Tag Archives: legal

Mon 13th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Man Chastises Disney’s Club Penguin, Gets to Keep Domain Name - Calling Club Penguin’s membership base “minuscule”, domain owner convince arbitration panel to let him keep domain name. Calling Disney’s Club Penguin and its 2.6 million registered users in 2006 a “minuscule and insignificant number”, a Florida man has convinced an arbitrator to let him keep the domain name ClubPenguin.mobi. The domain name’s owner, Pedro Sierra, told a National Arbitration Panel that he registered the domain name to “market images ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Trademark Sunrise for One Character Domain Names? - Plan sends wrong message about trademarks and domain names. Nominet, which oversees the .uk namespace, will begin releasing one and two character third level .uk domain names later this year. The process for releasing the domain names includes two trademark sunrise periods. A sunrise period is smart for the release of most new TLDs, as it gives rights holders the ability to protect their brands. But a sunrise for one and two character domains? That seems silly. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Worst UDRP of 2010? Testosterone.com Awarded to Complainant - All I can say is “wow”. We have a new candidate for worst UDRP decision of 2010: Testosterone.com. National Arbitration Forum panelist Fernando Triana Esq. awarded the domain name to Monsterops, LLC, despite the respondent having registered the generic name three years prior to Monsterops’ using the trademark in commerce. The registrant of the domain name registered it way back in 1995, yet somehow Monsterops was able to snag this generic from him 16 years ... read more ...
Sun 12th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vibram FiveFingers Are Hot and So Are Its Cybersquatters - Barefoot alternative is hot, but company is challenged by counterfeits and cybersquatters. Vibram FiveFingers “shoes” are all the rage these days. The shoes are kind of like gloves for feet with five separate toe compartments. Barefoot running is popular, and FiveFingers are pitched as an even better alternative. Although my podiatrist tells me to skip the hype, Vibram FiveFingers are selling like hot cakes. And that means lots of knock-offs and counterfeits. ... read more ...
Fri 10th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Car Rental Fails to Show Rights in National.com Typo - An interesting UDRP case for car rental chain. Vanguard Trademark Holding, which holds the trademarks for National Car Rental, has failed to win the domain name Natonal.com in a UDRP. This is despite: – Natonal.com resolving to a parked page full of ads for car rental – The domain owner not responding to the UDRP So why did Vanguard fail? It based its premise primarily on Natonal.com being confusingly similar to the company’s “National Car Rental” mark. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Asia Trademark Domain Scam Now Spoofing WIPO - Scam ups the ante by pretending to be World Intellectual Property Organization. The Trademark Domain Name Scam is upping the ante, now pretending to be an email sent from World Intellectual Property Organization. In this scam, an entity that usually says it’s located in Asia says that someone has applied to register a number of domain names that include your “trademark” (really just the second level of one of your domain registrations). You can see an example ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICM Registry Responds to Free Speech Coalition on .XXX - ICM responds to Free Speech Coalition. ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley has lashed back at Free Speech Coalition for its latest attempt to delay or kill .xxx. In a letter to ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate-Thrush, Lawley refutes many of Free Speech Coalition’s (FSC) claims. Lawley says FSC’s claims have long been addressed. He also points out that FSC does not represent the entire adult entertainment industry and is U.S. centric: …while the Free ... read more ...
