Tag Archives: legal

Sat 17th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Some Advice to Education Site Taking on Marijuana Site - Education site worried about effect of corresponding .org domain name. This morning I came across a story about an education web site at NewsBowl.com that is worried that a marijuana site is at NewsBowl.org. The owner is worried that students will type .org after NewsBowl instead of .com and find themselves at a site about drugs. First, it’s kind of ironic that the owner of a .com would worry about what’s on the .org equivalent, since mostly it’s the other ... read more ...
Fri 16th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A Pure Trademarked Generic TractorSupply.Mobi Taken In a WIPO - In a WIPO decision released yesterday a domain of generic term , TractorSupply.mobi, was given to the Trademark holder. Here are the facts of the case: “Complainant or its predecessors have operated a retail business under the TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY service mark since 1938.” It has adopted several versions of the service mark, including TRACTOR SUPPLY, TRACTOR SUPPLY CO. AND TSC. ” Complainant has a federally registered service mark for TRACTOR SUPPLY CO. ” Complainant has registered ... read more ...
Thu 15th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Releases Information About Anti-Trust Lawsuit - Company files information with SEC regarding legal setback. Shortly after receiving an adverse decision in appeals court last week regarding an anti-trust lawsuit, VeriSign filed an 8-K with the SEC explaining the opinion. The disclosure summarizes changes to the court’s original order, and says the allegations are without merit: On July 9, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the “Court”) issued an order (the “Amended Order”) ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotBerlin Wants Special Status with New gTLDs Because of Its Early Involvement - First .music, now .berlin wants extra credit for being early to the new TLD game. I wrote previously about how one applicant for the .music top level domain name requested favored status since he had been working on the concept for so long. Now another group is asking for similar status. dotBERLIN GmbH Co., which hopes to release a .berlin top level domain name, has submitted a comment to ICANN asking that companies that have been involved in the new top level domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucker Carlson Buys Keith Olbermann Domain Name - Tucker Carlson’s publication The Daily Caller buys domain name KeithOlbermann.com. From one political pundit to another: I own you! Tucker Carlson has acquired the domain name KeithOlbermann.com. Actually, it’s Carlson’s The Daily Caller that acquired the domain name, and now shows this: Apparently Olbermann has been blasting The Daily Caller of late. So the publication bought the domain name from the current owner, a Virginia man who was parking the domain ... read more ...
Wed 14th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Battle Over .Jobs is Growing - .Jobs debate “ends” Thursday. I wrote last month about a move to open up the .jobs domain name. Currently only companies can register .jobs domains, and only with their company name (e.g. ATT.jobs). The group behind this sponsored TLD wants to open it up, with the idea of creating a ton of (million?) job boards using the domains. From Policy.jobs: Previously, Employ Media [which runs .jobs under contract] began the process of creating a self-managed class of ... read more ...
Tue 13th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Does A Web Deginer Own 84% Of Facebook? He Says Yes In A Lawsuit Filed Against a Company - In a civil lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of New York’s Allegany County last month, Ceglia vs. Zuckerberg Facebook, , Paul Ceglia said he signed a contract with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 to develop and design a website called TheFacebook.com (I like the sound of that better). A New York judge’s recently granted an temporary order blocking any transfer of the company’s assets, based on Paul Cegliaas clain that he owns 84% of Facebook According to Ceglia he signed a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Gets Patent for “Cybersquatter Patrol” - Company granted patent for typosquatting and cybersquatting tools. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today granted Microsoft U.S. patent number 7,756,987 (pdf) for “Cybersquatter Patrol”. The patent is for a system of generating lists of typo and cybersquatted domains and peeling back the onion to determine their ownership and revenue source. It also refers to methods to block these cybersquatted domain names. An exemplary method includes providing a typographically ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owner of Casino.com Busts on Caisinos.com - A generic, a typo, or neither. The owner of Casino.com has failed to convince a World Intellectual Property Forum panel that it should get the domain name Caisinos.com. The case was filed by Mansion (Gibraltar) Limited of Gibraltar, which claimed that Caisinos.com is merely a typo of its Casino.com domain name. There are a few problems with this argument: 1. Casino is a generic term, although this is the weakest defense 2. If anything, it’s a typo of Casinos.com, ... read more ...
