Changing WHOIS Privacy Protection In Domain Name Dispute Can Be Considered Registration In Bad Faith

An interesting domain dispute has recently come down from WIPO involving a new interpretation of WHOIS privacy protection services and their relation to the “registration in bad faith” UDRP element.  The case, BMEzine.com, LLC v. Gregory Wicks, concerned the domain name bme.com.  This decision has interesting and widespread ramifications for domainers who arbitrarily change their WHOIS information.

Brandjackers increasingly abuse top-ranked pharmaceutical brands via cybersquatting and typosquatting

MarkMonitor Reports Continuing Rise in Online Abuse of Top Drug Brands

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MarkMonitor®, the global leader in enterprise brand protection, today released the Summer 2008 Brandjacking Index™, reporting that brandjackers increasingly abuse top-ranked pharmaceutical brands, endangering consumers via a supply chain compromised by the sale of questionable prescription drugs through dubious online pharmacies and exchange sites. The report also found that cybersquatting of leading brands has reached an all-time high and that phishers are targeting an increased number of diverse organizations for the first time.

“Our year-over-year trend data shows a grave situation: The number of people looking to save money by buying pharmaceuticals over the Web is growing rapidly while scammers are more aggressively exploiting loose controls over online sales of drugs,” said Irfan Salim, president and chief executive officer of MarkMonitor. “As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to buy medications, brandholders must ensure these customers are not faced with the potentially life-threatening risk of buying fake or sub-standard medications.”

Technorati Tags: brand, branding, cybersquatting, typosquatting

Cybersquatting the Obama-Biden Ticket: Domain investors still don't udnerstand the UDRP and ACPA

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

The Obama campaign has succeeded partly through astute, unprecedented use of the Internet. But some of the most obvious Web site domain names for the Obama-Biden ticket might not actually belong to the campaign anytime soon — if ever.

After hearing about Obama's selection for his number-two slot, anyone who tried to surf to obamabiden.org was re-directed to an eBay page selling that domain name for a starting bid of $100,000.

As of 6:30 p.m. ET, there were no bids listed.

The same seller lists 15 similar domain names up for sale, including obama-biden.com, obama-biden.org, and obamabiden-08.com.

Technorati Tags: obama, biden, cybersquatting

In Domain Name Disputes, Priority of Registration Will Often Trump Registered Trademark Rights

It isn’t often that a UDRP panel finds that a complainant who owns a registered trademark does not satisfy the first prong of the UDRP’s abusive registration test, namely, that the domain name is “identical or confusingly similar” to the complainant’s registered trademark.  Typically, UDRP panels will find that a trademark registration is prima facie evidence of confusing similarity.  But a recent panel has held that a complainant that registered its trademark after the respondent registered its domain name does not have the right to claim that the domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.  Priority, it seems, is everything.

Celebrity Cybersquatting: Why Don't Famous People Protect Their Domain Names?

Celebrity cybersquatting is becoming increasingly important.  Traverse Legal's cybersquatting attorneys work with celebrities and their agencies to provide global online name and brand protection.  If you are a celebrity, or agent working on behalf of a celebrity, who is trying to protect a celebrity name in cyberspace, feel free to contact one of our domain dispute attorneys for a free evaluation or call 866.936.7447 (international toll free).

Cybersquatter offering threesome with Scarlett Johansson! | Latest News

The seemingly fake website isn”t so much of a surprise as the domain that it sits on – scarlettjohansson.com.

While the website has an offer that’’s hard to believe, it’’s even more incredible that the actress could so easily fall prey to a cybersquatter.

For over a decade, Hollywood stars have been the target of cybersquatters – people who buy famous-sounding web domains in hope of benefiting from related publicity.

Web domains including madonna.com, juliaroberts.com and piercebrosnan.com have all appeared in cybersquatting cases before the web’’s governing UN body the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). (ANI)

Technorati Tags: Scarlett Johansson, domain name, cybersquatting

Domain Name Dispute Decision: Craigslist.fr UDRP Transfer Order From WIPO

Craiglist.fr WIPO Decision

The WIPO UDRP decision regarding craiglist.fr does not hold many surprises.

What is semi-interesting is that the decision gives an overview of craiglist.org, which has been in operation since 1997.

Needless to say the panelist decided in favour of the trademark holder and ordered the transfer of craiglist.fr

Technorati Tags: udrp, wipo, cybersquatting

Law Firm Loses UDRP Domain Dispute Decision Over Use of Drug TRACLEER

K&L Gates : Newsstand : K&L Gates represents pharmaceutical company in precedent-setting WIPO domain name victory

On September 10, 2007, a three-member panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) found in favor of ... Pharmaceuticals, Ltd (“Actelion”), that the use of its trademarked drug name TRACLEER by a law firm for the purpose of soliciting clients for litigation was improper under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”). The Panel’s decision, a clear departure from previous precedent, represents a positive outcome for trademark owners, especially those in the pharmaceutical industry, whose trademark rights are being improperly used by lawyers and law firms to attract litigation clients.

Before Actelion, the seminal WIPO case involving use of a pharmaceutical company’s trademarked drug name by a law firm was decided in favor of the products liability lawyer. See Pfizer, Inc. v. Van Robichaux , WIPO Case No. D2003-0399 (July 16, 2003).

Read the WIPO decision here.

Protecting Your Trademark is Protecting Your Goodwill

Do I Really Need to Worry About my Trademark? Ask eBoost Consulting « The Legal Satyricon

eBoost Media and eBoost Consulting are both search engine optimization companies that operate out of California. Same field, same business, very similar names, even similar addresses. Now that one company is at the center of a viral internet story about the worst customer service ever, the other company is distraught and doing damage control.

Despite all the negative attention, “eBoost Consulting is guilty of nothing more than being careless about defending its trademark.” (source)

Technorati Tags: cybersquatting, trademark, good will