Tag Archives: legal

Sat 20th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WebQuest Sues Hayward Industries Over Hayward.com Domain Name - Domain owner sues pool equipment company to block transfer after unfavorable WIPO ruling. Earlier this month we wrote about a WIPO panel awarding the domain name Hayward.com to a pool company called Hayward Industries, even though Hayward.com is the name of a city in California and the domain didn’t show any links related to pool equipment. Now the owner of the domain, WebQuest, has filed a complaint (pdf) in federal court against Hayward Industries in order to ... read more ...
Fri 19th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines: New gTLD’s Will Cause Only 316 New Cases Of CyberSquatting - A report released tonight by Minds+Machines, (pdf) predicts that the proposed gTLD’s will only cause 316 new cases of CyberSquatting and that the cost to trademark holders worldwide will be “less than $.10″. How does the authors of the report come to that conclusion? They look at the percentage of UDRP cases coming from .com’s, .net and .org against those in the “new” extensions, .info, .biz, .mobi, .asia and .tel. The report does not account for the number of UDRP’s involving ccTLD’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mike Mann Speaks His Mind about Sex.com - Sex.com investor tells his side of the story. Mike Mann, who founded BuyDomains, is always one to speak his mind. So when news broke yesterday that Sex.com, in which he was a part investor, was going into foreclosure, he didn’t hesitate to speak up. “I am merely an investor who got completely railroaded by other investors with big guns, bad practices, and bad attitudes,” Mann wrote via e-mail. “I am always up for a good fight since any money I would make ... read more ...
Thu 18th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
This Sound Familiar? AdvertisingMagic.com Loses Trademark Claim Against AdMagic.com - As most domainers know there is an ongoing dispute between AOL’s Advertsing.com in its claim of right against Ad.com and Advertise.com. In a case that strikes us a being very similar, a federal jury has decided in favor of New Jersey based Ad Magic ruling that its corporate name and Web sites, admagic.com, admagic-inc.com, admagicadvertising.com, and admagic.org, do not infringe upon the trademark rights of California based Advertising Magic Inc. Ad Magic brought suit against Advertising Magic ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Files Patent Application for Method to Prioritize Cybersquatting Battles - Method helps brand managers prioritize cybersquatting disputes. Yahoo has filed a patent application (pdf) for a method for prioritizing which cybersquatted domain names to pursue. The application describes a system that generates a list of domain names related to a trademark (“seed” term), then runs calculations based on probable traffic to those domain names to determine which ones a trademark owner should pursue. For example, if one of the domains generated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Title Insurance? There’s a (Patent) App for That. - Application filed nearly a decade ago covers domain name title insurance. Over the past few years, a number of domain industry experts have been calling for domain name title insurance. The basic idea is that a title search would be run on previous owners of a domain name to make sure it hasn’t been stolen, and insurance issued. A domain buyer (or financier) could use this to warrant against buying a stolen domain. So I was surprised to see that someone thought ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Whois Accuracy: It’s Not Really that Bad - 77% of whois data rubbish? More like 8%. If you just read the headlines, you’d assume most domain name whois records are bogus. Here are a couple headlines from today: “77% of domain registrations stuffed with rubbish” – TheRegister “ICANN fails to control Internet, 77% of domains have no valid information” – Ecommerce Journal Indeed, the numbers from ICANN’s recent whois study show there are problems. But you can pick your numbers as you wish. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verdict Reached in PaperSnowflake.com Domain Dispute - This case was over before it even began. I was scratching my head when I saw that someone had filed a UDRP against the owner of PaperSnowflake.com. Who in the world would go after a generic name like that? We now have the answer, but I’m still scratching my head. Patricia Kelley, who owns PaperSnowflakes.com (plural), filed the case. She operates a web site that instructs people on how to create paper snowflakes. With the help of counsel, she tried to argue that ... read more ...
