Tag Archives: legal

Tue 28th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First Two .Co Domain Disputes Decided - Companies belatedly pursue .co domain names. World Intellectual Property Organization has handed down its first two UDRP decisions for .co domain names since .co was relaunched over the summer. In two separate decisions, WIPO panelists found in favor of the complainants for lafitness.co and tilda.co. Twenty-one .co UDRP cases have been filed since August. In some cases the domain owner handed the domain name over voluntarily. For example, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Athens Plans .Athens Top Level Domain Name - Municipality wants .athens, but may run into challenges with trademark application. Add Athens to the list of municipalities that want to register their own top level domain names. I haven’t seen anything on the web about the city’s plans, but it filed two trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “.Athens” and “dot .athens” back in February. I hadn’t seen these yet because the original applications didn’t list domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Group Wants to Become New UDRP Provider - Comment period open to review proposed arbitration provider. Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) has sent a proposal to ICANN to become a resolution provider under UDRP. Based in Jordan, ACDR is a joint venture between Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society (AIPMAS) and the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP). ACDR plans to charge about the same as other UDRP providers for low volume cases. One or two domain names ... read more ...
Mon 27th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This is a Problem with a U.S. Congress Trying to Regulate Domain Names - U.S. control of internet can be misused, leading to countermeasures by other countries. What’s wrong with the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act being proposed in the U.S. Congress? The problem is that the U.S. government is trying to use the fact that VeriSign is located in the U.S. as a way to shut down internet traffic it doesn’t agree with. Other governments look at this and worry that the U.S. is trying to control the internet. They start ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Coming to America: Mark your Calendar for Mar 2011 - ICANN meeting coming to America next Spring. For the first time in a long time ICANN will hold its international meeting in the United States March 13-18, 2011. That means U.S. residents won’t have to make a trip that involves three plane hops and 12 different time zones to attend the meeting. You probably don’t pay attention to ICANN policy that much if you’re a domainer. You aren’t excited by policy. You probably don’t care much, either. That has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Says It Can Scale Up to 1,000 New Top Level Domains a Year - Technical infrastructure can handle 1,000 new TLDs a year, but there will be other bottlenecks. One of the interesting things to come from ICANN’s closed door board retreat over the weekend is this tidbit: ICANN thinks it can delegate up to 1,000 top level domain names a year without technical root scaling problems. Staff has also developed a model and a rationale for the maximum rate of applications that can be processed over the next few years. Staff is directed ... read more ...
Sat 25th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Another Generic Taken In A WIPO: AfricaTours.Fr - A One person WIPO Panel awarded the domain AfricaTours.FR to the trademark holder of this very generic term. In July 2010, it attempted to acquire the disputed domain name africatours.fr. and following an exchange of emails, the Respondent offered to sell the Complainant the domain for $ 5000 Euros.  The complainant appearently then offered 2,000 euros for the domain name which the domain holder rejected and the complainant then filed this action. “The Complainant says that it has intellectual ... read more ...
Fri 24th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Supreme Court Says Trade Groups Still Do Not Have Standing To Contest Domain Name Seizures - Back In March of this year, the owners of TruePoker.com allowed the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association and the Interactive Gaming Council to provide their to the court, in an attempt to satisfy the standing requirement “If a party that can properly establish standing comes forward, the writ petition giving rise to these proceedings could be re-filed with Court of Appeals,” the Supreme Court decreed in March.” “Both groups did as told, and on March 26, the Appeals Court ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uk Company EasyGroup Seems To Think It Own The Word “Easy” As Its Claims EasyDate Is Infringing On Their Mark - According to several news sources, a UK company, EasyGroup has notified another public UK company, EasyDate that it is infringing on its intellectual property Easy Group which owns intellectual property rights for the family of trade marks used by a group of companies which includes easyJet, easyHotel, easyCar, easyBus, easyJobs, easyVan, easyOffice and easy.com. easyGroup says they also owns a community trade mark covering information relating to entertainment and personal and social services. “Easydate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Two New Cases Show What’s Wrong with UDRP - Two cases show why we need UDRP reform. National Arbitration Forum has handed down two recent domain name decisions that show what’s wrong with UDRP. This isn’t an attack on National Arbitration Forum, as its panelists got both of these cases right. In both cases they found that the registrant had rights or legitimate interests in the domain names and that they weren’t registered in bad faith. What’s wrong about these cases is that the respondents even had ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GAC to ICANN: Limit Next Round of New Top Level Domain Names - GAC asks ICANN to hold a limited fast-track round for new top level domain names. Interim Chairman of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Heather Dryden has sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN urging it to limit the number of new top level domain names in the next round by holding a “fast track” process: The GAC concludes therefore that an initial fast track round for a limited number of non-controversial applications which should include a representative but diverse ... read more ...
Thu 23rd September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tomorrow is a Big Day for New Top Level Domain Names - Big issue on the table at ICANN retreat. In about 24 hours the ICANN Board of Directors will kick off a retreat. It’s not an official board meeting, but it’s anticipated that the two day retreat will finalize an important issue: registry/registrar separation. A lot is at stake in this decision. Millions of dollars for the stakeholders. Until now a registry hasn’t been able to own a registrar and (technically) vice-versa. Afilias is owned by a number of registrars, ... read more ...
