WIPO Panel Finds Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, Without Domain Holder Asking For It - A one member panel just found Pick Enterprises, Inc. of Yarmouth, Maine, guilt of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name womantowomanhealthcenter.com
And the best part is the domain holder didn’t even ask for a RDNH finding.
The panel found the Complainant case conduct was poor especially in light of its pre-filing discussion with the domain holder , it made a finding of RDNH on its own initiative.
“This Panel firmly believes a UDRP panel may make this inquiry in an appropriate ... read more ...
Tag Archives: wipo
Fri 5th October 2012
Thu 30th August 2012
Where do many cybersquatters live? -
Oh, more thoughtfully composed and helpful info from WIPO:
Still no delineation for 3rd Level Sub-Domains as a contributive source to these problems!
Clever coding to isolate 3rd from 2nd, making 3rd look guilty when 2nd is far, far more guilty.
The US Federal District Court, Eastern District Virginia I await comment.
Cheers, Graham.
Here is some useful information, for the less informed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according ... read more ...
Mon 23rd July 2012
NYC condo house of directors fails to take down dispute site -
Resident set up site to complain about board of directors.
From what I’ve heard, the boards of directors of many New York condos and co-ops would make for great reality show fodder.
Here’s just one example: The board of directors of Towers on the Park Condominium filed a UDRP against a resident who registered TowersonthePark.com and used it to criticize the board.
The resident, Paul Adao, created a web site to complain about various activities of the board of ... read more ...
Fri 6th July 2012
SMA.com spared in UDRP case -
Panel rules domain not registered in bad faith.
In May I wrote about how the owner of SMA.de — SMA Solar Technology AG — had filed a UDRP to get the domain name SMA.com.
A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel just handed down the verdict: the owner of SMA.com can keep the domain name.
The current owner registered the domain name in 1995. SMA Solar Technology became interested in the domain and tried contacting the owner in 2005. It was rebuffed. ... read more ...
Mon 4th June 2012
Wow: new TLD conflict already hits UDRP -
Complaint filed against a .med backer.
Here’s an interesting UDRP case that attacks an applicant for the .med top domain name.
The domains in this dispute are aboutdotmed.com, supportdotmed.com, and thedotmed.com.
The complaint was filed by DotMed.com, Inc. I wrote about DotMed.com back in January when I revealed 115 trademark applications for potential top level domains.
The respondent is HEXAP, which is working with AFNIC to secure the .med domain name.
What ... read more ...
Tue 29th May 2012
Arbitration association loses domain settlement case -
JAMS can’t have domain name, WIPO rules.
Oh, the irony.
An arbitration company has lost a UDRP arbitration case.
JAMS, a.k.a. Jams/Endispute, LLC filed an arbitration case with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name jamsarbitration.com. The registrant of the domain was upset over a decision JAMS came to in a case and created the web site to voice his opinion on the matter.
He didn’t respond to the complaint, but wrote to WIPO arguing that ... read more ...
Thu 10th May 2012
Pepper.com.au eliminated in weird case -
Who actually owns this domain?
A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel has ordered the domain name Pepper.com.au be transferred to Pepper Australia Pty Ltd, a home loan company.
The case was filed under .au Dispute Resolution Policy, which is different from the standard UDRP. Compared to UDRP, the .au policy is more lax on proving rights in a mark. It also requires only bad faith registration or use, not bad faith registration and use.
That said, how ... read more ...
Tue 1st May 2012
Owner of SMA.de files UDRP opposite SMA.com -
Spinning the wheel in UDRP roulette.
SMA Solar Technology AG has filed a UDRP case with World Intellectual Property Organization for the domain name SMA.com.
SMA.com belongs to Specialized Micro Architects. It was originally registered in 1995 and currently has an expiration date of 2017. The oldest whois record at Domain Tools shows that Specialized Micro Architects has owned the domain since at least 2001, although it may have been the original registrant.
The most ... read more ...
Mon 13th February 2012
WIPO Named by ICANN as Exclusive Provider of Dispute Resolution For Trademark Objections To New gTLD’s Strings - According to a press release out today WIPO “has been appointed by ICANN as the exclusive provider of dispute resolution services for trademark based ‘pre-delegation’ Legal Rights Objections under ICANN’s New gTLD Program,”
WIPO has a QA page on their site about this.
