Tag Archives: legal

Wed 31st March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Commentless Comment Periods during ICANN - 9 comment periods end tomorrow — but commenting is light. Nine different open comment subjects at ICANN close tomorrow — and four of them don’t have a single comment. Despite comment period overload, I’m surprised to see certain communities not getting involved in the process. For example, two of the subjects that don’t have any comments concern Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). ICANN’s decisions around IDNs will greatly impact those domainers who ... read more ...
 
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 ...
Mon 29th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Domain Seizure Case Is Heading Back To The Supreme Court - Gambling911.com, is reporting that the chief judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals approved iMEGA’s request to have its petition to send iMEGA, et al v. Commonwealth immediately back to the state’s Supreme Court. The order, signed early Friday, now allows the Supreme Court to make a decision on the merits regarding the 141 domain names seized by the Commonwealth. On March 18th the Supreme Court of Kentucky reversed the appeals court order throwing out the seizure order saying the parties ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Renewal Scam Picks Up Speed - An old domain name renewal scam that uses the domain name domainrenewalonline.org appears to be kicking into high gear. I received three scam emails from the company yesterday, each from three different sender names. With subject lines such as “Regarding your domain” and “Information about your domain”, the notices signed by “ISP Renewal” try to get you to submit your credit card information to renew domain names. It appears the scam has been sniffed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kraft Wins Philadelphia.es Domain Name - Kraft awarded domain name for cream cheese brand. Kraft, maker of Philadelphia cream cheese, has been awarded the domain name Philadelphia.es by an arbitration panel at World Intellectual Property Organization. Isn’t Philadelphia a generic term, meaning the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? Perhaps. But the domain owner didn’t respond to the allegations in the case. He could have easily responded to the charges, arguing that he planned to set up a tourism ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sex.com Dirt: Inside Details of What Went Wrong with Sex.com - New dirt on Sex.com exposed in court filings. Documents filed in a bankruptcy case involving Sex.com owner Escom, LLC, provide intriguing details into who actually owns Sex.com and what went wrong with the company. DOM Partners, a creditor and an investor in Escom, filed the papers in response to an involuntary bankruptcy filing initiated by Mike Mann against Escom to halt the auction of Sex.com. In a motion to dismiss (pdf) the petition for bankruptcy, DOM alleges ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bing! Microsoft Wants Your Bing Domain Names - Microsoft picks up Bing domain names through arbitration. Since launching its new Bing search engine last year, Microsoft has frequently called upon National Arbitration Forum to help it get Bing related domain names registered by cybersquatters. National Arbitration Forum records show that, since December 29, the company has won arbitration cases for at least 40 domain names. The first batch of domains the company won on December 29, 2009 were typical typos, including ... read more ...
Sun 28th March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Baby Products Company Challenges “Working Mother of 5″ Over Domain Name - Munchkin fights woman who incorporated “Munchkins” in her domain name. Baby products company Munchkin has lost its attempt to get the domain name MamasandMunchkins.com from a “working mother of 5 small children”. Munchkin, which operates at the web site Munchkin.com, argued that Teri VanDerLaan’s domain name “fully incorporates” Munchkin’s trademark. So what happens when a big company goes after a working mother of 5 just trying to make a living? ... read more ...
Fri 26th March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Franchisors Need to Add Domain Name Rules to Contracts - Domain disputes common with franchises. I often see domain name disputes between franchisors and franchisees when it comes to domain names. These usually resolve around two issues: 1. Franchisor doesn’t want franchisee to register a domain name using the franchise trademarks 2. When a franchise agreement is terminated, the franchisor wants the domain name back/terminated Here’s a case in point. Re-Bath LLC recently filed a domain name arbitration request against ... read more ...
Thu 25th March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Cn Pullout is a Business Decision, Not Political [Updated] - Public misunderstands reasons for .cn pullout. [Update: see comments from Go Daddy Group Executive Vice-President and General Counsel Christine Jones.] I really don’t think Go Daddy was trying to pull off a publicity stunt yesterday with its testimony before a Congressional Commission yesterday. GoDaddy announced it was no longer offering China’s .cn domain name, and clearly laid out the hassle it would have to undertake to continue offering the domain name. But ... read more ...
Wed 24th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TruePoker.com Owners Come Forward In Kentucky To Satisfy “Standing” Requirement - According to Gambling911.com, one member of The Interactive Media Entertainment Gaming Association (iMEGA.org) has decided to step forward and, as such, satisfy the court’s requirement on “standing”. TruePoker.com, owned by Yatahay Limited Limited will step forward and identify itself as the owner of the domain, and provide the court a copy of the passport of the compliance officer of TruePoker.com, along with all necessary signatures and documentation. The Supreme Court of Kentucky last ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Dropping .Cn, But Not China - Go Daddy drops .cn, but Chinese can still register domain names at the registrar. In a hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China today in Washington, Go Daddy Group Executive Vice-President and General Counsel Christine Jones explained that the company will no longer offer .cn domain names under strict requirements imposed by China. On January 5, .Cn registry CNNIC announced without warning that non-Chinese registrars were no longer allowed to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Adult Industry Association Still Doesn’t Want .XXX - Trade group asks ICANN not to approve .xxx TLD. In a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, Diane Duke of the adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition asks ICANN to reject ICM Registry’s plans for a .xxx top level domain name. Much of the adult industry opposed .xxx after governments started getting involved. Governments suggested that perhaps they could force all adult web sites to use the .xxx top level domain, moving them away from .com. That would, ... read more ...
