Tag Archives: legal

Tue 12th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Group Hijacks New TLD Comments - INTA asks members to submit comments in opposition to Expressions of Interest for new TLDs. Last month ICANN opened up a comment period on its Draft Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Model (EOI), which I’ve written about before. I checked in today hoping to see some constructive comments on the EOI draft, such as costs and procedures. Instead, I was greeted with short, terse comments such as: “I do not support ICANN’s acceptance of pre-registrations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal Settlement May Be in a Works - TCI and Westerdal getting closer to resolution. A settlement between Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal over the former’s acquisition of DomainTools’ parent Name Intelligence is closer to reality, court records show. As a result, both parties have requested a postponement (pdf) of deadlines and the trial date. The parties held a mediation session with the Hon. George P. Schiavelli (Ret) on January 6, of which Schiavelli wrote (pdf): “…during the mediation, ... read more ...
Mon 11th January 2010
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Willie Mays Wants His (Domain) Name Back - Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays asks arbitrator to get domain name WillieMays.com. Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays has filed for arbitration with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to get the domain name WillieMays.com. The case was posted to WIPO’s web site this morning. The “Say Hey Kid” played for the New York and San Francisco Giants before concluding his career with the New York Mets. The domain name is currently registered to “Global ... read more ...
Sun 10th January 2010
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Mozy Backs Up Domain Names with WIPO Win - Online backup service wins one domain — with another case pending. Online backup service Mozy, a Decho service owned by EMC, has picked up the domain name Mozy.nl through arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). .Nl is the country code for the Netherlands. In its complaint, Mozy alleged that the domain’s owner, another online backup service called BackUpsOnline.nl, admitted to receiving leads through the domain name and offered to sell ... read more ...
Fri 8th January 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Settles The AA Trademark Case On The Sale Of Keywords To Competitors - According to MediaPost.com, Yahoo has settled a lawsuit bought by American Airlines we reported about in October 2008, for selling PPC advertising to competitors which included one of AA trademarks. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Before settling the American Airlines lawsuit, Yahoo unsuccessfully attempted to have the matter heard in California. Yahoo argued that the airline, which is also an advertiser, was bound by its search marketing contract to litigate all matters with Yahoo ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Family Of The Author Of Blade Runner Is Not Happy With Google’s Choice Of Nexus One - The family of the the Author of the sci-fi novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” that later became the sci-fi classic Blade Runner says that Google lifted the name of their new smart phone, Nexus One from the book. The book written by Philip K. Dick, was about a private detective tracking down a rogue android, a Nexus 6 model. “Google takes first and then deals with the fallout later,” Isa Dick Hackett, Dick’s daughter, told Wired.com. The family says the use is a trademark violation, ... read more ...
Wed 6th January 2010
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Champagne.us: Interesting Use of .US Domain Name - Champagne Bureau uses .us domain for Champagne petition call-to-action. An ad on the back of this week’s The New Yorker includes an interesting use of a .us domain name: Champagne.us. The ad is a call to action to sign a petition asking congress to crack down on companies labeling sparkling wine as “Champagne” when it isn’t from the Champagne region of France. There’s a legal loophole that allows American U.S. sparkling wine producers to label their wines ... read more ...
Tue 5th January 2010
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Report: China Halts Overseas Registrars from Registering .CN Domains - Registrar reports that overseas registrars are restricted from registering .cn domains. According to a report at RRPproxy, .Cn registry CNNIC has temporarily halted overseas registrars from registering .cn domain names on behalf of registrants. The move comes after CNNIC cracked down on registrations last month to clean up the .cn namespace. The notice says overseas registrars won’t be able to register .CN domains “starting with January 6, 2010, 18:00 PM (Beijing ... read more ...
