Tag Archives: UDRP

Thu 6th August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Disabled American Veterans Wins DAV.com Domain Name Case - Non-profit wins three letter domain name in highly questionable ruling. The non-profit Disabled American Veterans has won the domain name DAV.com through arbitration at National Arbitration Forum. The organization’s main web site is DAV.org. This case gives me great consternation. The truth is, the owner of the web site appeared to use all sorts of whois identities. And, a couple years ago, the domain name did show ads for veterans benefits. But none of these ... read more ...
Sun 2nd August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge: There Can Only Be One “Hot Russian Brides” - Matchmaking company wins rights to domain name. Retired New York State Supreme Court justice Ralph Yachnin has ruled that only one company has rights to the term “Hot Russian Brides” in web addresses. Acting as an arbitrator for National Arbitration Forum, Yachnin found in favor of internet company Romantic Tours, Inc, which operates HotRussianBrides.com. The company was awarded the domain name “HotRusianBride.com”. Notice the typo of Russian and the singular ... read more ...
Thu 30th July 2009
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Sears and Diners Club Lose Domain Disputes - Two big companies fail to impress domain arbitrators. To big companies — merchandiser Sears and credit provider Diners Club International — found themselves on the losing end of domain disputes yesterday. Sears lost a challenge for the domain names my-gofer.biz/info/net/org and mygofer.info. Sears has been using the trademark in commerce for a delivery service. But the domain owner, Dann J. Flesher, has been using the my-gofer.org domain name for an actual business ... read more ...
Wed 29th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You Make a Call: JosephSchlessinger.com - Yale professor wins domain name case. Was it the right decision? I came across an interesting WIPO domain dispute today for JosephSchlessinger.com. The case was brought by Joseph Schlessinger, a professor at Yale. The case initially caught my eye because, even before reading it, it was clearly brought by a person claiming common law rights to his name as a trademark, yet I had not heard of the person. It gets more interesting when you go to the web site, which ... read more ...
Tue 28th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Roy Messer Defends Rent A Car Domain Name - National Car Rental loses case over domain name. Roy Messer, perhaps most famous for selling Vodka.com for $3M, has successfully defended the domain name NationalRentaCar.com through UDRP. The majority of the panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to Vanguard Trademark Holdings’ trademark “National Car Rental”, but that the domain name was not registered in bad faith for several reasons. Among them, Messer provided a sworn declaration under ... read more ...
Mon 27th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LACOSTE Bullies Domain Name Owner, Loses - Designer threatens person with last name LaCoste. Famous designer Lacoste Alligator S.A. has threatened a Massachusetts woman over her company name and domain name, which happens to be the woman’s last name: LaCoste. In October 2008 the designer sent a cease and desist letter to Audrey LaCoste, demanding that she cease using the domain names LaCosteHealingJewelry.com and LaCostJewelry.com for her business. Perhaps scared of the lawyer’s harsh language and threats ... read more ...
Fri 24th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EducationDynamics Snags a Generic Domain Through Arbitration - After losing challenges for three generic domains, school referral service wins a biggie. EducationDynamics, LLC has made several attempts to get generic domain names through UDRP domain arbitration. It has lost cases for earn-your-degree.com, graduateschool.com, and graduateschools.com. But on Wednesday the company scored a victory, winning the generic domain name eLearner.com through arbitration at National Arbitration Forum. EducationDynamics does have a trademark ... read more ...
Thu 23rd July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Arbitration is Like The Energizer Bunny: Keep Filing and Filing and… - There’s no limit to the number of times a complainant can file a UDRP. I’ve written a few times about domain arbitration cases in which the complainant re-files a case for the same domain name. It seems kind of like an appeal process for the complainant (an opportunity not afforded to respondents). After seeing varying panel responses to refiled cases, I was confused about what the rules are for filing a case for the same domain twice. Perhaps that’s because ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Games Lawyers Play, UDRP Edition - Complainant tries to pull a fast one on arbitration panel. Today I was reading through the domain arbitration decision for ComPart.com, a domain owned by Vertical Axis. The complainant, a German company called Compart, said that the parked page at Compart.com was showing ads related to its software business. The complainant specifically said the parked page showed ads of direct competitors, such as software4students.co.uk and 31touchdownloads.com. That would be ... read more ...
