The .ME registry just sold toyota.me for the whopping price of $90,025. Not only is it the highest price ever paid for a .me it is agoing to be a litigation nightmare for the new owner. We all expect that Toyota.me will draw a federal lawsuit or a WIPO action in the near future. If Toyota waits say a year and then files a federal lawsuit against the registrant, they will ask for damages … [Read more...]
New Type of Lawsuit is Brewing Against Domainers and Advertisers
There's a new type of lawsuit coming against PPC advertisers and domainers, about search marketing and the right to bid on trademarked or just competitive terms. In this particular case Nike sued a New Hampshire outdoor sporting goods retailer, Eastern Mountain Sports, which does not sell any Nike clothing, for bidding on the term "Dri-Fit" in Google's advertising system. Dri-Fit is a … [Read more...]
Be prepared for a border search with these tips
This guest post was written by Richard Douglas. His blog is called Too Many Secrets. If you travel a lot, you should prepare yourself to be searched and asked a few questions. Mike wrote about laptop and cell phone search and seizure before the Paris meet-up. The US Customs and Border Service has posted their official policy here. It happens all the time and it is nothing to be alarmed … [Read more...]
Bush Won’t Give up US Oversight of Internet but Would Obama?
As you are aware it was reported Thursday by the Intellectual Property Watch the Bush Administration has no intention of giving up control of the central root servers that control the internet. This was not new news. The Bush Administration has turned down requests to give up the control in the past few years. However as we all know they Bush term ends in just about 5 months. So the real … [Read more...]
Hasbro Sues Over Facebook “Scrabulous” Game
Hasbro which sells the Scrabble board game, has sued over the Knockoff game on Facebook called Scrabulous. Hasbro on Thursday filed a copyright and trademark lawsuit in New York against the creators of the ad-supported Scrabulous application, which boasts an astonishing half-a million daily users. Hasbro said of Scrabulos "This is theft of intellectual property, It's really no different from … [Read more...]
Narnia.mobi Awarded to Trademark Holder
The World Intellectual Property Organization, ruled yesterday that the domain name Narnia.mobi should be transferred to the trademark holder. Domain name disputes focus partly on whether a “cybersquatter” is using the site for commercial gain and whether trademarks are involved. Mr Saville-Smith claimed yesterday that he had done nothing at all with the site and had not tried to make any money … [Read more...]
How Can A .xxx/.sex Extension Be OK Now?
I have read hundreds of stories about ICANN voting to allow the creation of an unlimited amount of domain extensions in the mainstream media. Each and everyone of these article talks about an adult extension .xxx/.sex or some other version as a foregone conclusion in terms of popularity among users and applicants. The question is how can ICANN approve an adult extension now having turned down … [Read more...]