Mon 4th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Poor IDNs. The Media Will Never Understand. - Recent coverage of internationalized domain names was erroneous. They sky is falling! The sky is falling! Or so the headlines read. Last week I mentioned an article in The London Times about the introduction of domain names with non-Roman characters. As I noted, the article was completely wrong. It said that non-Roman characters will be allowed for the first time “to the left of the dot”, i.e. the second level domain name. Tell that to the people who’ve ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Australian Gripe Site Back Up After Domain Name Deleted - Deleted domain back in hands of gripe site. What happens when you register a .au domain name for a gripe site about a politician behind Australia’s push for net censorship? It gets censored. That’s what happened to the registrant of stephenconroy.com.au, who created the web site as a satirical stab at politician Stephen Conroy, who is currently Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in Australia. Conroy is behind plans for creating a ... read more ...
Mon 28th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Finally A Well Reasoned WIPO Decision Denys The Complaint Of A Trademark Holder Against a Domainer - “”All year, we have been citing WIPO decision for being inconsistent and blatantly unfair to domain holders. Finally today as a late Christmas present to domainers we finally have a good decision, not only because the panel ruled in favor of the domain holder but because the panel took the time to very methodically discuss when trademarks will be protected, the circumstances under when domain parking is “legitimate use”.  Moreover the domain holder in this case was a domainer.  Someone ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2009 Domain Dunce Award: Panelist Andrew F. Christie - “My scenario is where someone named James Wilson Marriott has jwmarriott.com…” That’s a great scenario. Clearly, what you describe would be a scummy, rotten, unlawful, and bad faith thing for him to do. He should be stopped from running those hotel ads. In fact, you describe the allegations in two ACPA cases in which a domain name was not transferred. Mr. Uzi Nissan did in fact run ads relating to foreign cars at his nissan.com domain name. He has been enjoined from advertising ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Altria Gearing Up to Sell Marijuana? - Company files case against owner of marijuana domain names. Altria Group, the parent company of tobacco company Philip Morris USA, has filed an arbitration proceeding to get the domain names AltriaMarijuana.com and AltriaCannabis.com. Is the company getting ready for the day pot becomes legal? Perhaps, but the company is probably more concerned about the content on the web sites. Both sites invite visitors to “Fight Against the Legalization of Marijuana” and ... read more ...
Wed 23rd December 2009
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GE Loses Domain Dispute for GEEntertainment.com - GE loses domain name dispute. Did it fall on its own sword? General Electric (GE) has lost a domain name dispute under UDRP for the domain GEEntertainment.com. This is an interesting case for two reasons: 1. The complainant provided too much information to the panel, giving the keys to the panel to find in the respondent’s favor despite receiving no reply from the respondent. 2. It appears the panelist did some of his own research to supplement his findings. ... read more ...
Tue 22nd December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Says A Parked Page “Is NOT A Legitimate Or Bona Fide Use” In Taking Away A Generic Domain SaveChildren.com Away - In a WIPO decision released today, a sole panelist Harrie R. Samaras, awarded a generic domain name, savechildren.com to the charitable organization, Save the Children. The complainant of course holds a federal trademark for “save the children” but does not hold any mark for “Save Children” In giving the domain to the charity the panelist stated: “”The format of Respondent’s website is that of a pay-per-click site, i.e., a site that generates money for Respondent each time a user clicks ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Russians Not Keen on IDN Top Level Domain - Story shines light on fears of IDNs, but it’s really an issue of ccTLDs. The reaction was swift and positive — finally, after years of typing in Latin-based top level domains, people who use different character sets would soon be able to type in new top level domain names in their own alphabets. What’s not to love about that? Apparently a lot. A story in yesterday’s New York Times says that many Russians are wary of their government’s plans to introduce ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paris Sues Paris.org Owner in French Court - French cyberbullies step up attack. Ville de Paris — the City of Paris — is continuing its multi-prong attack on domain name owners by filing a lawsuit against the owner of Paris.org, this time in French Court. The owner has had the domain name since 1995. The move to Paris is another attempt to find some sort of venue that will give the city exclusive rights to use “Paris” in a domain name. But it’s not a guaranteed win for the city. In fact, it previously ... read more ...