Thu 9th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Buyer Beware: If You Buy A Zuccarini Domain At Latonas Expect To Be Sued - Buyer Beware That’s the only advice I can give anyone planning on buying one of Zuccarini’s domains now held by a receiver if they are auctioned off at Latonas. If you buy one of  these domains at Latonas auction expect to be sued. I confirmed with John Zuccarini today that he is planning on suing anyone who buys one of the domains at auction. John also states that he will file motions asking a court to place all of the earnings of any of the purchase domains into escrow while the suit(s) are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Latona’s Agrees to Auction Zuccarini Names Without TRAFFIC Backing - TRAFFIC is out, but auction house still plans to auction domain names. After TRAFFIC organizers said they wouldn’t let a collection of domains previously registered to John Zuccarini be auctioned at their show, Rick Latona’s auction house has decided to auction the domains on its own, according to a court filing. The domains are part of a cybersquatting judgment originally won by Office Depot but later transferred to DS Holdings. The receiver in the case planned ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top 100 Brands Secure .Co Domains Through Special Program - .Co trademark program concludes. .Co announced today that 100% of the world’s top 100 brands have secured their .co domain name through the registry’s Specially Protected Marks Program, or “SPM.” SPM provided a way for companies on the Deloitte Brand List to get their .co domains without the traditional expense and time required. Among the companies securing their .co domain through SPM are Facebook, Ferrari, Blackberry, Siemens, Sanyo, Amazon, Honda, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Texas Lottery Hits Jackpot, Wins 3 Domain Names - Texas Lottery wins three domain names in arbitration. The Texas Lottery Commission has won a big prize, taking home three domain names through arbitration — including one that gets over 65,000 visits a month. The group filed the complaint against The Lotto Report for LottoTexas.com, LottoTexas.net, and Megaplier.org. Megaplier is the name of a lotto add-on in the state that lets people multiply their winnings. LottoTexas.com is a big traffic domain, and Compete.com ... read more ...
Wed 8th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arbitrator Refuses to Hand Over Generic .Org Domain to .Com Owner - Owning a generic .com doesn’t give you a monopoly on other top level domains. The owner of the descriptive and generic domain name IntlMovers.COM has failed to win the domain name IntlMovers.ORG from its owner in a UDRP case. Although IntlMovers.com existed before IntlMovers.org, and they offer similar services, panelist Tony Willoughby pointed out that owning a generic .com doesn’t give you an automatic monopoly on other top level domains: The Policy was designed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Application Filed for .Bank Top Level Domain Name - Application filed for .bank domain name. The same company that filed a service mark application for .Secure is at it again, this time filing an application for .Bank. Wisconsin-based Asif LLC filed application 85,120,345 on August 31 to cover “Domain name registration services”. In the U.S. you cannot trademark a top level domain name, although that hasn’t stopped people from trying. At least one applicant has said it will use its non-U.S. trademarks in an ... read more ...
Tue 7th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panelists Still Can’t Agree on Decisions - Drug company loses dispute, but panelists disagree over key point. A recent UDRP brought by drug giant Sanofi-aventis is interesting on a couple counts. First, the company lost the case over the domain name ferrlecit.com. The respondent is a former licensee of Sanofi-aventis. It registered the domain name while it was a licensee. So it was registered in good faith. But when the drug company and licensee terminated their relationship through arbitration, there ... read more ...
Mon 6th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
George Soros’ Open Society Institute Loses Domain Dispute - Foundation backed by George Soros loses arbitration for domain name. Open Society Institute, a think tank and foundation founded by billionaire George Soros, has lost a domain name dispute over the domain OpenSociety.org. The majority of the three person National Arbitration Forum found that the domain name wasn’t registered and used in bad faith. Two of the panelists found that the domain was confusingly similar to the Open Society Institute mark and that the ... read more ...
Fri 3rd September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Dolce & Gabbana Loses Bid For DandG.com In WIPO; Having A Facebook & Twitter Page Was Key - The domain name owner of DandG.com just fought off a complaint by Dolce Gabbana. However is a nice win for the domain holder who was represented by Mike Rodenbaugh of Rodenbaugh Law. Its a very interesting decision since Dolce Gabbana has a very well known trademark on DG since at least 1994 and the domain owner even offered to sell Dolce Gabbana the domain,  (among others) for an amount in excess of $100,000. The panel put a LOT of weight on the fact that the domain holder put up a Twitter and ... read more ...
Thu 2nd September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Juniper Networks Loses Case for Juniper.tv - $15B company loses UDRP case. Juniper Networks has lost a domain name arbitration case to get the domain juniper.tv. Despite having a market cap of nearly $15 billion, the arbitrator noted that it’s entirely plausible that the registrant of the domain name hadn’t heard of the company because it’s a business-to-business company. Also working against Juniper Networks is that juniper is a generic term. The registrant had registered other seemingly generic .tv ... read more ...
