Comic Book Company Recovers Stolen Domain Name Under UDRP

Superman recovers stolen domain name from cybersquatter under UDRP:

As reported by The Register last week, DC Comics successfully recovered the domain name manofsteel.com in a decision handed down by the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) under the UDRP.  DC Comics has owned trademark rights to “MAN OF STEEL” since 1999, and “THE MAN OF STEEL” since 1987. The stolen domain name “manofsteel.com” was registered in 2001. 

After panel review, NAF concluded that the stolen domain name was:

Domain Name Lawsuits | Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Leads to Penalty

Reverse domain name hijacking is typically a term used by domain name attorneys in threat letters and responses to threat letters.  Reverse domain hijacking refers to a an entity's attempts to secure a domain name by making false cybersquatting  claims.  Under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), panels have often found that overreaching trademark owners are guilty of reverse domain hijacking.  Other than a ruling in the UDRP decision, there is no monetary damages or penalty for such behavior.  The ACPA does not even expressly recognize reverse domain hijacking.  However, that did not stop a judge from rewarding over $100,000 in cybersquatting case as a penalty in finding reverse domain name hijacking.  The judgment, as posted by domainnamewire.com, was in favor of DigiMedia.com after GoForIt Entertainment attempted to acquire generic domain names based upon a theory that use of "goforit" as a third level domain name constituted cybersquatting.

Homeland Security Seizes 70+ Suspect Domain Names | Copyright Attorneys Blog

Over 70 websites suspected of copyright and trademark infringement violations, the sale of counterfeit goods and illegally shared media content have been shut down by The Department of Homeland Security, with the cooperation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), according to The Wall Street Journal.

Federal Judge Tells Habitual Cybersquatter Gillece To Stop Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting and Domain Name Dispute Update:  Judge Tells Gillece To Stop Cybersquatting - Pittsburgh-Area Plumber Must Stop Internet Redirection

Federal judge orders habitual cybersquatter, Gillece Services, to stop cybersquatting on its competitors.  Gillece Services is a plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical service company based in Pittsburgh.

Cybersquatting Cases | Ford Sues Ferrari for Cybersquatting F-150 Trademark

Ferrari sued for trademark infringement:

Detroit News:  Ford Motor Co. sues Ferrari in U.S. Federal Court for cybersquatting and trademark infringement for using its famous F-150 trademark.  Ford filed the lawsuit after Ferrari named its new Formula 1 racing car the “F-150,” and after creating the new website www.Ferrari150.com.

According to The Detriot News, Ford claims that it has suffered irreparable harm to its F-150 trademark and its lawyers are urging judge to block Ferrari’s use of the trademark in the U.S., award damages, and make Ferrari give up any earned revenues and profits earned in the U.S. through the use of its trademark.  Further, Ford demands $100,000 in damages pursuant to the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) for cybersquatting.  We'll stay tuned for more news from this cybersquatting case. 

Source: Ford sues Ferrari over F-150 name, The Detroit News

Cybersquatting Lawsuits | .CO Domain Names & ClickBank

The payment processing company Click Sales Inc., which operates the poplular service and domain name ClickBank.com, filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Forum (WIPO) in order to obtain the .CO ccTLD.  The Clickbank.co domain name is currently registered in China and is listed for sale on Sedo.

Day Two Highlights from DOMAINfest 2011, brought to you by Traverse Legal

Day Two at DOMAINfest 2011 included a presentation by Jay Berkowitz, author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing and panel discussions covering the acquisition and monetization of traffic using local, mobile, social & video, and opportunities in ccTLDs, IDNs and gTLDs:

• What would YOU do for $5?  Fiverr...check it out!
• SEO friendly basics: Clean architecture, quality content and Wordpress. Most importantly, do you know what terms your clients are searching on?
• Social networking sites - unified branding as a package deal. Do you have all your vanity URL's?
• Blended content is key - video + organic text-based SEO.
• Traverse Legal founding partner Enrico Schaefer one of 10 finalists in the PITCHfest contest, presenting to Andries de Villiers, Scott Jarus, John Morris, Jeff Cohn and an audience of over 600 industry pros.

Get all the details >

 

Coming up tomorrow: Tried and tested tips and strategies for the purchase and sale of domains, a chat with Ben Mezrich, Author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, the 3rd annual fundraising party at the Playboy Mansion, and more.  Join Traverse Legal LIVE for the final day of DOMAINfest 2011!

Live Coverage from Traverse Legal at DOMAINfest 2011 - Day One Highlights

Day one at DOMAINfest 2011 kicked off with a Frank Schilling moderated panel discussion among industry experts Jeff Bartlett, Howard Hoffman, Jamie MacMillan and Joerg Schnermann, presentations by comScore Search Evangalist Eli Goodman and Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky, and a keynote presentation by GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons.  

Frank discusses the sale of 250 domains for $7 million, Jamie states long tail terms are better than category domains in terms of conversion to start, Eli says MySpace is NOT dead, Jeff predicts investment in category domains, and Bob takes a swipe at the New York Times, discusses his faith and refuses response to questions regarding new gTLD's...

