The Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the bankruptcy auction (pdf) of the 150,000+ domain name owned by Jeff Baron and Ondova and found that Receivership set up by a lower court should never have been set up in the first place. You may recall that 150,000+ domain names of Jeff Baron and Ondova was sold by a bankruptcy court just last month for $5.2 Million … [Read more...]
Getty Images Loses Bid To Trademark Photos.com In The EU, Again
In a long running battle Getty Images just lost its bid to trademark the term Photos.com with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM). On September 15th 2009, Getty Images (US), Inc. , filed an application for registration of a Community trademark at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) on the word mark … [Read more...]
United/Contential Sues Owner Of Untied.com Used As A Gripe Site After 15 Years
According to the ChicagoTribune.com, United and Continental airlines, filed suit on Nov. 19, in both the Federal Court of Canada and Superior Court of Quebec. against the owner of Untied.com. The domain name Untied.com, has been owned by a Canadian professor for 15 years and airs complaints from disgruntled United Airlines passengers and employees. The filed allege the complaint site … [Read more...]
Brand Protection Companies Need To Do Better Job Protecting Their Clients On TM Dropping Domains
We have written many times about instances where Brand Protection companies fail to protect their clients by not registering or acquiring domain names before the launch of a new product or service. Today we are calling them out for not even attempting to re-register dropping domains which have TM implications. We have been watching some potential Trademark infringing dropping domains for … [Read more...]
ICE Seizes 132 Domains & This Time Its Global, Not Just .Com & .Net
ICE today announced that 132 domain names were seized for selling counterfeit products. However not only were .com's and .net's targeted this time. While 101 of the domain names were with a registry located in the United States, 31 ccTLD's domain names were seized as well. Domain names ending in .eu, .be, .dk, .fr, .ro and .uk were all seized. "This operation is a great example of the … [Read more...]
In a Case of First Impression Lewis & Lin Obtains Attorney Fee Award in Personal Name Cybersquatting Case
In a case of first impression under 15 U.S.C. 8131 , the personal name cybersquatting provision of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), the law firm of Lewis & Lin obtained a court order awarding attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party under the ACPA. Section 8131 of the ACPA imposes civil liability on “[a]ny person who registers a domain name that consists of the name of … [Read more...]
After 5 years French Court Finds Registrar EuroDNS & Registry AFNIC Not Responsible For TM Infringing Domain Registrations
Back in 2008, 13 French companies filed suit against the registrar EuroDNS and the French Association for Internet Naming in Cooperation (hereinafter: AFNIC), which runs the .Fr ccTLD The suit alleged that EuroDNS and AFNIC were at fault for allowing third parties to register 129 domain names infringing on their respective Trademarks. They sued EuroDNS for € 2.9 million and demanded that … [Read more...]