Mon 21st December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expressions of Interest for New TLDs Still a Long Wait - Idea to get data on new TLDs will probably take longer than expected. If the current draft plan (pdf) for accepting “Expressions of Interest” for new top level domain names is adopted in similar form, ICANN won’t start accepting applications until June 2010 at the earliest. The delay is because ICANN will shift its planned communications efforts for new TLD applications to promote Expressions of Interest instead. The current proposal for Expressions of Interest ... read more ...
Sat 19th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
When It Comes To WIPO & UDRP’s: If You Screw Your Reputation, Your Going To Lose Your Domains - In a decision which should serve as a cautionary tale for all domainers, a LLLL domain was awarded this week to the complainant because of the domain owners reputation and history. For all of you domainers that don’t think your reputation or history follow you into a UDRP or WIPO action, this case demonstrates quite clearly that you are sadly mistaken. The case involved the domain CPQD.com, not a well known trademark or anything that rolls off the tongue too easy. Why would the sole panelist award ... read more ...
Fri 18th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
This Time Its Microsoft That’s Sued For TradeMark Infringement For Bing: Good Thing For MSFT There Is No Quick Take down Procedure In Place, YET - A St. Louis company Bing! Information Design filed suit this week against  Microsoft for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, over Microsoft’s used of the term “Bing” as its new search engine. Bing! Information Design is a small, privately held information graphics and multimedia design company and use’s bing.biz at its web address. The company says it has used the mark “Bing!” since at least 2000 and has applications pending to register the mark. Bing! Information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is eHelper.com a Typo of EdHelper.com? - When is a typo not a typo? Is eHelper.com a typo of EdHelper.com? Yes, according to National Arbitration Forum panelist Sandra J. Franklin. In a decision handed down yesterday, Franklin awarded the domain name eHelper.com to the owner of EdHelper.com. It’s a strange decision since eHelper is fundamentally different than EdHelper. It’s not a typo in the same way EdHlper.com would be, and eHelper.com is a legitimate, stand alone name for a possible web site. ... read more ...
Thu 17th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Files New Motions In Domain Seizure Case, To Add New Parties & Amend Its Complaint - According to the pokernewsdaily.com, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed a motion today “to add parties to its case and amend its original complaint.” In September 2008, the Commonwealth seized 141 domains and several hearing and appeals later the battle goes on. The Supreme Court of Kentucky heard oral arguments on the case in October and the decision is expected shortly. (You can read more about this case here and here.) According to this story, the Commonwealth filed a motion to amend its complaint ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Goodwill Non-Profit Sues to Get Goodwill.com Domain Name - Charity sues company that bought domain name for $55,000 in NameJet domain name auction. Non-profit Goodwill Industries International has sued the owner of Goodwill.com for alleged trademark infringement. The lawsuit (pdf) names Cyber2Media, Inc., the owner of the domain, and Oversee.net, which briefly monetized the domain on its DomainSponsor platform, as defendants. For years, the domain name Goodwill.com was used by Goodwill Group, Inc., a Japanese staffing company. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Tasting Down 99.7% – But It’s Coming Back - Domain tasting is down, but the registration game is merely changing. ICANN is reporting that domain name tasting is down 99.7% since it implemented new policies to thwart it. Tasting is registering a domain name to test for traffic, and returning it within five days for a full refund if it doesn’t get enough traffic. The new policies limited the number of domains a registrar could return for a refund. This changed the domain tasting model on its head and eliminated ... read more ...
Wed 16th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here We Go Again: Utah Introduces Its Own “Snowe” Bill To Take Your Domains Away: The Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act - Senator Stephen Urquhart a state senator in Utah, and Chairman of the Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee, is sponsoring a law called the “UTAH E-COMMERCE INTEGRITY ACT” which among other things “prohibits the registration of domain names under certain circumstances, commonly referred to as cybersquatting and provides civil and criminal penalties for violation. The bill as a whole is similar to the Snowe Bill introduced in 2008 into the US Senate which seeks to prohibit ... read more ...