Tag Archives: UDRP

Thu 8th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Defends Domain from New Debt Reduction Company - Chronology of registration “fatal” to complainant’s case. Marchex has successfully defended the domain name uFirst.com, which it acquired as part of the acquisition of Ultimate Search. The challenge was brought by a United First Financial, a company that claims it can help you “build wealth and eliminate debt simultaneously”. Some say the company is just a pyramid scheme. Regardless of the merits of United First Financial’s business, one thing’s for ... read more ...
Mon 5th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Charter Communications Loses Claim for “Charter Business” - Company loses fight for domain name. Cable and communications giant Charter Communications has lost a dispute over the domain name CharterBusiness.com. The company claimed rights to the domain name based on a number of trademarks that were filed or first used in business after the domain name was registered, and that the parked page at CharterBusiness.com once showed a few links related to Charter Communications. The panel decided that “Charter Business” is a ... read more ...
Tue 29th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panelist Rules NameMedia Can Keep Generic Pantaloons.com - NameMedia wins UDRP case brought by Indian retailer. NameMedia has successfully staved off an attack by Indian clothing retailer Pantaloon Retail for the domain name Pantaloons.com. The retailer is part of Future Group, and owns Pantaloon.com, but not the pural version. Pantaloons is a generic, albeit somewhat antiquated, clothing term. But it’s still a generic word, the panelist noted. NameMedia put up a SmartName shop on the domain name, which shows numerous ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
University of Texas Loses Domain Name Dispute - University loses fight for TexasSports.org. I have to admit I’m a bit ashamed of my alma mater today. The University of Texas lost a UDRP case against Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis for the domain name TexasSports.org. The University’s official athletics site is TexasSports.com, and it was concerned that some people might type in .org instead of .com. This is plausible given that it’s a non-profit. TexasSports.com gets over 300,000 visits per month. Still, the ... read more ...
Wed 23rd June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Says Woman Has No Right to Her First Name in Domain Dispute - Company claims women has no rights to her first name. Let’s say your first name is, I don’t know…Andrew. And you register Andrew.com. There are of course companies that use the name “Andrew” as well. Could they claim that you have no rights to the term “Andrew” and be able to get that domain name through UDRP? Of course not. But that’s what Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., which published an Italian women’s magazine Grazia, tried to do to ... read more ...
Mon 21st June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owner of MyCyty Mark Goes After MyCity.com - The dates tell the story. The owner of a trademark for “MyCyty” has failed in his attempt to get the domain name MyCity.com through UDRP. That someone would go after the correctly spelled version of their made up trademark is a bit surprising. But the circumstances in this case are particularly egregious. It should be clear to anyone who visits MyCity.com that it is being used for a bona fide purpose by its owner, 411WEB Directory. Even if it weren’t, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Red Bull Wastes $100k’s on Domain Disputes - Red Bull spends big bucks disputing domains, then let’s them go. Is it possible that Red Bull’s lawyers are too caffeinated when they file domain name disputes through UDRP? More than perhaps any other company, Red Bull finds itself winning domains at UDRP that are “canceled” instead of “transferred”. This means that the current registration is deleted and the domains become available for re-registration rather than being transferred to the winner. I’ve ... read more ...
Wed 16th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panelist Opens Door for Cases to be Refiled - Two words open door for companies to refile UDRP cases. In the legal world when a case is dismissed “without prejudice” it means the door has been left open for the plaintiff to file the case again at a future date. This is typically used when a case is dismissed, not when a case is found against the plaintiff. The generally accepted rule for a UDRP filing is that a complainant can’t file a case for the same domain name twice unless something notable comes ... read more ...
