Company loses dispute over domain name that includes “Philly”.
Philadelphia’s dominant newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and its parent company apparently think they own the term “Philly”.
True, the newspaper’s home on the web is Philly.com. But anyone who has ever eaten a Philly cheesesteak knows that it’s a common nickname for the city.
So it’s with a bit of surprise that the company decided to go after a local news site, Philly2Philly.com, claiming that it was cybersquatting on its trademark for Philly.com.
The paper’s owner, Philadelphia Media Network, filed a cybersquatting complaint against Philly2Philly.com and lost hands down. The arbitration panel didn’t find that the paper had tried reverse domain name hijacking, but it certainly doesn’t look good.
The respondent has its own federally registered trademark for Philly2Philly.com, although the paper is also challenging that.
Oh man, I’m hungry for a Philly cheesesteak now. I think I’ll head over to Texadelphia.
Mike says
Oh Yah ,I know all about”..apparently think they own the term “Philly”..”
Jay says
Gosh, how can someone who does not have registered trademark on such exact term sue someone who has registered trademark for such exact term..? So if I own a trademark for “Goo”, should I get google.com, even “Google” is a registered trademark? Hey, ICANN, you should wake up and fix your UDRP. Yesterday was too late to do that, by the way…
Adi Weitzman says
My thoughts exactly Jay!
John Berryhill says
Lol… they used Woodcock Washburn for that drubbing. They might as well have lit a pile of money on fire.