Sun 11th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Court Rules Against Toyota In Domain Case: Buy-A-Lexus.com; BuyorLeaseLexus.com - While URDP are decided daily its pretty rare to find a Federal Court decision involving domain names and ever rarer to find a court that rules in favor of the domain name holder, but that’s exactly what happened in the case of TOYOTA MOTOR SALES U.S.A., INC. v. TABARI a decision just released on Thursday by the Ninth Circuit for the United States Court of Appeals. In that case a couple who are auto brokers, beat Toyota on appeal winning the right to a new trial on whether they can regain their ... read more ...
Sat 10th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
90 Domains, $5,800 a Month In Revenue; Zuccarini’s Suit Is An Eye Opener - I been reviewing the lawsuit that John Zuccarini filed this week against NameJet.com, NetworkSolutions, Enom.com and VeriSign. (pdf) Here is some quick background. There were 14 domains that were owned by Zuccarini, but held by a Receiver which managed the domains on behalf of a creditor of Zuccarini,  which were auctioned off by NameJet.com for a total of $80K, when the receiver appearently did not pay the renewal fees on the domains. Zuccarini then filed along with the creditor, a motion for temporary ... read more ...
Fri 9th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Worst of 2010: UltimateGuitar.com Taken In WIPO Based On “Common Law” Trademark Of A Hyphenated Domain - In a case which was decided about a month ago, but just brought to my attention by a reader today, a one person WIPO panel took the domain name, UltimateGuitar.com away from Domain Capital which financed it on behalf of an undisclosed owner and gave it to the owner of Ultimate-Guitar.com, based on a “common law” trademark. This decision has  made it onto my worst of 2010 list. Here are the facts. Complainant’s owns the domain ultimate-guitar.com which was created on October 13, 1999. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Watch: Buzz Aldrin, Manny Ramirez, and Brazilian Finance Follies - Celebrities, parking woes, big companies, and more. Here are a few recent UDRP filings and decisions of note. BuzzAldrin.net – Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has picked up the domain name BuzzAldrin.net. He already owns BuzzAldrin.com, which he uses to promote his media products and iPhone and iPad apps. MyBT.com – This UDRP was just filed by British Telecom. I think the parked page is really going to hurt the respondent. First link: “BT Mobile Phones”. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Loses Big in Court on .Com Domains - Court of Appeals denies VeriSign’s motion, setting up a potential trial over the company’s .com monopoly. One year after a big legal setback, VeriSign has been setback again by the same court. Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied (pdf) VeriSign’s motion for a rehearing of its case with Coalition for ICANN Transparency, and the court amended the opinion it released last year on the matter. The background: Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) sued ... read more ...
Thu 8th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
European Court of Justice Rules That Using Trademarks In Adwords Is Not Trademark Infringement, Again - Europe’s Court of Justice has confirmed that use of a competitor’s name as an Internet advertising keyword does not constitute a violation of European trademark law. The case involved two companies Primakabin and Portakabin, which both manufacture temporary sheds and buildings. Primakabin used keywords like “portakabin” and mis-spelled variants “portacabin” in keywords it used with Google AdWords in order to draw users to Primakabin products when they searched for its competitor. In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Defends Domain from New Debt Reduction Company - Chronology of registration “fatal” to complainant’s case. Marchex has successfully defended the domain name uFirst.com, which it acquired as part of the acquisition of Ultimate Search. The challenge was brought by a United First Financial, a company that claims it can help you “build wealth and eliminate debt simultaneously”. Some say the company is just a pyramid scheme. Regardless of the merits of United First Financial’s business, one thing’s for ... read more ...
