Cybersquatting trademark domain names is a favorite pastime of Texas International Property Associates. Check out these search results on domainfight.net for Texas International Property Associates as a Respondent in domain name disputes for both NAF and WIPO. Note the WIPO returns are only partial and the extended returns on NAF show 126 records.
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
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 names have become an important part of our commercial lives. They act as designators of products and services and serve as shortcuts to reduce consumer search costs. That is why trademark owners must be vigilant in protecting their trademark rights on the Internet. On June 24, ICANN gathered to discuss adding new generic top-level domain names, or gTLDs, to the spectrum of available domain name suffixes. When ICANN adds gTLDs, you can be sure that cybersquatters and typosquatters are watching because it presents them with a new opportunity to register the trademark of another to profit off of the goodwill and Internet traffic associated with the mark. Domain name disputes inevitably follow the addition of TLDs, so it is important to hire an attorney that is proactive in monitoring the use of your trademarks on the Internet.
Continue reading "Protecting Your Trademark In Light of ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domain Names" »
Since 2006 Steve Kerry a/k/a North West Enterprise, Inc., has been named respondent in 14 UDRP domain name disputes handled by either NAF or WIPO. Steve Kerry a/k/a North West Enterprise, Inc., Kerryweb, KerryWeb Enterprise, Inc., has been ruled against as a cybersquatter in all of those domain disputes. As a result, panels have ordered that the domain names be transferred form the registrant to the Complainant who filed the UDRP Complaint. The UDRP decisions include:
Continue reading "Habitual Cybersquatter under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP): Steve Kerry a/k/a North West Enterprise, Inc." »
Cybersquatters seek to divert traffic for a variety of reasons. Many of them are simply looking to divert traffic from a trademark holder to their own website to generate Adlinks and PPC (pay-per-click) revenue. Companies sometimes register domains of their competitors in order to divert traffic. In the case below, an anti-abortion group used cybersquatting tactics to try and divert women searching for a family planning clinic known as fphs.org. When their cybersquatting tactics were discovered, they ultimately took the web page down. The Whois information for fphs.com is found here. The registrant is listed as Janna Janke, who apparently is the executive director of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center in Wausau, Wisconsin.
The Crisis Pregnancy Center apparently has a business model designed around deceiving pregnant women, and especially teens, into its website and various locations thinking that they will receive family planning help, but instead receive anti-abortion information. Below The Waist Blog: Thanks to solid local reporting, a Crisis Pregnancy Center website designed to deceive women who were looking for information about reproductive health services was taken down this week. Website visitors who typed in “fphs.com” instead of “fphs.org” were sent to a crisis pregnancy center site instead of to the family planning clinic site they were looking for. Pat Peckham, a reporter with Wausau, Wisconsin’s weekly newspaper, City Pages, discovered the alternate site and pursued the story to its end. In this case, the end was that Hope Crisis Pregnancy Center took the website down because others might see their deceit as ‘untoward.’ Others might see it for exactly what it was.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers often set up “look alike clinics” near abortion clinics in an effort to lure women into their pseudo-clinics. There are many descriptions this month of these kinds of tactics on www.RHRealitycheck.org. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I received an email from a friend in the community. He told me that the daughter of one of their employees had gone to one of our family planning clinics. The staff prayed with her for an hour, convinced her that she was a sinner, gave her a Bible and sent her home.
Continue reading "Anti-Abortion Group Uses Cybersquatting Tactics To Divert Traffic From Family Planning Clinic " »
Founding Attorney Enrico Schaefer: "Since 2006, Keyword Marketing Inc. a/k/a Marketing Total S.A. a/k/a Domain Drop S.A., has been the named respondent in 33 UDRP domain name disputes handled by either NAF or WIPO. Keyword Marketing Inc. a/k/a Marketing Total S.A. a/k/a Domain Drop S.A. has been ruled against as a cybersquatter in 32 of those domain disputes. As a result, panels have ordered that the domain names be transferred from the registrant to the Complainant who filed the UDRP Complaint."
If you are a victim of cybersquatting by these entities, you should contact one of our trademark and domain dispute attorneys for a free evaluation or call 866.936.7447 (International Toll Free). Domain Fight lists decisions against Keyword Marketing, Inc. here, Marketing Total S.A here, and Domain Drop S.A. here. The UDRP decisions include:
Continue reading "Habitual Cybersquatter under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP): Keyword Marketing Inc. a/k/a Marketing Total S.A. a/k/a Domain Drop S.A." »
It was recently reported by Cyveillance, a leader in cyber intelligence reporting, that suspicious domain registrations have increased for corporations. However, cybersquatting, typosquatting, and other forms of cyberpiracy do not only plague “large enterprises” with “master brands.” Cybersquatting effects all types of entities - from the individual business owner with a common law trademark, to the mid-sized company with newly established trademarks and multiple domain name registrations, to the mega-corporations with hundreds or thousands of domain name registrations and trademark registrations with the USPTO and internationally. Cyveillance’s report simply confirms that which these entities should already know – cybersquatting is a growing problem that requires careful attention.
Continue reading "Cybersquatting is Only Going to Get Worse – Are You Prepared?" »
As many of you know, American Idol is hosting Dolly Parton week, which means your favorite idols will be crooning to their favorite Dolly Parton tunes. We thought we would take this opportunity to list some of the most blatant cybersquatters on Dolly Parton's famous name (which, of course, are protected under both trademark law and the UDRP) and official web site www.dollyparton.com.
There are more cyber-squatters on the Dolly Parton name, but this will give you an idea about what cybersquatting sites look like and how common squatting occurs. You might ask "What is the difference between American Idol using the Parton name and the sites above?" American Idol, and its contestants, have permission to leverage the Dolly Parton name. Cybersquatters do not. They lurk in the shadows of the internet, hoping no one will notice their theft of internet traffic and adword revenue.
Our lawyers are always amazed by articles such as the one in the Dallas Morning News, which highlights all of the people who have registered variations of George Bush's name, and the name of his library. There has been a lot of commentary recently about cybersquatting on politician names. Many of the uses noted below arguably meet the definition of unlawful cybersquatting under both the UDRP and ACPA. But no one quoted in the article seems to be aware that the registration of domains incorporating famous names such as George Bush is unlawful, subjecting them to damages in excess of $100,000.00
Bush library searches for Web site name 1:45 PM CT | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Headline | National and International News What’s in a name? Plenty when Web users are looking for a recognizable brand. Here are some sites registered by owners other than the Bush Library Foundation:
GeorgeWBushLibrary.net — web company Illuminati Karate, Raleigh, N.C. (adlink site and a clear violation of cybersquatting laws).
GeorgeWBushLibrary.org — Chickenhead Productions, an anti-Bush Web site
(Does not appear to meet the gripe site test, and thus first amendment protection).
TheGeorgeWBushLibrary.com — Domains By Proxy (Does not appear to meet the gripe site test, and thus first amendment protection).
Technorati Tags: george bush, george w bush, bush library, cybersquatting
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