Mon 14th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Payment Processor is No Free Bird, Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Panelist calls out company for trying to breaking “spirit” of UDRP. Tulsa, Oklahoma payment processor Blue Financial Corporation — which runs Bluefin Payment Systems — has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking by a WIPO UDRP panel. This case was particularly egregious. Blue Financial has a trademark for “Freebird” for “Providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for use in electronic authorization, processing and management ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mrs Jello Beats Big Company in Domain Name Dispute - Panel not convinced that West Corporation should get Entrado.com domain name. Well-known domain name investor Mrs Jello, LLC, commonly known as “Mrs Jello”, has successfully defended against a UDRP case brought by West Corporation. West Corporation (which has a good domain name West.com) has a subsidiary called Intrado (which has a bad domain name Intrado.com that is easy to misspell and doesn’t even resolve without the www in front of it). It appears that ... read more ...
Fri 11th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Disputes: Google Books, Royals, and Rachael Ray Pick adult Domains - Three UDRP decisions involve big brands. Google has won the domain name GoogleBooks.com through the UDRP domain name arbitration process at National Arbitration Forum. The domain name was being used by someone promoting the internet marketing product “Google Nemesis”. The owner registered the domain name back in 2004. Google, of course, wanted the domain name for its Google Books product at books.google.com. In a separate decision, Major League Baseball’s ... read more ...
Tue 8th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gregory “Bong” Loses 8 Hyphen .Info Domain in UDRP - What are these guys smoking? I thought I’d seen it all, but I hadn’t until today: someone lost a .info domain name with eight hyphens in a UDRP. But it gets more entertaining. The domain name is: how-to-roll-a-blunt-with-a-swisher-sweet.info And the registered owner? One Gregory Bong. Yes, bong. Or at least according to the whois record. I can understand why Swisher would want to get this domain name off the web. But this strategy could be expensive. ... read more ...
Sun 6th June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is This a Worst UDRP Domain Dispute Analogy Ever? - Now this is just stupid. I just finished reviewing the details of Tata Communications’ case against Portmedia Inc. for the domain name TrueRoots.com. The facts of the case are fairly clear: the domain name was registered well before Tata Communications started using the term TrueRoots. Later, once Tata started using the mark, the parked page at TrueRoots.com started to display links related to Tata’s use. As is sometimes the case, the panelists disagreed over ... read more ...
Thu 3rd June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panel Rules Used Steinway Seller Can Keep His Domain Name - Steinway hits the wrong note in domain name dispute. Piano manufacturer Steinway, Inc. has lost a case for the domain name American-Steinway.com against a company that deals in used Steinway pianos. The case pitted the company against Carey Simon and his business partner Robert Friedman, who has been in the business of buying, restoring and reselling Steinway pianos for more than 35 years, according to the response. The decision by a three member National Arbitration ... read more ...
Wed 2nd June 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyBizHomepage is Confusingly Similar to MyBizOffice? Really? - This really shouldn’t be that confusing of an issue. The bar has just been lowered for showing confusing similarity in UDRP decisions, courtesy of a decision at National Arbitration Forum. At issue are the domain names MyBizHomepage.com and MyBizDashboard.com. The complainant in the case, MBO Partners, Inc, operates MyBizOffice.com and has a trademark for “MyBizOffice”. Note that MBO Partners does not have a trademark for “MyBiz”, which is a very common ... read more ...
Sat 29th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Florida Company Loses Grab of BGT.com, But No Reverse Hijacking? - Panel gets decision right, but misses mark on RDNH. Burn World-Wide, Ltd. d/b/a BGT Partners of Miami, Florida, has lost a UDRP case to get the domain name BGT.com from Banta Global Turnkey Ltd, which is now part of RR Donnelly. The facts of the case are pretty egregious. Banta was founded well before BGT Partners and even registered the domain name before BGT Partners was formed. The three person arbitration panel found that the domain name wasn’t registered ... read more ...
Fri 28th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verizon Gets Back Into UDRP Game - Verizon files four separate UDRP cases in past couple days. For a while it seemed like Verizon had basically given up on filing UDRP cases. Instead, it opted to just file lawsuits against anyone with trademark typos, even small fry. That may be changing. The company has filed four separate UDRP cases at World Intellectual Property Organization within the past two days. One of those cases is for wwwverizon.com – a typo that should have been at the top of Verizon’s ... read more ...
