Lawsuit Filed by Porn Industry against ICANN Over .XXX

Domain name disputes typically occur between trademark owners and domain name registrants over allegations of cybersquatting or between trademark owners and website developers, employees, partners over domain name theft and hijacking.  And this first of its kind litigation case, the pornography industry attorneys have filed a lawsuit directly against ICANN alleging monopolistic conduct, price gouging, anticompetitive behavior and unfair business practices for establishing the .XXX top-level domain name (“TLD”), which is supposed to be the new home of adult content.  Trademark owners are bemoaning the .XXX TLD because of the exorbitant price being charged in order to defensively register your trademarks on the XXX TLD in order to avoid pornographic sites engaged in trademark cybersquatting.  The whole thing smells like a money grab by ICANN.  If a trademark owner fails to register its trademark as a .XXX TLD, the risk of brand harm is real and significant. 

Domain owners are already cashing in on registering solid, generic .XXX domains, and then reselling them for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California is included in full below.  Note the antitrust (Sherman Act) violations alleged in addition to unfair competition. 

Manwin DP vs ICM

Facebook Trademark Infringement Continues To Be A Problem

Facebook Trademark Infringement Update:

Trademark infringement on Facebook and Twitter continue to grow as problems for trademark owners.  Companies who fail to get on the social media juggernaut are now realizing that their company name, brand name or slogan may already have been registered by another Facebook user.  In some instances, the registration of your company name, brand or slogan by a third party may qualify as trademark infringement.  As with all other trademark infringement claims, you need to prove that an average consumer would likely be confused as to source and origin of the goods and services being offered on the Facebook page.  In too many instances, the person who registered your trademark as a Facebook page intended to divert your traffic with full knowledge of your trade mark.

UDRP Filed on 3-Letter Domain

In a recent Domain Name Wire report, Wireless company, Shenzhen AEE Technology Co., has filed a UDRP proceeding for the domain name AEE.com.

The historical Whois information suggests that the owner, Shenzhen AEE Technology Co. had the domain registered and secured through 2005, but somehow lost it.  It very well may be that AEE.com was the subject of domain theft/stolen domain name as result of domain registrant account hacking.  We'll have to see how the UDRP arbitration opinion comes down in order to determine what was being alleged by complainant as to how they lost the domain.