Tag Archives: legal

Tue 20th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
“I’m Not One of Those Evil Typo Dudes” Says The Guys Sued By Microsoft for $2.4 Million - Here’s the case of a non-domainer that has been sued by some of the biggest companies in the world for registering variations of their trademarks and seems not to be a bit bothered by the whole thing. Meet, Alf Temme, the owner of a California company that sells an exercise machine for $14,615. In March, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against him and his son Lars over 24 domain names, such as ho0tmail.com and hot5mail.com, that redirect to his company’s Web site, fastexercise.com. Microsoft’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Launches Google Places 6 Days After Winning GooglePlaces.com Domain - Google won GooglePlaces.com domain 6 days ago. Did Google wait to rebrand its Local Business Center to Google Places until it had won rights to the domain name GooglePlaces.com? On March 2 the company filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name GooglePlaces.com through Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy. The domain was owned by “Network Service” in California, with a registered owner named only “Anthonny”. The National ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ScotiaBank Loses Case for Caribana Festival Domain Name - Title sponsor for Carnival event in Toronto loses case to get Caribana.com domain name. Bank of Nova Scotia, the title sponsor for Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival called “Caribana”, has lost a dispute to gain ownership of the domain name Caribana.com. Bank of Nova Scotia — aka ScotiaBank — filed the complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to get the domain name from Working Word Co-operative, which publishes Word Magazine. Working Word ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Investors Settle Embezzlement Case With Sovereign Bank - Phone.com, LLC and Escom, LLC settle case against Sovereign Bank for $300,000. What do Phone.com, Consultants.com, and Relationship.com have in common? Yes, they are valuable internet real estate. But they are also at the center of an alleged $500,000 heist during 2007-2008. And, like any case involving domains and theft, Sex.com was also involved. The Players In February 2007, Internet Real Estate Group hired Christopher Britt for bookkeeping and controller activities. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board to Review UDRP Provider Relationship on Thursday - “And an actual contract?” That raises a very sticky problem with WIPO. WIPO is a treaty organization which is ordinarily immune from most legal actions. Signing a contract would necessarily expose them to suit under that contract, and that is not going to happen. Of course there is no ICANN requirement that WIPO be a UDRP provider either. Under ordinary principles of governance, we do not usually vest the policy making and adjudication functions in the same body (and certainly ... read more ...
Mon 19th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
If ICANN Were a Democracy… - Comments overwhelmingly opposed to .xxx. But that doesn’t answer the question about what ICANN should do. I decided to check in on the .XXX comment period today to see how the comments were coming in. This is what I saw: Thanks to an effort by Focus on the Family, there are over 13 pages of comment titles for the current comment period. Many of them are form submissions with the same title and same content. So how much should these comments from “MITTENS1120″ ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Shipping Company Loses Challenge for NOL.com Domain Name - Domain name with Fortune 500 history involved in domain dispute. Shipping company Neptune Orient Lines Limited has lost a UDRP challenge against the owner of the domain name NOL.com. The domain’s owner, cnwonder.com or Wu Guiqiang, said he didn’t register the domain name with the shipping company’s NOL trademark in mind. He also used the domain name for a service called “Names Online”, or NOL for short. The panelist accepted that the domain name wasn’t ... read more ...
Thu 15th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Louis Vuitton Loses Domain Dispute for Mobile Domain Name - Fashion company loses dispute over LVMobile.com Louis Vuitton has lost a domain name dispute against Demand Domains for the domain name LVMobile.com The company claimed that LVMobile.com infringed on its LV trademark, and that the parked domain at LVMobile.com included links to the fashion company’s competitors. It also alleged that Demand Domains is a front for Demand Media’s eNom registrar. Demand Domains countered that Louis Vuitton does not have exclusive ... read more ...