Wed 1st September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
World Trademark Review Conducting Survey About New TLDs - Survey seeks opinions on new top level domain names. World Trademark Review is currently running a survey to understand attitudes and plans around the launch of new top level domain names. The survey is targeted to three groups: In-house trademark lawyers, private practice trademark lawyers, and marketing, web, and communications professionals. Each group receives slightly different questions on the survey. For example, in-house trademark lawyers are asked about ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cost-Per-Action Search Engine Patent Headed to Auction Block - Patent could potentially target Google and Microsoft. A U.S. patent directed at cost-per-action advertising on search engines as well as cash-back search is headed to the auction block. Sunnyvale, California based AnchorFree Inc. has enlisted ICAP Ocean Tomo to auction off U.S. patent number 7,647,305 (pdf) at its November 11 intellectual property auction in Napa, California. The patent covers two main things. First, it covers charging search ad customers based on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DreamHost.co and AOLmail.co Among First .Co Domains Hit with UDRP - Trademark owners go after their names on .co. A dozen companies have filed 13 .co domain name arbitration disputes since the relaunch of .co as a a generic domain name. The most recent UDRP filing was for Dreamhost.co by the owner of the large web host DreamHost.com. This is a somewhat surprising case given that surely a web host was aware of the release of .co domains. Other companies have also filed cases. AOL wants aolmail.co and L.A. Fitness is going after lafitness.co. ... read more ...
Tue 31st August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyHealth.com Saved during National Arbitration Forum - Case over generic domain name denied. A National Arbitration Forum panelist has rejected a company’s claim to the domain name MyHealth.com. My Health, Inc registered its mark for “My Health” in 2009. But the registrant of the domain name acquired it prior to that (in 2007) for $150,000. Making matters worse, when My Health, Inc filed its complaint it thought that the respondent had owned the domain name since way back in 1995. Regardless of which date you ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC Tries to Wriggle Out Of $1 Million Women.com Sale - NBC wants lawsuit over domain name dismissed. NBC Universal has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit filed by DONE! Ventures over DONE!’s failed purchase of Women.com. DONE! claims it had an agreement to buy women.com and women.net from NBC, and that NBC later backed out of the deal that was brokered by Sedo. NBC’s first line of defense is that it hadn’t reached an agreement with DONE! because communications only referred to Women.com, not .net — so ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CareerBuilder and Monster Want to Stop .Jobs Domain Expansion - Group forms to object to .jobs expansion. A group calling itself The .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition is asking ICANN’s board to reconsider its decision to open up the .jobs top level domain name to non-company name registrations. The coalition’s members include major employment web sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, along with a number of associations. In a letter (pdf) to the Committee of the Board on Reconsideration, the group argues that: -The .jobs ... read more ...
Mon 30th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Ohio State Wins Order Shutting Down Site Buckeyeillustrated.com - The SF Examiner is reporting that a federal judge granted Ohio States motion to Shut down the website buckeyeillustrated.com. Ohio States nickname is the Buckeyes Ohio State accused GDS Marketing Inc. the company that owned and operated the domain and site, of trying to produce electronic versions of gameday programs, along with printed versions for distribution in Columbus. The U.S. District court  granted a temporary restraining order requiring the company to stop publication AND from registering, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook Sues Teachbook: Why Is The Media & The Blogosphere So Upset? Will This Help To Change Trademark Laws? - The media seems to be ripping Facebook.com apart for defending its trademark rights against a new site TeachBook.com. Mainstream media, welcome to our world. Facebook.com filed suit again a new site called TeachBook.com this week and I have seen over 200 articles mostly all of which are highly critical of Facebook for the suit. Moreover Facebook.com has apperately taken over a previous trademark application and is trying to get the word “Face” trademarked. Some of the blogs are saying that ... read more ...