“”The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has embarked on a program of allowing new generic top-level domains on the internet (like .com), an initiative that has worried trademark holders and ... read more ...
Wed 21st December 2011
Bad Decision For The TM Holder? Lawyer/Owner Wins UDRP On The Domain GotMilkAds.com - In a UDRP published today, a lawyer domain holder beat back a challenge from The California Milk Processor Board on the domain name GotMilkAds.com
California Milk Processor Board is the owner of the registered trademark GOT MILK?
Its a interesting opinion especially in light of the fact that UDRP’s panels have awarded domain names to this same complainant based off of this trademark and led one domain blogger to recommend to domain holders not to mess with domains that might infringe on the Got ... read more ...
Mon 10th October 2011
WIPO Boss: “The Web Would Have Been Better Off If It Was Patented & Every User Had To Pay A License Fee To Use It” - According to a story in The Blog, boingboing, Francis Gurry, the Director General of the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) chatted last week about who much better off the Internet would have been “if it had been locked away in patents, and if every user of the Web had needed to pay a license fee to use it ”
Of course WIPO is one of the groups which administer domain name disputes and to see the head of it take such a pro-IP stance as to wish the entire Internet was protected ... read more ...
Tue 16th August 2011
UDRP Cyberbullying Hits a New Low -
German company goes after three letter domain 16 years after it’s registered.
I’ve seen a lot of egregious UDRP cases over the years. This one may take the cake.
Imagine the year is 1995. You register the domain name GEA.com because your personal initials are GEA and you have a business called G.E.A. Design.
Then 14 years later, in 2009, a German company starts complaining that its acronym is GEA and you should sell it the domain name for a nominal amount so it ... read more ...
Thu 14th July 2011
WIPO Panel Censures Law Firm for Misleading Panel -
Panel blasts law firm for either trying to mislead panel or being “inexcusably careless”.
Last year a World Intellectual Property Organization panelist called a case represented by law firm Novagraaf Nederland a “flagrant abuse” of the UDRP. In that case, the law firm told the panel that its client had been in business from 1994 but didn’t disclose that it had just recently changed its name to reflect the domain name at issue. Novagraaf Nederland also ... read more ...
Thu 30th June 2011
Lazy Panelist Alert: This Should Have Been Reverse Domain Name Hijacking -
WIPO panelist doesn’t bother to consider a sure-fire reverse domain name hijacking claim.
I realize UDRP panelists aren’t paid much to handle cases, but there must be a minimum standard here.
Why the frustration? Take a look at the recently decided case for Cite.com.
The owner of the domain name registered it in 1997 and started a business called Cité Consulting. The complainant Systemware, Inc. didn’t start using the term “CITE” in commerce until 2011. ... read more ...
Fri 3rd June 2011
42nd Oldest Domain Lost in a UDRP: Octopus.com - In a three member WIPO decision the 42nd oldest domain name, Octopus.com was lost in a UDRP.
The domain name had a registration date of 1986 but was acquired by the domain holder in 2006.
The Complainant was brought by Octopustravel Group Limited of London.
Here is the relevant parts of the decision
“The Complainant is doing business as a retailer of hotel accommodation and related services throughout the world and has been trading under the name OctopusTravel since 1999.”
“Accommodation ... read more ...
Thu 26th May 2011
Pac-10 Goes After More Domain Names -
Sporting conference files dispute over three domain names.
The Pac-10 conference, which now has twelve teams with the addition of Colorado and Utah and will rebrand as the Pac-12, is again turning to the World Intellectual Property Forum in an effort to get domain names related to its new brand.
The group filed a complaint (and won) over pac-12network.com, pac12network.com, and pac-12network.org. All three are registered to an Ontario man.
The collegiate athletic ... read more ...
Wed 25th May 2011
Fortune 500 Company Goes After Three Letter .Com But Loses -
Company with $5 billion in annual sales decides to try to nab domain through arbitration rather than buy it. The price just went up.
The owner of TDS.com has successfully defended his domain name from Telephone and Data Systems, Inc in a UDRP case.
Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. is #450 on this year’s Fortune 500 list and generated nearly $5 billion in revenue last year.
TDS.com was originally registered way back in 1991. The current registrant, Daniel Wang, ... read more ...
Mon 16th May 2011
Mrs Jello Gets a Win for Geo Domain Owners -
Domainer wins case over geographic domain name brought by petroleum company.
What do you do when the name of a place has also been incorporated into a business name?
This was the issue in a recent UDRP case involving a Brazilian petroleum company and the domainer commonly known as “Mrs Jello”.
Ipiranga Produtos de Petróleo S.A. filed the case in an effort to get the domain name ipiranga.com.
Ipiranga happens to be the name of a famous river in Brazil as well ... read more ...
Tue 10th May 2011
Incumbents Opposed to UDRP Reform -
Two largest UDRP providers opposed to UDRP reform.
The two largest UDRP providers — National Arbitration Forum (NAF) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) — are opposed to reforming the UDRP at this time.
Representatives of NAF and WIPO made statements this morning on an ICANN conference call regarding “The State of the UDRP”.
WIPO also released a written statement that you can view here.
It seems that intellectual property interests are concerned ... read more ...
Mon 18th April 2011
UDRP Panel Questions Oversee.net’s Automated Domain Registration Processes -
WIPO panel questions Oversee.net defense of “automated systems” for registering domain names.
A UDRP panel has found against Oversee.net in a UDRP dispute over CarrollHouse.com and has posed significant questions about the company’s domain name registration practices.
Complainant Carol House Furniture has used its name since 1965 and it incorporated in 1970.
The dispute says that Oversee.net registered the domain on September 4, 2010. But the domain was actually ... read more ...
Wed 23rd February 2011
7S.com Owner Can Keep Domain Name Despite Andrew Christie’s Opinion -
Activist UDRP panelist at it again in 7s.com case.
If you ever need to point a finger at UDRP panelists that are trying to pervert the entire system, one of those should be Andrew Christie.
I awarded Christie a “Domain Dunce” award in 2009 for his attempts to change the plain language and thousands of cases of precedent of UDRP. He did it by circularly referencing his own cases.
Now Christie is at it again in the case of 7s.com.
The owner of the domain name ... read more ...
Thu 27th January 2011
Apparently WeWannaBuyYourCar.com is Confusingly Similar to “We Buy Any Car” -
I need a crash course in confusing similarity.
I don’t know, folks. Maybe it’s time for me to pack it up and go home.
Why the frustration?
After reading hundreds of UDRP cases apparently I still can’t figure out what “confusingly similar” is.
Today’s case in point? WIPO panelist David Perkins has awarded the domain name WeWannaBuyYourCar.com to a company with trademarked logos for “We Buy Any Car.com”.
OK, so ‘we’, ‘buy’, and ‘car’ ... read more ...
Mon 17th January 2011
WIPO Panel Hands Over VAX.com Domain Name -
Three letter domain won through UDRP.
World Intellectual Property Organization panelist J. Nelson Landry has ordered the VAX.com domain name be transferred to floor care products company Vax Limited.
Landry noted that the term VAX was a “coined term”, and didn’t consider the potential that it was a generic acronym.
That said, the respondent didn’t do himself any favors. Not only did he fail to respond to the proceedings, but he’s also lost 11 UDRP decisions ... read more ...
Fri 17th December 2010
California ISP Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking -
ISP tries to get domain name registered many years before it even existed.
A World Intellectual Property Forum panel has found California internet service provider Webpass, Inc guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in its attempt to get the domain name WebPass.com. The ISP uses Web-Pass.com as its web page.
Webpass, Inc. didn’t start using the Web Pass name until 2007, but the current registrant of WebPass.com registered the domain name in 2001. As such, it’s ... read more ...
Fri 12th November 2010
Is Apple Entitled to Appl.com? -
Company files complaint over four letter domain name. It’s not the first time.
Apple Inc. filed complaints with World Intellectual Property Forum this week over two domain names it feels are typos of Apple.com.
One case is against Appl.com and the other is against apple.com aplle.com.
On the surface it would appear that Appl.com is a generic four character domain name. Yet the pay-per-click ads on the site mention the electronics maker.
Earlier this year Apple ... read more ...