Tue 13th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOM Partners Fires Back during Mike Mann in Sex.com Case - Creditor to Sex.com says Mike Mann proves its point. DOM Partners, a creditor and equity investor in Sex.com owner Escom, LLC, has filed a reply (pdf) to Mike Mann’s opposition to DOM’s motion to dismiss bankruptcy proceedings against Escom. In the reply, DOM Partners says that Mann’s opposition and declaration proves that he filed the bankruptcy case in bad faith to prevent a planned foreclosure auction of the Sex.com domain name. Petitioners acknowledge ... read more ...
Mon 12th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mac Poker Sites Face Off, But Could Have Bigger Problems Ahead - Company sues other company over trademark…while it has Apple’s trademark in its domain name. From The Las Vegas Sun comes news of a lawsuit filed by the owner of Macpokeronline.com against the owner of macpoker.com and macpoker.net. Best Odds Corp., owner of the macpokeronline.com, filed the suit claiming MacPoker.com and MacPoker.net infringe on its trademark for Mac Poker. A trademark for Mac Poker? Yep. Best Odds Corp has been working to get this approved ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Top Level Domain Trademark Frontrunning Battle Heats Up - .Eco trademark fight heats up, but pot is calling the kettle black. In June I wrote about how companies wanting to apply for new top level domain names were attempting to file trademarks on non-existent top level domain names. One of the examples I gave was .eco. At the time, Colored Planet Connextion appeared close to getting a trademark approved. Canadian company Big Room also filed an application for the .eco mark. While both of these groups want to launch a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Subway Lawyer Misses Layup, Loses Domain Name - Subway doesn’t meet low burden of proof and loses domain dispute. When you see a UDRP case for the domain name MySubwayRewards.com, you assume that the sandwich chain will get a slam dunk. It should be an easy case, especially when the respondent uses the domain name to promote free gift cards to Subway. But that doesn’t mean the complainant gets away without making a basic case. That’s exactly what happened in the case of Doctor’s Associates Inc. v. Atomix. ... read more ...
Fri 9th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MIA.com Saved in Arbitration, But Who’s This Lazy Panelist? - MIA panelist is MIA. The owner of MIA.com has successfully defended her domain name from an attack by Mosaic International, LLC. But the panelist in the case seemed more eager to submit an answer and get his check than to pay attention to the issues. Mosaic International has a line of hair accessories and appliances marketed under the MIA brand. It started using the brand in 2004 and filed a trademark application for MIA in 2007. The owner of MIA.com registered ... read more ...
Thu 8th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD Debate Mirrors Health Care Debate - New TLD debate has degenerated into nonsense. If you live in America, the past several months have been all about loonies on both sides of the health care debate. They’ll say just about anything, even if it’s not true, to sway opinion on health care. The new top level domain name debate is really quite similar. Like American political issues, you have people on extremes on both sides of the issues. On one side you have Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Good News: YH.com Returned to Rightful Owner - Owner gets domain name back after long ordeal. Last week I wrote about the domain name YH.com, which was stolen from its owner and offered for sale. I received good news today: the owner has gotten the domain name back. The entire domain name industry should pat itself on the back for stepping up to the plate. According to T.M. Camp, whom I interviewed for the previous story, the domain name was returned thanks to “some concerted efforts by GoDaddy, Escrow.com, ... read more ...
Wed 7th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RL.com Case Shows What Can Happen if You Buy a Stolen Domain Name - Buyer of hijacked RL.com domain name has spent dearly on legal bills. In light of recent domain thefts, you might ask yourself what can happen if you happen to buy a stolen domain name. Look no further than the case of John Laxton, who bought the domain name RL.com for $15,000 in 2005. RL.com was originally registered by Dale Mayberry in 1995. He also owned the domain name mat.net, and used a mat.net email address as the registered contact for both RL.com and Mat.net. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CitizenHawk: Pulling a Sheets Off a “Typosquatting Recovery Firm” - New site watches a watchdog. One of the more controversial domain name companies is CitizenHawk. The company was founded in 2007 to help brands recover typos of their domain names. On behalf of clients, the company sends demand letters to registrants of typos and files UDRPs as well. When it recovers a domain, it has an agreement with the client that CitizenHawk may monetize the domain for a period of time. This is usually done through the client’s affiliate ... read more ...