Wed 17th February 2010
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Report: Google May Earn $497 Million a Year from Typosquatting - Study says typosquatting money big. But there may be a conflict of interest. A new study suggests that Google may earn $497 million a year from typosquatters targeting the 100,000 most popular .com sites on the web. Although I question some of the logic in the report and its appendices, and it is tainted by one of the authors being involved in a lawsuit against Google for typosquatting, the data is still fascinating. First, for the claim of $497 million in revenue ... read more ...
Tue 16th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MarkMonitor Launches “Site Staydown Service” - Online brand protection firm MarkMonitor has officially launched its “Site Staydown Service”, which promises to prevent web sites that sell fraudulent or counterfeit goods from resurfacing after being shut down. The company believes that up to $133bn of legitimate revenue was lost in 2009 owing to rogue sites offering pirated or counterfeit versions of well known products. “MarkMonitor said that it has been helping its clients locate and shut down these sites for some time, but the new Site ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uniform Rapid Suspension Scheme for Domain Names Still on a Table - New proposal still doesn’t make sense. But reforming UDRP does. It’s baaaack! After being almost shot to death, the so-called “Uniform Rapid Suspension” idea (basically a very fast UDRP for alleged trademark domains) is back. When URS was originally proposed, it was ridiculed from just about every sector of the domain name world. But a new group was formed to try to salvage it. Originally created by “Implementation Recommendation Team”, it was then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kevin Ham Wins Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Charge - Famous domain investor wins UDRP and RDNH charge. Kevin Ham’s company Vertical Axis has won a charge for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) against The Realty Alliance, Inc. The Realty Alliance, Inc. filed a UDRP case against Vertical Axis for the domain name RealtyAlliance.com. In its case, Reality Alliance claimed it had trademark rights in “Realty Alliance” because it was incorporated in Delaware in 1997 and registered with Texas Secretary of State in ... read more ...
Fri 12th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
eBay Has To Pay Hundreds Of Thosands of Euro’s For Typo Searches For Louis Vuitton - According to Reuters, a Paris tribunal found Ebay  guilty of misleading consumers today by using mis-spell versions of  Louis Vuitton as search engine key words to redirect users to Ebay website links. The suit was brought by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH),  which also makes Christian Dior perfume, Tag Heuer watches, and the champagne that carries its name. The tribunal ordered Ebay to pay 200,000 euros ($275,800) in damages and 30,000 euros in legal costs incurred by Louis Vuitton. It also ... read more ...
Tue 9th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Takes Away a Geo Domain; Hayward.com Putting It On Our Worst of 2010 List - Talk about a scary decision. Decision D2009-1493 A domainer just lost a domain he paid $20,000 to acquire and recently valued it at $100K. A three member WIPO panel took away,  what most of us would regard to be a Geo domain, Hayward.com and wwwhayward.com and awarded it to the trademark holder Hayward Industries. Hayward is a city in California with a population of 150,000 people. Here are the facts as laid out by the panel: “”The Whois records show that the domain name hayward.com was created ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO Hands City Geo Domain Name to Pool Company - Hayward, California domain name given to pool company. Here’s a domain name dispute that should make geo domain owners’ blood boil. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization has awarded the domain name Hayward.com to pool company Hayward Industries. The domain name is owned by Chad Wright, a domain investor known for owning popular California city .coms. Hayward is a city in the San Francisco Bay area. Hayward Industries convinced the panel that ... read more ...
Mon 8th February 2010
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Verizon Settles Trademark Domain Name Case - Communications company settles lawsuit over typosquatting. Verizon has reached a tentative settlement with 2Cool Guys, LLC, Warren Weitzman, and Arnold Trebach over alleged trademark infringement from domain name typos. The communications company filed the complaint in October, alleging that the defendants parked typos of its popular Verizon trademark in order to earn pay-per-click revenue. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but two of the three ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CNN en Espanol: News Network Wants CNN.es Domain Name - News network wants Spanish domain name. Cable News Network, aka CNN, wants to get its hands on the CNN.es domain name. There’s just one problem: it was registered back in 2005. So the company has filed a domain dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization to try to get the domain name. At the time of writing CNN.es doesn’t resolve to a web site. But the domain’s owner appears to be based in the United Kingdom if his email address is any any indication. ... read more ...