Wed 22nd September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What The Anti Privacy Bill Means To Domainers - Yesterday several blogs reported on the bill proposed yesterday entitled the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act”. (pdf) I spent a while today reviewing the bill to see what if any effect it could have on domainers. I also chatted with Phil Corwin general counsel that represents the Internet Commerce Association about the proposed law. Here are my thoughts: As I read it, the law, although intended to only effect websites that seek to distribute pirated material such as music ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EFF: New Domain Takedown Bill Would Break a Internet - EFF calls bill “misguided gift to a shortsighted industry”. Electronic Frontier Foundation is weighing in on the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, and it doesn’t like what it sees. In an analysis EFF posted online, the group says the bill would “break the Internet one domain at a time — by requiring domain registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites.” EFF makes several ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Comment Period Brings Out a Form Letters - This time both sides of debate make use of “form” comments. The comment period for “Revised Proposed Registry Agreement for .XXX sTLD and Due Diligence Documentation” at ICANN ends Thursday. Much like last time, there are hundreds of comments submitted through online forms that basically says the same thing. But this time .xxx backer ICM Registry has decided two can play at that game. The company has added a form to its web site at icmregistry.com/forms. This ... read more ...
Tue 21st September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN To Review .Jobs Decision - .Jobs expansion plans hit a snag, but it’s probably minor. Following an outcry from the online job board industry, ICANN’s Board Governance Committee (BGC) agreed to reconsider opening up the .jobs space carte blanche. I doubt anything will come of this reconsideration request, even if the BGC recommends to the Board that it reverse its decision. We all know what happened after ICANN’s board reversed its original decision on .xxx. That issue is still carrying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DONE! Ventures Calls B.S. on NBC Over Women.com Deal - Company continues push to make NBC honor sale of Women.com and .net. DONE! Ventures has filed an opposition (pdf) to NBC Universal’s Motion to Dismiss its lawsuit over a failed transaction for Women.com and Women.net. DONE! had agreed to purchase the two domain names through NBC’s broker Sedo for $1 million. However, NBC backed out of the deal after it was allegedly vetoed by NBC Universal President CEO Jeff Zucker. DONE! sued to force NBC to complete the deal. NBC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey Ashford University, Go Back to Math Class - University loses claim for domain name registered five years prior to its existence. Bridgepoint Education’s Ashford University has lost a UDRP case for the domain name Ashford.net because it doesn’t understand how dates work. Bridgepoint bought Franciscan University of the Prairies in 2005 and renamed it Ashford University. It also got the corresponding Ashford.edu. In this UDRP case the University went after the owner of Ashford.net, but the domain name was ... read more ...
Mon 20th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Proxy Battle Launched to Replace Live Current Media Board - Battle begins to replace board at Live Current Media. The former CEO of what is now Live Current Media has launched a proxy battle to regain control of the company’s Board of Directors. David Jeffs was CEO of the company from 2002 to 2007 when he hired Geoffrey Hampson to replace him. According to the proxy solicitation: In March 2010, Mr. Jeffs received from a shareholder of the Company a news release issued by Corelink Data Centers LLC, a Delaware company that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Austin Man Sues Entrepreneur Media, Claims Reverse Domain Hijacking - Entrepreneur Magazine came after small business owner over trademarks. An Austin businessman has sued Entrepreneur Media, publisher of Entrepreneur Magazine, after the publication sent a cease and desist to him for registering EntrepreneurOlogy.com. Daniel Castro is an author, speaker, trainer, and small business owner in Austin, Texas. In January 2009 he says he coined the term “EntrepreNeurology”, followed shortly thereafter by “EntrepreneurOlogy”. He ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Bill Could Allow U.S. Government to Shut Down Domain Names - Good intentions and a couple big problems. Kevin Murphy spotted a new bill that, if passed in its current form, would give the U.S. government more powers to shut down domain names used for piracy and counterfeiting. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act would make it easier for the government to shut down sites with pirated movies and music or selling counterfeit goods. On the surface that doesn’t sound too bad. But there are a couple things ... read more ...
Fri 17th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Court Finds “6 Hour Power” Does Not Infringe on “5 Hour Energy” Trademark - A Federal Court turned down the complaint of “5 hour Energy” against another energy drink called “6 Hour Power” for trademark infringement. The court engages in an interesting discussion of trademark law outside of the normal realm of UDRP that we have gotten used to and as we see in Federal Court decisions they use a whole different line of reasoning that UDRP. “The Lanham Act prohibits the use of any word, term, or name which “is likely to cause confusion . . . as to the origin, sponsorship, ... read more ...
Thu 16th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Southern Company Goes After Power Domain Names - Company files four UDRPs. Are these generic domains or trademarks? The Southern Company has filed four UDRP cases to get domain names that include a state or region and power company in them: georgiapowercompany.com mississippipowercompany.com alabamapowercompany.com gulfpowercompany.com This will be an interesting set of cases to follow. On the surface these may look like generic domain names. But the Southern Company has subsidiaries named the same as each of ... read more ...
Wed 15th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hershey Gets Twizzled and Loses Twizzler.com Domain Challenge - Panel rules Twizzler.com owner can keep domain name. Hershey, the company that makes the addicting Twizzlers licorice candy, has lost an arbitration case for the domain name Twizzler.com. Raymond Mah registered the domain name in 1999 and said he had plans to create a puzzle game at the site. He pointed to the Oxford dictionary definition of Twizzle, which means “a twisting or spinning movement” as the idea for the name. At one point in 2001 he had a site at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Sues Telepathy to Get PLA.com Domain Name - Company got trademark for “PLA”, sues to get domain name. If you have a short list of “nice guys” in the domain name industry, Nat Cohen of Telepathy certainly shows up near the top. A company called Project Leadership Associates Inc. is now trying to sue Telepathy to get the domain name PLA.com. Those are the company’s initials, and it says it has a registered trademark. PLA tried to negotiate with Cohen to buy the domain, and according to PLA’s court ... read more ...