Tag Archives: legal

Tue 14th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After Losing UDRP, Complainant Sues to Get FirstQuote.com - Earlier this year a workers compensation insurance company that has a trademark for 1stQuote lost a UDRP for the domain name FirstQuote.com. On the balance, the panel found that the domain name owner registered it due to the generic nature of the domain name. Now the complainant is taking the matter to the courts, filing an in rem case (pdf) against the domain name FirstQuote.com. Interestingly, the UDRP was filed by Aspen Holdings, Inc, while the lawsuit was filed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WikiLeaks Finally Figures Out How to Change Its DNS - I thought these guys were tech savvy? A couple weeks after WikiLeaks.org’s DNS services provider cut if off, someone within the organization finally figured out how to log into the registrar account and change the DNS. Seriously, was this just a ploy to get more publicity? When EveryDNS cut of WikiLeaks, all the organization had to do was log in to its Dynadot account and change the nameservers to another DNS or hosting service. Instead the domain name sat there…not ... read more ...
Mon 13th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Berryhill Wins Another UDRP Defending The Marchex Owned Generic Domain Havanna.com - Havanna S.A. of Argentina, bought a WIPO against Marchex the owner of the domain Havanna.com which was represented by John Berryhill. Amazingly the complainant made the argument that Havanna was not a generic term at all. “”””Complainant argues that Respondent’s use of the disputed domain name prior to the dispute is not connected to a bona fide offering of goods or services since Havanna has no generic meaning” But the domain name holder prevailed which is certainly good news in a forum ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Thief Pleads Guilty, May Spend 5 Years in Jail - New Jersey man expected to serve about five years in jail for domain theft. The man accused of stealing the P2P.com domain name and selling it to NBA player Mark Madsen has entered a guilty plea in a New Jersey criminal case. Daniel Goncalves, 26, of Union Township, pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and computer theft, all in the second degree, before Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim in Union County. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors ... read more ...
Sat 11th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Venezuela Becomes The Latest Country To Want To Regulate The Internet: Adult Only After Midnight & Maybe No Twitter - According to Reuters Venezuela is the latest country that plans regulate the Internet. A bill presented to parliament on Thursday will place limits on content in “electronic media” according to the time of day, with adult content reserved for programing after midnight. The Reuters story does not say what time of day the Adult blocking would be turned back on and its quite unclear how the Government would block content based on time. The Venezuelan bill also proposes allowing the government ... read more ...
Fri 10th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
RightHaven Sues To Gets The DrudgeReport.com Domain Name - According to Wired.com, the company RightHaven LLC which goes after blogs and publications for “unauthorized” use of copyrighted material has now filed suit against the DrudgeReport.com and seeks as part of the suit,  the domain name. If you want to read more about RightHaven checkout Elliotsblog.com article on the company. Righthaven file suit on Wednesday on behalf of MediaNews, and “demands a Nevada federal judge to “direct Network Solutions, and any successor domain name registrar ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Did Someone Have to Pay to Defend this UDRP? - An example of why UDRP needs reforming. This was going to be a rant about “why would a lawyer take on this UDRP case for the complainant”. But then when I realized who represented the complainant (not a lawyer), I changed it up. Here’s the deal. A St. Louis area woman is getting ready to launch “Sheryl’s SHAREABLES”, a bite-sized meat product that both dogs and humans can eat. (Note that just about any meat product a human eats can also be eaten by ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
So What Exactly Did ICANN Decide About .XXX and New TLDs Today? - Issues mostly punted to next year. There’s an old truism amongst lawyers. Show them a one page contract and they’ll tell you it’s rock solid. Show them a long contract and they can start poking holes in it. That truism carries over to ICANN’s resolutions on .xxx and new top level domain names today. They’re long and therefore say less than usual. There’s a lot of wiggle room. .XXX - ICANN “intends” to enter into a contract with ICM Registry to ... read more ...
