stays with rightful owner. The domain name Convoy.com has been successfully defended against an attack in a Hong Kong UDRP. The case was brought by Convoy Financial Services, a company incorporated in Hong Kong, against Rainforest Consulting of Tennessee. The respondent was represented by domain name attorney John Berryhill. This dispute is interesting right off the bat because it was decided by Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IRS Begins Enforcing “No Whois Privacy” for Online Tax Return Services - Web sites that process individual tax returns must follow domain name rules. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has begun enforcing new domain name rules for online tax return services. The rules apply to online providers of individual income tax returns that own or operate a Web site through which taxpayer information is collected, transmitted, processed or stored: -Domain name must be registered with a domain name registrar in the United States -Registrar must ... read more ...
Thu 30th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Goes After Kinect Domain Names - Company files arbitration cases to get domain names. If you registered domain names with “Kinect” in them with plans to develop sites related to the XBox Kinect system, you better watch out. Microsoft has filed 7 UDRP cases at National Arbitration Forum since Christmas, all targeting domain names with “Kinect” in them. Among the domains targeted: MicrosoftKinect.com, KinectWorld.com, KinectPro.com, and KinectReviews.us. Most of the domain names being challenged ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wow – Cricket.com Hit with UDRP - Cricket.com domain name challenged as cybersquatting. The storied domain name Cricket.com has been hit with a UDRP according to records at National Arbitration Forum. Although National Arbitration Forum does not disclose who the complainant is until after a case is decided, it’s possible that it’s wireless company Cricket Communications. The company uses MyCricket.com as its domain name and has used National Arbitration Forum in the past to recover domain names. Cricket.com ... read more ...
Mon 27th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN to Neustar: Yes, You Can Own a Registrar - Registry-Registrar separation will create interesting circumstances for established registries. ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz sent a letter to Neustar Vice President Jeff Neuman last week (pdf) regarding registry-registrar separation. ICANN’s board dropped a bombshell in November when it said there would be no restrictions on registrars owning registries for new top level domains. Observers questioned how exactly this would work for existing registries ... read more ...
Sat 25th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Squawk Box Squawks About Bank of America Domain Names - Plenty of attention to recent Bank of America domain name registrations. Over the past few days the mainstream media has picked up on a story I first wrote about regarding Bank of America. The company defensively registered over 300 domain names that included many derogatory terms attached to its executives’ names. Most of the domain names included an executive’s name followed by “sucks” or blows”. I was quoted in a Financial Times article as well as ... read more ...
Wed 22nd December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechDirt.com: “Homeland Security Affidavit To Seize Domains Riddled With Technical & Legal Errors” - TechDirt.com spent some time reviewing the Homeland Security Affidavit they used to get the judge to sign off on to seize the 80+ domain names as few weeks ago and concludes: “It’s is “riddled With Technical Legal Errors” Ouch. This comes after TechDirt.com reviewed a partial affidavit of Homeland Security, a few days ago in an article entitled “Homeland Security Knows Little About the Internet or the Law”, and came away less than impressed: “”Even going beyond the fact that (the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Surprise: Domain Registrant Not Responsible for Registrars’ Parked Page - UDRP panelist uses some common sense. UDRP complainants frequently point to the content of registrar holding pages as evidence that a domain name registrant registered the domain name in bad faith. It’s a convenient argument that takes advantage of most panelists’ misunderstanding of parked domain names vs. holding pages. Consider a recent case where Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company argued that the registrant of FiremansFundBlog.com registered the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minnesota Company Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - 3DCafe, Inc. found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. A three person National Arbitration Forum panel has called out 3DCafe, Inc. for attempted reverse domain name hijacking in a case over 3DCafe.com. The complainant argued that it had rights from its “predecessor in interest” for the term 3DCafe dating back to 1991. But the domain name owner, with the help of attorney Ari Goldberger, poked holes in the complainant’s arguments. The panel determined that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Resin.com: Another UDRP That Shouldn’t Have Been Filed - Company files claim for domain name registered 12 years before it started using the “trademark”. Here’s another case of a domain name owner having to respond to an egregious UDRP complaint. Paper Denim Cloth, LLC filed a complaint against VertMarkets, Inc. to get the generic domain name Resin.com. The complainant admitted that it just started using the mark “Resin” in 2010 and that VertMarkets registered the domain all the way back in 1998, but still filed ... read more ...
