Tag Archives: legal

Mon 14th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Curious Case of ICANN Sponsorship - Some interesting sponsors for next week’s ICANN conference. Next week the domain name world will converge on Brussels for ICANN meeting number 38. It costs a lot of money to organize these ICANN meetings and the organization often comes under fire for this. To help defray the cost it offers various sponsorships. There are a couple interesting sponsors for the upcoming meeting, most notably ICM Registry. As you might recall, ICM Registry is embroiled in a dispute ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Payment Processor is No Free Bird, Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Panelist calls out company for trying to breaking “spirit” of UDRP. Tulsa, Oklahoma payment processor Blue Financial Corporation — which runs Bluefin Payment Systems — has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking by a WIPO UDRP panel. This case was particularly egregious. Blue Financial has a trademark for “Freebird” for “Providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for use in electronic authorization, processing and management ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Settles Lawsuit and Gets Flicker.com Domain Name - Yahoo now has Flicker.com for Flickr.com web site. As Michael Berkens pointed out today, Yahoo now owns the domain name Flicker.com. But this wasn’t your typical domain name sale. It was actually the culmination of year long anti-cybersquatting lawsuit brought against the Flicker.com owner AshantiPLC, which is owned in part by domain investor Sahar Sarid. Yahoo’s lawsuit against the Ashanti was filed in July 2009. Yahoo alleged that the defendants purchased ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mrs Jello Beats Big Company in Domain Name Dispute - Panel not convinced that West Corporation should get Entrado.com domain name. Well-known domain name investor Mrs Jello, LLC, commonly known as “Mrs Jello”, has successfully defended against a UDRP case brought by West Corporation. West Corporation (which has a good domain name West.com) has a subsidiary called Intrado (which has a bad domain name Intrado.com that is easy to misspell and doesn’t even resolve without the www in front of it). It appears that ... read more ...
Sun 13th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The .Jobs Backlash Has Begun - .Jobs process “stunk and lacked an open, honest, and transparent process” say some in career industry. When .jobs was originally introduced as a top level domain name, the plan was to let companies register only their company name, and only for use promoting jobs at their company; e.g. ATT.jobs and GoDaddy.jobs. The domain has floundered since so few domains could be registered. Hardly anyone even recognizes it as a URL when they see it. But there’s money ... read more ...
Fri 11th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Denies Complaint On The Parked Domain, FirstQuote.com By Trademark Holder: Did Being Offshore Save Them? - In one of the most interesting WIPO decisions of the year, A one person WIPO Panel today denied the complaint of 1stQuote.com against the owner of FirstQuote.com. What makes this case particularly interesting is that the trademark holder of 1stQuote.com already won WIPO Cases against the holders of the domains FirstQuote.net and FirstQuote.org in two separate filed WIPO actions. Even more interesting is that this panel ruling in favor of the domain holder might have turned on the fact that the registrant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Disputes: Google Books, Royals, and Rachael Ray Pick adult Domains - Three UDRP decisions involve big brands. Google has won the domain name GoogleBooks.com through the UDRP domain name arbitration process at National Arbitration Forum. The domain name was being used by someone promoting the internet marketing product “Google Nemesis”. The owner registered the domain name back in 2004. Google, of course, wanted the domain name for its Google Books product at books.google.com. In a separate decision, Major League Baseball’s ... read more ...
Wed 9th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court Greenlights Sex.com Order - Order paves way for sale of Sex.com. The Central California Bankruptcy Court has issued an order approving a settlement between the managers of Sex.com owner Escom, LLC. This means that Escom can go forward with entering into an agreement with domain broker Sedo to sell the domain name. There was a slight hitch in the process as investor Nothin’ But Net (run by Mike “Zappy” Zapolin), which had been quiet in the early stages of the case, filed an objection. ... read more ...