Get ALL the details of Day One's events and expert presentations >

 

Traverse Legal's Live Coverage from Domain Fest 2011

DOMAINfest 2011 officially kicks off tomorrow, February 1st, at 7am PST in Santa Monica, California.  Traverse Legal's founding partner, Enrico Schaefer and attorney John DiGiacomo are there to bring you live coverage of this exciting industry event including a presentation from Go Daddy's CEO, Bob Parsons, a live premium domain auction, a chat with Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal (aka The Social Network on the big screen), the 3rd Annual Autism Fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, and more.

See what's happening every step of the way >

Traverse Legal to Live Blog DomainFest 2011

Traverse Legal is excited to announce that both founding partner Enrico Schaefer and attorney John Di Giacomo will be live blogging from DomainFest 2011, which will be held in Santa Monica, CA between February 1-3.  

DomainFest 2011 is the premere conference for the domain name industry and will include a keynote presentation from Bob Parsons, the CEO of GoDaddy.  To learn more about Traverse Legal's live blogging of this event and to schedule a reminder, visit http://traverselegal.com/traverse-legal-domainfest-2011/.

Domain Typosquatting Cases | Cybersquatting Twitter.com

Not surprisingly, the social networking sites are a favorite target for black hat cybersquatting.  Check out this domain typo generator report by Domaintools.com for twitter.com.  While some of the domains in the list are no doubt legitimate, the vast majority are clearly cybersquatting sites with parked pages showing advertisements for social networking ads.   One cybersquatting domainstand.com LLC holds the following domains:

Twitgter.com    Domainstand.com LLC    
Twkitter.com    Domainstand.com LLC    
Tw8itter.com    Domainstand.com LLC    
Twittefr.com    Domainstand.com LLC    
Tw3itter.com    Domainstand.com LLC    
Tw2itter.com    Domainstand.com LLC

UDRP search engine Domainfight.net shows domainstand.com to be a habitual cybersquatter of domain names, with transferred domains in each instance. 

For more information on domain typosquatting cases or tother UDRP respondents who engage in habitual cybersquatting, check these TraverseLegal.com search results for “habitual cybersquatting.”

Cybersquatting Cricket.com? Global Cricket Ventures Faces Domain Challenge

Global Cricket Ventures faces cybersquatting challenge with its acquired domain Cricket.com.  The domain name, cricket.com, was acquired as part of a settlement agreement with Live Current Media, who previously owned the domain and used it to feature ads for wireless phones.   Now, a domain dispute (case number 1364860) has commenced with the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) and some speculate that the complainant to be Cricket Wireless, a U.S. based company which owns the domain mycricket.com, and have been aggressively acquiring “Cricket” related domain names in recent years:

• cricketwireless.com;
• mycrickit.com and cricketcellular.com;
• cricketphonestore.com, et. al.;
• mycircket.com and wwmycricket.com;
• cricketcommunications.com, et. al.;
• jmycricket.com, et. al.;
• cricketcommunication.com.

Trademark Registration has become much more important with the advent of the Internet because virtually every company’s website is now global.  When trying to determine how to trademark a name, you should consult an attorney who specializes in trademark registration.  Trademarking your name correctly has become more important in order to avoid attack later. 

If you have a trademark or domain dispute issue, or wish to register a trademark, you may contact one of our trademark attorneys for a free evaluation or call one at 866-936-7447.

Latest Bad Faith Cybersquatting Decisions Against Navigation Catalyst Systems

Here are the latest bad faith cybersquatting UDRP cases and decisions against Navigation Catalyst Systems as reported by UDRP search engine domainfight.net.

United States Proposes Legislation to Regulate Use of Domain Names for Illegal Activities

This proposed COICA Bill could allow US Government to shut down domains within the states and abroad that are suspected of piracy or sale of counterfeit goods.

A Bipartisan group of Senators met this Monday, September 20 with the express purpose of introducing legislation to address “the growing problem of online piracy and counterfeiting”. This session saw the birth of a Bill titled the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), introduced by the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and senior Republican member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

The COICA Bill would allow the US government to play a more direct role in policing of domain names involved in piracy;

The Bill, if passed, would allow the US government through the Department of Justice to seek a court order against a domain name suspected that has been reported as advertising, offering for sale or otherwise offering for download pirated music, movies and counterfeit goods.

Trademark Infringement and Cybersquatting Analysis for Subway v. Subway.SY and Kotifani

On Wednesday I posted an article about how Subway.SY owner Hani Kotifani tried to represent himself pro se (without counsel) against the real Subway restaurant and failed miserably in a cybersquatting / trademark infringement lawsuit and promised that an analysis of the Court’s ruling would be soon to follow. That post can be found here (Trademark and Cybersquatting Lawsuit: Subway Awarded Permanent Injunction, Statutory Damages, and Attorney’s Fees, Against Subway.SY LLC)

Well, here’s the analysis for Doctor's Assocs. v. Subway.SY LLC, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83223 (D. Minn. July 30, 2010).