Thu 27th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Owner Caught Fabricating Response in UDRP - Respondent says he met actor in 1999 – 28 years after the actor’s death. When I first saw the domain name Texican.com was in dispute, I thought the domain owner would win. After all, there are plenty of companies and entities that use the name “Texican”, so why should one complainant get the domain unless it was clearly targeted (not that that hasn’t happened before). It’s also a generic slang term. But in this case the respondent would have been better ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Finally, a UDRP Panel Respects a Scope of a Policy - Panel refuses to find in favor of complainant in case outside scope of policy. UDRP was originally created to handle clear cut cases of cybersquatting. Since its launch panelists have stretched the scope of the policy. But a three person panel has injected a breathe of fresh air in the decision of HRCIstudy.com. The domain owner registered the domain name for his business of providing tutoring courses for Human Resource Certification Institute exams. HRCI argued ... read more ...
Tue 18th May 2010
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Jaegermeister Bombs Shot Cup Seller - Company shuts down web site of specialized “shot cup” seller. You can say goodbye to Jager Bomb Shot Cups. Well, at least you’ll no longer be able to buy them at Jager-Bomb.com. Mast-Jaegermeister AG, known for its strong liqueur, filed a complaint against the owner of Jager-Bomb.com with National Arbitration Forum. As it turns out, Jaegermesiter has trademarks for the term “Jager Bomb”. As early as 2002, consumers began to mix a cocktail drink called ... read more ...
Mon 17th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Magic Bra Gets Stuffed in Domain Name Dispute - Bra company fails in domain dispute. A H Sportswear Co., Inc., which holds two trademarks for “Magic Bra”, has lost a UDRP case for the domain name MagicBra.com. The domain name was registered by Hu Yanlin of Beijing in 2001 and he says was never aware of A H Sportswear’s marks. He also said the term was descriptive in nature: The Respondent submits that the term “magic bra” is a descriptive term which not only refers to a brassiere which will make ... read more ...
Fri 7th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another UDRP Panelist Considers Domain Valuation in Decision - UDRP panelists consider asking prices in decisions. In a highly publicized domain dispute for Hayward.com, a UDRP panelist decided he was an expert at domain valuation and that the price the domain owner wanted for the domain was too high for a city .com., indicating that he must have been targeting the complainant. Now we have another case where a panelist uses the respondent’s asking price in considering the case. Thankfully, the panelist still denied the transfer. In ... read more ...
Wed 5th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rachael Ray Wants to Fry Some Typosquatters - Celebrity chef files claims to get two typo domain names. Celebrity chef Rachael Ray has filed two separate domain name disputes with National Arbitration Forum for typos of her domain name. Rachelray.com, which omits the second ‘a’ in her first name, and Rachealray.com, which transposes the ‘e’ and ‘a’, both redirect to freegifster.com. Visitors to the landing page at freegifster.com are offered a “free” 14 piece cookset. The landing page also shows ... read more ...
Mon 3rd May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
French Fashion House Loses Case for Guy’s Nickname Domain Name - Designer can’t have Sandro.com domain name. I’m so angry about losing this case! French apparel designer Sandro Andy has lost a domain name dispute to get the domain name Sandro.com. The company will have to stick with its current Sandro-Paris.com domain name. The company the complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization against Alessandro Balzarin of Frankentahl, Germany. Balzarin registered the domain name way back in 1997 because Sandro is a common ... read more ...
Fri 30th April 2010
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A UDRP First? Case Filed Against Directory on a Domain Name - As if a flimsy trademark wasn’t enough… It’s bad enough that Romantic Tours, Inc. has convinced three panels to hand over domain names based on its trademark for “Hot Russian Brides”. Now the company has gone too far: it tried to get a domain name based on a directory on the web site. Romantic Tours, Inc. filed the case against the owner of JimsLists.com. The reason? One of the directories on his site is called /hotrussianbrides. Specifically, the company ... read more ...