Tue 8th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gregory “Bong” Loses 8 Hyphen .Info Domain in UDRP - What are these guys smoking? I thought I’d seen it all, but I hadn’t until today: someone lost a .info domain name with eight hyphens in a UDRP. But it gets more entertaining. The domain name is: how-to-roll-a-blunt-with-a-swisher-sweet.info And the registered owner? One Gregory Bong. Yes, bong. Or at least according to the whois record. I can understand why Swisher would want to get this domain name off the web. But this strategy could be expensive. ... read more ...
Mon 7th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CafeInternet.com Taken In A WIPO For “Pornosquatting” - In a three panel decision the generic domain name CafeInternet.com was transferred to the trademark holder “”The Panel determines that while no specific act of bad faith by Respondent…the Panel finds that Respondent, by providing the name of an unidentifiable business entity and misleading contact information, has taken deliberate steps to conceal its identity and make contact or communication impossible, all while operating a pornographic website at a domain name which could be easily ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Receiver Fail: Network Solutions Responds to Expired Domains Sold on NameJet - Company says it sent 54 reminders to receiver to renew domain names. New details have emerged in the case of a court-appointed receiver failing to renew domain names that were subject to a lengthy court case. OK, so it’s not the exciting. We all knew what happened: the receiver failed to renew the domain names, they expired, and then they were auctioned off at NameJet. But a letter from Network Solutions shows that the receiver at least knew how to renew a domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
If You Can’t Go to Brussels, You Can Still Participate Online - ICANN holds informational sessions on remote participation for June meeting. If something good came of many attendees pulling out of the last ICANN meeting in Kenya for security reasons, it was the tidal shift to remote participation in ICANN meetings. A number of people who chose not to attend the meeting went to the web and ICANN’s many remote participation features to stay involved and virtually raise their hand to speak. A group of domain companies even set ... read more ...
Sun 6th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is This a Worst UDRP Domain Dispute Analogy Ever? - Now this is just stupid. I just finished reviewing the details of Tata Communications’ case against Portmedia Inc. for the domain name TrueRoots.com. The facts of the case are fairly clear: the domain name was registered well before Tata Communications started using the term TrueRoots. Later, once Tata started using the mark, the parked page at TrueRoots.com started to display links related to Tata’s use. As is sometimes the case, the panelists disagreed over ... read more ...
Fri 4th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Guestlist.Me Taken In A UDRP: The Right Of Dot Counts In Determining Trademark Infringement - There has been a lot of discussion going on in the domainer community regarding whether a domain can violate a trademark including the extension or the right of the dot. Recently this issue was brought up in relation to the auction for E.CO. Today a one person WIPO panel found that the entire domain, including the extension (or right of the dot) as a whole,  can be considered in determining trademark infringement The domain is question Guestlist.me and the trademark in question is “Guestlist me” The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DONE! Ventures Sues NBC Universal Over Failed Women.com Deal during Sedo - Company sues NBC Universal for allegedly backing out of deal to sell Women.com. Robin Wauters at TechCrunch is reporting about a domain deal that didn’t quite get “done”, and a lawsuit filed by the buyer. DONE! Ventures (which participated in the Toys.com auction) is suing NBC Universal for allegedly not following through with an agreement to sell Women.com and women.net. According to the complaint, NBC Universal agreed to an exclusive brokerage agreement ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Woops! Court Appointed Receiver Lets Zuccarini Domains Expire, Auctioned Off on NameJet - Domains that were part of legal judgment are accidentally auctioned off. Congratulations Michael Berkens, you’ve just uncovered a big mess by accident. On May 25, Berkens wrote about the auctioning off of GovermentGrants.com on NameJet for $53,022. The story also mentions other expired domains that sold on NameJet at the same time, such as USGoverment.com for $4,950, GovermentGrant.com for $3,950, GovermentAuction.com for $2,750, and GovermentAuctions.com $2,500. But ... read more ...