Tue 21st December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FCC To Vote On Net Neutrality Today Protects Land Lines But Puts Wireless in The Hands of The Carriers - The FCC is voting today on passage of Net Neutrality rules and like anything in Washington the proposal is getting both support and some opposition. The basic premise behind net neutrality is that all sites should have equal and open access to the net. The flip side is a situation where sites could pay to get better access so for example they would load faster for users to the detriment of non-paying sites It seems like the rules the FCC is voting on today gives “land line” Internet users Net ... read more ...
Mon 20th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Schilling’s Name Admin & Berryhill Win Another UDRP This Time Beating Visa On: Premiercard.net Giving Domainers A Christmas Present - In a WIPO decision out this morning Frank Schilling and Name Administration represented as usual by John Berryhill, won another UDRP this time on the domain name Premiercard.net beating back a challenge from Visa. In doing so it got a decision full of good language that can be cited by domainers in other cases. (we have highlighted those below). But 1st for the facts as found by the panel: “”The Complainant is Visa Europe Limited  which owns the trademark registrations in France for the PREMIER ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Top Level Domain Delays Will Hurt Domainers - Current negotiations and delays could result in unfavorable terms for domain name investors. A lot of domain name investors are against the wholesale introduction of new top level domain names, or at least some of the provisions attached to them. They worry that new intellectual property guidelines, a lack of pricing controls, etc. will be extended to existing top level domain names such as .com. They also worry that ICANN will crumble under the weight of legal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Companies Have Filed 51 .Co Disputes and Haven’t Lost Yet - Benefit of the doubt given to complainants in .co cases. Companies have filed 51 UDRPs against .co domain names since the relaunch of .co into an international domain name extension over the summer. They haven’t lost yet. Complainants are 25-0 in cases that have been decided, and further settled seven cases prior to having them heard by World Intellectual Property Organization panelists. In most cases the domain at issue is an exact match to a famous brand such ... read more ...
Fri 17th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
California ISP Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - ISP tries to get domain name registered many years before it even existed. A World Intellectual Property Forum panel has found California internet service provider Webpass, Inc guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in its attempt to get the domain name WebPass.com. The ISP uses Web-Pass.com as its web page. Webpass, Inc. didn’t start using the Web Pass name until 2007, but the current registrant of WebPass.com registered the domain name in 2001. As such, it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Extends Public Comment Period for New TLD Guidebook - More time to weigh in on new top level domain name plan. ICANN frequently extends the deadline to submit public comments on both major and minor issues. But this is done prior to the comment period ending to give people more time to consider how they want to weigh in. A number of people requested additional time to comment on the proposed Final Applicant Guidebook for new TLDs but were rebuffed and the comment period ended a week ago. Now it has risen from the ... read more ...
Thu 16th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Wins Appl.com and Why It Was a Right Decision - Four letter domain transferred to Apple based on content of parking page. Last month I wrote about how Apple had filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum to get the domain name Appl.com. Apple just one the case. But before you get upset about a four letter generic domain name being surrendered through UDRP you should read panelist Richard G. Lyon’s decision. Lyon notes that Apple doesn’t have rights to any domain containing the word “apple” ... read more ...
Wed 15th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainers Need to Bring Professionalism to ICANN San Francisco - San Francisco event could be good for domainers — if they bring their professionalism. Next up on the ICANN meeting schedule is meeting #40 in San Francisco. Being the first U.S. meeting in a while, and since there will be some sort of TRAFFIC event immediately proceeding the event, you’re going to see a lot more domainers there than usual. This is a good thing as domain investors are generally underrepresented in just about everything that deals with ICANN. But ... read more ...