Mon 5th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
8 Clues a Domain Name is Stolen - 8 warning signs a domain name is stolen. Over the past few days we’ve learned about a number of domain name thefts, including YH.com and VL.com. People typically steal domains with the hopes of selling them before word gets out that the domain is stolen. Here are 8 clues a domain name you’re thinking about buying is stolen. Just because one of these is true doesn’t mean a domain is stolen; but you should use caution. 1. Person claims they must sell the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Proposes Domain Name Exchange Service - New program would let registrars trade-in domains they no longer want. VeriSign has filed papers with ICANN proposing a “Domain Name Exchange” that would let .net domain name owners trade in their domains for others. The stated purpose of the exchange is to allow service providers that offer packages for less than a year to change in domains when customers are no longer using them: Today when a registrant terminates a package of services from a registrar after, ... read more ...
Sat 3rd April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VL.com Domain Name Stolen, Too. Here’s a Inside Story. - Beware: more stolen domain names. Yesterday I reported about the theft of YH.com. It turns out another valuable domain, VL.com, was also recently stolen. In this case it appears the weak link was web hosting company Dreamhost. That’s also the host in the YH.com case, although the actual weak link in that case hasn’t been determined. It wasn’t Dreamhost’s automated systems that are to blame. It was a human mess up, just like when Baidu’s DNS was hijacked. ... read more ...
Fri 2nd April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Has Anyone Really Thought Through Uniform Rapid Suspension? - URS lacks foresight. Yesterday the comment period for Uniform Rapid Suspension closed at ICANN. URS is a cheaper and (supposedly) faster version of UDRP, with a few twists. But given all of the holes in URS, I have to wonder if anyone has really thought this idea through. Yes, people that worked on URS will say they have, but many of them have ulterior motives. I found National Arbitration Forum’s comments on URS particularly interesting, since it looked at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“No Porn!” Shout Families to ICANN - Anti-porn group mobilized against .xxx. If ICANN is supposed to include the thoughts of the greater internet community, it is certainly getting its wish. Focus on the Family Some advocacy group — whether it be a religious right organization, parents organization, or someone else – has lit a fire under dozens of people to submit comments to ICANN regarding .xxx. The comment period for the procedural issues around reconsidering ICM Registry’s .xxx application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Warning: YH.com Domain Name Stolen - Valuable two letter domain name YH.com has been stolen. The domain name YH.com has been hijacked from its owner and the thief is trying to sell it. The domain’s owner is Jaynell Hogan, who was properly identified in the whois database until March 26, when the domain name was suddenly transferred from Go Daddy to DOMENESHOP AS. The whois record changed to “Domain Administrator”. The thief then created a Gmail address using Hogan’s name, which is currently ... read more ...
Thu 1st April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Baby Product Company “Gambles”, Gets 4 Character Domain Canceled - Company gets BiBi.com domain name ‘canceled’. [Update: The domain name wasn’t actually ordered transferred to Bibi, instead it was ordered “canceled”, so no one really won the case. ]Lamprecht AG, which sells a line of baby products under the BiBi name, has won the domain name BiBi.com from Future Media Architects through Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) gotten the ‘cancelation’ of an FMA domain name through UDRP. The complainant ... read more ...
Wed 31st March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Colombia Faces Uphill Battle to Host ICANN Meeting in December - ICANN still considering options for December meeting. ICANN plans to hold a meeting in Latin America this December, but it hasn’t yet named a location. Colombia is frequently mentioned as a candidate, and the country’s Minister of Information and Communications Technologies has sent a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom restating his country’s interest in hosting the event. On the surface, Colombia might be a good candidate. It’s getting a lot of press as ... read more ...