Wed 22nd July 2009
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National Arbitration Forum Panelist Sued for Judicial Misconduct - Arbitrator sued in Houston for allegedly presuming guilt. One of National Arbitration Forum’s (NAF) most prolific arbitrators, The Honorable Carolyn Marks Johnson, has been sued in Houston for alleged judicial misconduct. Judge Johnson has been an active domain dispute arbitrator with NAF. A 2001 analysis of UDRP cases (pdf) showed that, not only was she handed a disproportionate number of complaints by NAF, but she also found in favor of the complainant 97.2% ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Brady Quinn’s Domain Name Intercepted - Cleveland Browns quarterback loses arbitration for BradyQuinn.com. Brady Quinn’s domain name has been intercepted. The Cleveland Browns quarterback filed for arbitration at National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name BradyQuinn.com from a Florida man. He lost the case, failing to persuade an arbitrator that the domain name was registered in bad faith. The case hinged on when exactly Quinn got common law rights to the name “Brady Quinn”. The respondent ... read more ...
Mon 20th July 2009
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Think Tank Loses Hilarious Arbitration for .Com of Its Name - Conservative “think tank” gets mud on its face by not registering .com domain name. Many domain arbitration decisions are dry reads. But I found myself cracking up this morning reading the case of SutherlandInstitute.com. Southerland Institute is a Utah-based conservative group that purports to promote family, limited government, and religion. Its web site is SutherlandInstitute.ORG, and it failed to register the .com version of its name. Nick West registered ... read more ...
Mon 13th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An Arbitrator’s View of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - How a UDRP panellist approaches the issues of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and abuse of process. by The Hon Neil Brown QC [Editor’s note: in this exclusive guest article, The Hon. Neil Brown explains how he approaches the question of reverse domain name hijacking in UDRP decisions. Brown is an arbitrator and has heard dozens of cases at National Arbitration Forum and WIPO. He recently wrote a detailed finding of RDNH in a case for Shoeland.com. You can read ... read more ...
Fri 10th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Heineken Wants Heineken.tel Domain Name - Brewer files complaint with World Intellectual Property Association. Heineken Espana, SA, has filed for arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Heineken.tel. .Tel is a new domain name designed to be a business card on the web. Because .tel domain names can’t be developed as traditional web sites, I’ve wondered how an arbitrator would decide that a .tel domain was registered and used in bad faith. In this case, the owner ... read more ...
Mon 6th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Feedback on Implementation Recommendation Team Final Report - Here’s the feedback I just submitted to ICANN regarding the IRT Final Report. The deadline to submit comments to ICANN for the Implementation Response Team’s recommendations, including introducing a new rapid suspension scheme for domain names, is today. To submit a comment, send an email to: irt-final-report@icann.org. You can see current feedback here. Below is an exact copy of what I submitted to ICANN… The Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) has put ... read more ...
Fri 26th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Insurance Company Loses Generic Domain Name Land Grab - Combined Insurance Group Ltd loses two domain name arbitration cases. Combined Insurance Group Ltd has lost two domain name battles for seemingly generic domains, CheapAutoInsurance.com and CheapAutosInsurance.com. The company claims trademark rights to “Cheap Auto Insurance”, even though many of these trademarks and their dates of use are questionable based on evidence brought forth by the respondents. The insurance company owns the domain name Cheap-Auto-Insurance.com. ... read more ...
Tue 23rd June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum FAIL - Double jeopardy comes to UDRP. Last week I wrote about a WIPO domain arbitration case in which a complainant refiled a case after losing the first time. The arbitrator ruled that the complainant didn’t include any information in its refiled case that it couldn’t have discovered and filed in its original case. So he dismissed the case. But over at National Arbitration Forum double jeopardy is alive and well. On April 6, an arbitrator ruled that Traditional ... read more ...