Wed 2nd June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domainer Successfully Defends MySchool.com From UDRP After Trademark Holder Passed On Buying The Domain - Domainer Andy Booth who was represented by Stevan Lieberman won a UDRP today on the Domain MySchool.com. The UDRP was bought by the trademark holder after he refused to buy the domain from the former owner. Apparently the trademark holder was offered the domain by the previous owner for $25K and then at $15,500 but rejected both offers. Mr. Booth went ahead and then bought the domain for $12,700. The trademark holder then filed the UDRP (costing him probably $5K) against the buyer Mr. Booth. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyBizHomepage is Confusingly Similar to MyBizOffice? Really? - This really shouldn’t be that confusing of an issue. The bar has just been lowered for showing confusing similarity in UDRP decisions, courtesy of a decision at National Arbitration Forum. At issue are the domain names MyBizHomepage.com and MyBizDashboard.com. The complainant in the case, MBO Partners, Inc, operates MyBizOffice.com and has a trademark for “MyBizOffice”. Note that MBO Partners does not have a trademark for “MyBiz”, which is a very common ... read more ...
Tue 1st June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
No Country Names in New TLD Round - So much for .zimbabwe. The latest version of the draft applicant guidebook for new top level domain names prohibits country names (e.g. .mexico) from being registered. It’s a good thing, really. It eliminates another conflict ICANN would have to deal with: ruthless dictators hoping to spend more of their ill-gotten gains on a new top level domain name might not pass the background check. The background check will cover a number of items, including -Corruption ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Opens Floodgates Over Holiday Weekend - Information overload hits over Memorial Day weekend. Maybe it was because this weekend was the end of the month. Or perhaps it was to meet deadlines for the upcoming ICANN conference. Regardless, ICANN chose a U.S. holiday weekend to release a number of very important documents. The big kahuna is the fourth draft applicant guidebook for new TLDs. This may be the last “draft” of the guidebook. It will take a while for me to go through it and I’ll report back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Should Create Filter Before Opening Comments on New TLDs - Advocacy groups will have open season on new top level domain name applications. On page 1-6 of the fourth draft applicant guidebook for new top level domain names, ICANN has moved its language regarding a comment periods. I hadn’t really paid attention to it before. Essentially, once applications for new top level domains (such as .sport or .nyc) are posted, anyone will be able to submit a comment that will be considered by the application evaluation team: In ... read more ...
Mon 31st May 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domainers Back To The Basics: You Can Only Sell A Domain Once & Yes E-Mails Count - OK domainers it time to go back to the basics. You can only sell a domain once. If you agree to sell a domain and the buyer pays you, you have a done deal. You have to transfer the domain or you can be sued. and Yes e-mail’s count. It Seems obvious to me but, I realized this was not the case with many domainers, when our good friend George Kirikos alerted me to the story that the first buyer of CamRoulette.com was suing the original seller of the domain and sent me the link to the discussion on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Original Registrant of CamRoulette.com Sued - CamRoulette.com subject to lawsuit. It’s the deal that keeps on giving. The domain name world was shocked when CamRoulette.com sold for $151,000. The original registrant of the domain name was kicking himself for selling it for only $1,400. But now he has bigger problems: another person says he had an agreement to buy the domain name for $700. He’s suing for $150,300, the difference between what he offered to buy the domain for and what it sold for at auction. The ... read more ...
Sat 29th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Florida Company Loses Grab of BGT.com, But No Reverse Hijacking? - Panel gets decision right, but misses mark on RDNH. Burn World-Wide, Ltd. d/b/a BGT Partners of Miami, Florida, has lost a UDRP case to get the domain name BGT.com from Banta Global Turnkey Ltd, which is now part of RR Donnelly. The facts of the case are pretty egregious. Banta was founded well before BGT Partners and even registered the domain name before BGT Partners was formed. The three person arbitration panel found that the domain name wasn’t registered ... read more ...
Fri 28th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verizon Gets Back Into UDRP Game - Verizon files four separate UDRP cases in past couple days. For a while it seemed like Verizon had basically given up on filing UDRP cases. Instead, it opted to just file lawsuits against anyone with trademark typos, even small fry. That may be changing. The company has filed four separate UDRP cases at World Intellectual Property Organization within the past two days. One of those cases is for wwwverizon.com – a typo that should have been at the top of Verizon’s ... read more ...