Thu 9th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Denies Trademark Holder a Domain That Hadn’t Been Used in 6 years: WebVision.com - A one member panel decision denied the complaint of the trademark holder on the domain name webvision.com What makes the case interesting is that the domain appearently been inactive since 2004 until after this complaint was filed and that the domain name holder did not even file a response. The Complainant was Webvisions Pte Ltd. of Singapore which hold multiple trademark in several countries and operates a business as a web host and provider of internet services. The domain holder is a company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$2 Million Wasted on Economic Studies for New TLDs - Economic studies about new top level domain names are futile. Depending on which transcripts I read from the ICANN meeting in Colombia this week, ICANN has spent $1 million to $2 million on economic studies about new top level domain names to date. This is money wasted. Not just because the reports — particularly the first two — were extremely weak. But because getting an answer will require too many baseless assumptions. In other words, the exercise is futile. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Complainant Loses Case for M2P.com Despite Owner Not Responding - AWOL domain name owner can keep domain name. Casual gaming site Meet2Play GmbH has failed to win the domain name M2P.com through UDRP, despite the domain name owner not responding. From reading the decision, it appears the company tried to contact the domain name owner but was unsuccessful. It then filed the UDRP in an attempt to get the domain name. But the domain name was registered in 1997, more than a decade before Meet2Play filed a mark for M2P. Because of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Predictions on .XXX and New TLDs for Friday’s ICANN Board Meeting - ICANN’s Board will make big decisions Friday. Here’s what I think will happen. On Friday ICANN’s board will meet and pass resolutions on a handful of contentious issues. Here are my predictions on two of them. .XXX - Full steam ahead. The stalling game will conclude even though the Free Speech Coalition says .xxx will be the end of the internet as we know it. New TLDS - The comment period of the proposed Final Draft Applicant Guidebook ends shortly before ... read more ...
Wed 8th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Blasts KnujOn for “Not Verifying a Facts” - ICANN says article by KnujOn is factually inaccurate. KnujOn has been a controversial group when it comes to trying to clean up domain name abuse. Its latest attack was on ICANN in an article on CircleID titled “Two Years Later Dozens of Registrars Still in the Shadows“. The crux of the article is that 23 domain name registrars do not disclose their addresses on their web sites as required in section 3.16 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). There’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registry Group Asks ICANN To Remove All Pricing Rules on New TLDs - Registries want to remove all pricing controls on new top level domain names. ICANN’s Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) has submitted comments regarding the Proposed Final Applicant Guidebook for new top level domain names. One proposed change sticks out: requesting no notice requirements for price changes on top level domain names. As it stands in the guidebook right now, a registry for new TLDs must give 30 days notice prior to changing the cost of a new domain ... read more ...
Tue 7th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Will Have Three Sunrise Periods - by Kevin Murphy Trademark holders are to get new rights if and when the porn-only .xxx domain launches. ICM Registry, which hopes to get its .xxx application approved by ICANN this week, plans to have not one but three sunrise periods when it opens up next year. The first period would allow owners of porn-related trademarks to claim their .xxx domain names and use them as normal, ICM representatives said here at ICANN’s public meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. But ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Berkens and Howard Neu Team Up to Save Domain Name - Michael Berkens’ Worldwide Media, Inc., has successfully defended its CareFreeHomes.com domain name in a UDRP with the help of attorney Howard Neu. Complainant CareFree Homes II, L.P. doesn’t have a registered trademark for “CareFree Homes”, but it argued common law rights. The argument by the El Paso, Texas home builder was fairly weak. Summarizing the home builder’s failure to show any sort of common law mark, the panel wrote: The evidence offered by ... read more ...