Mon 22nd June 2009
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Three Letter Domain Thief Loses Another Domain Name - Site Service International loses case for AHI.com. A company going by the name “Site Service International” has lost a domain name arbitration case for AHI.com. But before you cry “reverse domain name hijacking”, there’s more to this case than meets the eye. According to the complainant AHI Invest GmbH of Vienna, Austria, the domain name was stolen from it. This isn’t the first time Site Service International has lost a case for a three letter domain ... read more ...
Thu 11th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CrapShoot: Man Rolls Dice on Casinos.org - Man files UDRP for domain name Casinos.org. To be fair, it was early this morning that I first saw an arbitration filing for the domain name Casinos.org at WIPO. I rubbed my eyes. This must be a joke, right? Perhaps there was more to the story, I thought. I looked up the history of the domain, and it appears to be owned by the same person for a couple years. Something just didn’t seem right. I emailed the owner of the domain to ask him what was going on. ... read more ...
Tue 2nd June 2009
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Bill Clinton Loses Domain Name Challenge - Former United States president Bill Clinton has lost a challenge for three domain names. Bill Clinton had a way of winning at the polls, but he couldn’t persuade an arbitrator this month that he should have rights to the domain names williamclinton.com, williamjclinton.com and presidentbillclinton.com. The domain names were registered by an outfit called “Web of Deception” and allegedly forwarded to the Republican National Committee’s web site. The arbitrator ... read more ...
Sun 31st May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Group Pushes Rapid Domain Takedown Scheme - Group submits final report to ICANN. Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT), an ad hoc group put together to represent trademark interests in the launch of new top level domains, has issued its final report (pdf). The report will be discussed at ICANN’s next meeting in Sydney. The part that seems most relevant to domain investors is the Uniform Rapid Suspension system (URS). Think of it as a fast track UDRP for obvious trademark cases. Here are few of my observations: 1. ... read more ...
Fri 29th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RB.net Domain Owner Can Keep Domain Name - Arbitration panel finds no bad faith, but declines to find reverse domain name hijacking. A Korean man has successfully defended against a domain arbitration claim waged by United Kingdom pharmaceutical company Reckitt Benckiser Plc for the domain name RB.net. Reckitt Benckiser claimed to have common law rights to the term ‘RB’. It claimed that the domain name was a parking page until 2006 showing unrelated pay-per-click links, and since then has not resolved. ... read more ...
Thu 28th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First .Tel UDRP Will Be Important - Dispute over osram.tel will test new top level domain. Osram GmbH has filed the first ever UDRP dispute for a .tel domain name, going after the domain Osram.tel. This should be an interesting case because of the differences between .tel and other top level domain names. In a UDRP, the complainant must prove three things: 1. The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights 2. The Respondent has ... read more ...
Tue 26th May 2009
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Firm Wants to Be “Your Lawyer” (and Wants a Domain Names, Too) - Arbitration panel finds Parker Waichman Alonso LLP overstepping its bounds. New York law firm Parker Waichman Alonso LLP has two registered trademarks that include the term “YourLawyer”: yourlawyer.com on the principal register and YourLawyer on the supplemental register. It’s trying to make a land grab online for domains that include “YourLawyer” in them. The law firm just lost a case at National Arbitration Forum for the domain YourLawyer.tv, which is ... read more ...
Wed 20th May 2009
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Financial Firm Loses Bid for OVB.com - Arbitrator rules against large financial firm trying to get three character domain name. A World Intellectual Property Organization arbitrator has ruled against OVB Vermögensberatung AG of Köln, a financial firm based in Germany, in a dispute over the domain name OVB.com. The arbitrator decided that it was not clear the domain was registered and used in bad faith. Working against the respondent, Michele Dinoia, was that he has been on the losing end of a number ... read more ...