Sat 6th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Sued For Trademark Infringement Over The Use Of The Term “Gadget” & Why That’s Good News - Firefly Digital , a Web site design, development and hosting company, filed a federal lawsuit against Google last week, alleging the Internet search engine giant infringed on two of its registered trademarks. The trademarks are for its “Website Gadget,” a content management system, and “Gadget,” a user-friendly application that works with its “Website Gadget.” The company received a state trademark for “Website Gadget” in 2002 and federal trademarks for both in 2009. In the lawsuit, ... read more ...
Fri 5th February 2010
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Judge Says SnapNames Lawsuit Might be Too Small for Class Action - Amount in question may be below $5 million required for class action case. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow is asking the plaintiffs bringing a class action against SnapNames over the insider bidding scandal to show that the controversy exceeds $5 million. Under the Class Action Fairness Act, the amount at issue in a lawsuit must exceed $5 million (not including interest and costs) to qualify for class action status. In the case of Stewart Resmer vs. Oversee.net ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Eyeglass Company Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Eyewear company’s dates don’t add up. Zenni Optical, LLC, a retailer of eyeglasses, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking by a World Intellectual Property Organization arbitrator. Zenni Optical filed the complaint to get the domain name Zenni.com. But its dates didn’t add up. Zenni.com was registered in May 2002. But Zenni Optical didn’t register trademarks in Zenni and Zenni Optical until 2008 and 2009 respectively. That’s where things ... read more ...
Thu 4th February 2010
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Fight Breaks Out Over .Vegas Top Level Domain Name - Fight shows complexity of new top level domain name process, and a city council that just left money on the table. “Not so fast”, says a competitor who wants the chance to operate a .Vegas top level domain name. Dot Vegas Inc. has struck a deal with the City of Las Vegas to launch and operate a .vegas top level domain name when (if) ICANN approves new TLDs. It has an optimistic view on how much money it can bring in to the city. But the owner of Vegas.com wants ... read more ...
Tue 2nd February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What’s A Worse Use: A Parked Page Or A Spoofed Site? Guess Which One WIPO Picked? - In a WIPO decision today a sole panelist denied a trademark holders complaint to transfer a domain that matched its trademark , even through the domain was used to spoof the official site of the trademark holder with the same look and feel of the trademark’s holders page. The domain in question is Validas.com The trademark did not exist when the domain was registered but the domain was spoofing the trademark holders official site at myvalidas.com. The panel found that the domain owner: “Used ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Can A Company Selling PPC Ads Eliminate Liability For Click Fraud By Just Saying So? - In an interesting case which may have a long term impact on online advertising, Facebook filed a motion to dismiss in a case where several advertisers sued Facebook for click fraud last year. Facebook argues that the case should be dismissed because its contract with Advertisers states that advertisers have to pay for all clicks, regardless of whether they are valid or not. According to Facebook in its motion to dismiss “The contract does not require Facebook to police its website for all instances ... read more ...
Mon 1st February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CADNA Reports On Its Meeting In Support Of The Utah Cybersquatting Bill - While we were meeting and partying at Domainfest, The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), held a meeting on Friday in Washigton, featuring Keynote speaker,  Utah State Senate Stephen Urquhart who presented his “Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act“, “”which is considered a harbinger for changes to the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).”” The Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act will be brought before Senator Urquhart’s committee tomorrow. “The Utah E-Commerce Integrity ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Roche Loses Valium Domain Case - Case recognizes limitations of UDRP. F. Hoffmann-La Roche has lost a domain name dispute for the domain name ValiumNoPrescription.biz in a case that recognizes important limits of the Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP). Roche filed more domain disputes under UDRP last year than any other company, and it usually wins without contest. But in this case, even though Valium is a trademark of Roche, UDRP panelist Dan Hunter noted that there’s no way ... read more ...