Wed 7th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC Universal and DONE! Fight Over What to Do With Women.com - Domain name losing value as lawsuit works its way through the courts. DONE! Ventures lawsuit against NBC Universal and General Electric Company has been moved from state court to U.S. District Court, and there the parties are fighting over what to do with the domain names pending trial. As background, DONE! sued NBC after a deal by the former to purchase Women.com and Women.net for $1 million fell through. DONE! is asking for NBC to follow through on the deal, which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Sues NameJet, eNom, VeriSign, and Network Solutions - Lawsuit filed after expired domains sold on NameJet. John Zuccarini has filed a complaint (pdf) against NameJet, eNom, VeriSign, and Network Solutions in U.S. District Court over the transfer and auctioning of a number of his domain names. A number of Zuccarini’s domain names were transferred to a court-appointed receiver due to a judgment against Zuccarini in an anti-cybersquatting case. The receiver accidentally let some of the domain names expire, and the domain ... read more ...
Tue 6th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Call to Action: An Important ICANN Comment Period - You should comment on this proposed new procedure for hijacked domain names. It’s rare that I ask the domain community to comment on a particular topic at ICANN. It’s even rarer that domain investors actually follow through. But there’s an important process going on to establish a mechanism to return hijacked domain names, and your input is needed. That a process to return stolen domain names is in the works is a good thing. We hear every day about stolen ... read more ...
Mon 5th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
“Why we Typosquatted & Why It Should Be Legal” - Back In April of this year, we wrote about a guy named Alf Temme, who was in that report sued by Dell for $2.4 Million for typosquatting. In a guest post to SeattlePI.com, Mr. Temme described why he started typo squatting, he business plan he built around it and how it all came tumbling down due to the trademark laws, The Lanham Act and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). You also might remember that Mr. Temme owns the company that sells the Romfab ROM exercise machine for over ... read more ...
Fri 2nd July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Absolut Vodka Getting Into a Escort Business? - Vodka purveyor gets AbsolutEscort.com domain name. Hey, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. But VS Vin Sprit AB, distributor of Absolut Vodka, just won a domain name arbitration case for AbsolutEscorts.com. Why else would they want this domain name other than to expand into another vice industry? Oh, I suppose it could have to do with this: The Complainant has not authorized the Respondent’s use of the mark in any way and would not license the mark for ... read more ...
Thu 1st July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feds Seize 9 Domains For Copyright Infringement, But Based On What Law? - According to the Wall Street Journal, federal authorities seized 9 domain names of sites that were offering pirated movies. The nine domain names were registered using U.S.-based registrars, allowing authorities to take control of their site addresses. Some of the sites themselves were  run on computers based in the U.S, in Colorado, Florida and Illinois, but others used computers based in Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Czech Republic. The domain names seized according to the report ... read more ...
Wed 30th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Adult Tradeshow Operator Sues A Competitor Over 19 Domain Names, Seeking $1.9 Million - According to xbiznewswire.com, the parent company of the Exxxotica adult trade show filed suit against a competing adult-consumer show operator Adultcon, claiming that its owner is squatting on 19 domain names. The complaint, was filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. There is currently a annual show for Exxxotica Miami Beach,  a Exxxotica New Jersey and a new adult show to be held in Los Angeles in July. Adultcon is holding its 19th annual adult show in Los Angeles in September which ... read more ...
Tue 29th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verify your .Cn Email Address in 15 Days or You Might Lose your Domain - CNNIC wants you to verify your email address, like, today. This may sound like a really bad phishing scheme, but it’s coming from a legitimate source. RRPproxy is reporting that all owners of China’s .cn domain names are receiving an email notice to verify their registrant information. Failure to respond within 15 days may mean your domain name is processed according to “relevant provisions of the Registry”, which RRPproxy says means the domain name could ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panelist Rules NameMedia Can Keep Generic Pantaloons.com - NameMedia wins UDRP case brought by Indian retailer. NameMedia has successfully staved off an attack by Indian clothing retailer Pantaloon Retail for the domain name Pantaloons.com. The retailer is part of Future Group, and owns Pantaloon.com, but not the pural version. Pantaloons is a generic, albeit somewhat antiquated, clothing term. But it’s still a generic word, the panelist noted. NameMedia put up a SmartName shop on the domain name, which shows numerous ... read more ...