Mon 6th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO: Xpand.com: Offering The Domain For Sale To The Highest Bidder is A Bona Fide Offering Of Goods/Services” - In a WIPO case decided today on the domain name, xpand.com, a three member panel ruled in favor of the domain holder despite a trademark, the domain being parked and the domain holder turning down a $10K offer demanding “something in the six figures” Although the complainant had a trademark so did several other companies, which added to the panel’s finding that the term Xpand was generic. Especially supportive of domainers was the following language in the decision: “””Due to the commercial ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telepathy Wins Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Charge Against 3-D Company - Company goes after domain name registered several years before it created its brand. Nat Cohen’s Telepathy, Inc. has successfully won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking against X6D Limited, which owns the XPAND brand of 3-D glasses. X6D filed the complaint over the domain name xpand.com. Telepathy, represented by domain name attorney Ari Goldberger, noted that it’s common to eliminate the ‘e’ in words that start with ‘ex’. The panel agreed, arguing ... read more ...
Sun 5th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Twitter Singled Out TwitterSearch.com - Owner tried to “extort” Twitter. As Robin Wauters wrote today, Twitter has filed a UDRP against the owner of TwitterSearch.com. With so many domain names out there including “twitter” in them, why has the company singled out this one? I know the answer. It turns out the owner of the domain name has been trying to sell the domain name for some time. Back in August a Domain Name Wire reader caught wind that the owner was trying to sell the domain name and ... read more ...
Fri 3rd December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Denies Relief To Previous Owner Of Prince.com Who Alleged Theft Of His Domain - Back In October we told you that the former owner of the domain name Prince.com filed a UDRP, seeking return of the domain which he claimed was stolen and resold. Today a three member panel decision denied the claim saying simply that the UDRP was not designed to handle a claim of alleged theft: “””The contentions of the Parties indicate that this is not a case to be decided under the Policy. The Policy was designed to combat cyber squatting, the abusive registration and use of a domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WikiLeaks Isn’t Down, They Have Just Moved - Elliotsblog.com is reporting this morning that WikiLeaks.org and .com are both down. Godaddy.com has appeared to bow to public objection to them benefiting from the typo traffic to the .com. However the real site, WikiLeaks isn’t down, its just moved. In the latest round of domain name gamesmanship Wikileaks.org has now moved to a ccTLD and is back up on WikiLeaks.ch. .Ch is the country code for Switzerland. Interestingly if you look at your browser once you type in WikiLeaks.ch, the address reverts ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
More Fallout From Domain Seizures: Huge Torrent Site Demonoid.com Preemptively Changes To a .Me To Avoid Seizure - A huge torrent site, Demonoid.com announced yesterday that it was preemptively moving itself from a .com address to a .me to prevent seizure by the US Government. .Me is a ccTLD whose registry is not under US jurisdiction. According to Alexa.org, Demonoid.com is in the top 500 of all sites in terms of traffic. Demonoid.com no longer resolves,  Demonoid.me is already resolving We are in the process of migrating the site to our new address, Demonoid.ME,” said the site’s owner in an announcement. “Please ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WikiLeaks Domain Not Shut Down, Just DNS - Domain name not seized or shut down; DNS provider takes action. A story on Guardian.co.uk screams “WikiLeaks fights to stay online after US company withdraws domain name”. This headline is misleading and suggests that the WikiLeaks.org domain name has been shut down. This is incorrect. When you actually read the story, it says that Everydns took the site down. Everydns was only providing DNS services to Wikileaks. The WikiLeaks.org domain name is registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bible Group Sins with UDRP, Loses Case for BSF.org - Time to go ask for forgiveness. A non-profit called Bible Study Fellowship based in San Antonio has lost a UDRP to get the domain name BSF.org. Maybe it didn’t pray hard enough, but now it will probably need to ask for forgiveness for some sins, too. In this case the panel declined to find reverse domain name hijacking, but also wrote: In the case at hand, the Panel finds that Complainant’s allegations have not been substantiated by relevant evidence and also ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Releases Another Economic Study on New TLDs - New study finds little chance for competition to .com, but some benefits from new TLDs. Just a day after the U.S. Department of Commerce chastised ICANN for not undertaking a full economic study of the costs and benefits of new top level domains, ICANN has released phase two of its latest study (pdf). A summary of the findings: “…we find that additional generic, unrestricted TLDs using the Latin alphabet would be unlikely to provide significant additional competition ... read more ...