Tue 23rd March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UDRP Cases Decline 9.5% In 2009 - According to WIPO, the number of cases filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 2009 decreased by 9.5% compared to the previous year. In 2009, 2,107 cases were brought to the WIPO UDRP, compared to 2,329 cases in 2008. Those complaints concerned 4,688 domain names, compared to 3,958 in 2008, according to a WIPO press release, meaning many cases included mulitple domains. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
EU Rules: Google Is OK Allowing Advertisers To Purchase Ads Under Competitors Trademarked Keywords - Today the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the EU,  issued its long awaited ruling in a case brought by Louis Vuitton, giving Google a huge victory, saying that” “”Google has does not infringe on trademarks  by allowing advertisers to purchase keywords corresponding to their competitors’ trademarks,” Louis Vuitton and two other firms brought suit alleging that it infringed in its trademark by allowing online advertisers to buy search keywords identical to its trademarks. The ... read more ...
Mon 22nd March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
New Report: 1 NAF Panelist Out Of 141, Was Assigned To 10% of a Cases: What Is Going On? - A new study by DNattorney.com suggests that a handful of domain name arbitrators are appointed to decide a disproportionate amount of cases. The National Arbitration Forum, which is accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a Dispute Resolution Provider. The NAF has administered approximately 10,000 such cases since 1999. The NAF has about 141 Panelists on its roster. DNAttorney, after examining case-related data obtained directly from the National Arbitration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympic Committee Continues to Pester ICANN for Special Status - IOC to ICANN: just a friendly reminder that we’re important. The International Olympic Committee has sent another letter to ICANN requesting that it be given “holier-than-thou” trademark rights and special protections for the launch of new top level domain names. As you may recall, in April 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent a letter to ICANN stating that its trademarks receive special international protection, and that it was worried it would ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Study Shows Million Dollar Domain Arbitrators and UDRP Bias - Study sheds light on potentially biased appointment of UDRP arbitrators. For the past few weeks I’ve been working with an outside party to analyze the distribution of WIPO cases amongst arbitrators. Now attorney Zak Muscovitch has beaten me to it with National Arbitration Forum data. For those that follow NAF cases, you won’t be surprised to learn what Muscovitch discovered. But it’s still startling. One controversial panelist has heard about 10% of all cases: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Allegedly Stolen Domain Names Resold on Flippa - Thief resold domain names on Flippa to unsuspecting domain buyer. A National Arbitration Forum panel has refused to hand over the domain names Recent.net, Than.net, and They.net in a UDRP decision. I wrote about the case earlier this month, suggesting that the UDRP dispute must be over stolen domain names. UDRP is sometimes used to regain control of stolen domain names, but the complainant needs to be able to show trademark rights to the domain names. In this ... read more ...
Sun 21st March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Altria Gets a Hit with Marijuana Domain Name Dispute - Tobacco company scores a hit with marijuana domains. In December I wrote about how Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, had filed a complaint to get the domain names AltriaCannabis.com and AltriaMarijuana.com. The company won the case at World Intellectual Property Forum against Daniel Cheng of Washington, D.C., and the domain names should be transferred to Altria’s possession shortly. As I noted in the earlier article, the domain names each had web sites ... read more ...
Thu 18th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Supreme Court Reverses The Appeals Court On The 141 Seized Domains - The Kentucky Supreme Court today reversed the Kentucky Appeals court’s decision that tossed out the seizure order issued on 141 gambling domain names. The 17 page ruling by the Supreme Court today (pdf) was really on a technical issue, that none of the parties that brought the suit against the Commonwealth had “standing”. Standing is a legal term that means in very simple terms the only one that can object to a law or join a suit are the parties effected by the law or suit. While non-parties ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CADNA Heading To Congress To Get Laws Changed - From the Fairwinds blog today: “”CADNA has refocused its efforts on working with members of Congress on these issues and working more diligently toward developing legislation to help resolve the problems. Long term solutions to the Internet’s systemic problems that are within ICANN’s control are unlikely to emerge from within the ICANN community, but rather from the governments and its agencies who are ultimately responsible for defending the public interest.”” “Now more than ... read more ...
Wed 17th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Is Verification Of Identity Going To Become A Requirement To Own A Domain? - A couple of interesting developments on the issue of whether registrars should be required to verify the identity of the registrant of every domain name. First today the authority charged with running the .Ru ccTLD, the Coordination Center for TLD RU,  announced that effective April 1, 2010 all registrants of .RU domain names, must file proof of their identities with their registrars in order to maintain their existing domain names or to obtain new ones. If the registrant is an individual the registrar ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Denied Trademark On “Nexus One” - The United States Trademark office denied Google’s application to trademark the name of their new phone ‘Nexus One“. Integra, a provider of voice and data services was granted a trademark on the term Nexus in 2008. The Trademark Office said that if it issued a trademark to Google it would confusion as  because both companies exist in a similar business channel. “””Here, the applicant seeks registration of the mark NEXUS ONE for use in connection with “mobile phones”.  The registrant ... read more ...
Tue 16th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Even A WIPO Panelist Says Even He’s Concerned With Inconsistent Decisions: You Got To Read This Quote - Yesterday in a decision a sole panelist had some interesting words about the WIPO decisions: “””This Panel is concerned that if panelists develop their interpretation of the Policy as they go along to meet the needs of trademark owners who are suffering at the hands of domain name registrants, a stage will be reached where they will be acting beyond their remit. At some stage the issue must be a matter for the legislators and not the panelists. The Panel is concerned that that stage is ... read more ...