I Disagree With Boston Business Journal Cybersquatter Characterization

July 28, 2014

David Harris, Tech Editor at the Boston Business Journal, published an article about Boston-related domain names up for sale on Afternic. The article is brief, but I disagree with two areas:

Harris wrote of listings on Afternic that contain the “Boston” search term, “Many of these sites have been registered by cybersquatters.” In looking through the results, there are very few domain name listings that I would consider cybersquatting. I am not a lawyer or a legal expert, so I am not going to call out any domain names that could be considered cybersquatting examples, but in my opinion, there are very few obvious trademarks that come up in the results page for a “Boston” search.

I also disagree with how Harris describes

Zions Bancorporation Files UDRP on 10 gTLD Domain Names

May 14, 2014

I was reading through the new UDRP cases, and I saw that Zions Bancorporation filed a UDRP for ten new gTLD domain names. Zions Bancorporation is a holding company with several subsidiaries in the banking business. Related companies include Zions Bank, Amegy Bank of Texas, California Bank & Trust, National Bank of Arizona, Nevada State Bank, and several others.

The UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the cost of the filing was $2,000, not including legal fees. The domain names appear to be registered by the same London-based registrant, which is why the company was able to file a UDRP for all of these domain names at one time.

The domain names that are subject to this particular

Forbes Covers New gTLD Cybersquatting

Elliot Silver

February 27, 2014

I am not at all surprised, but apparently there have been a number of people who went out and hand registered trademark domain names in some of the new gTLD extensions. People and organizations who were opposed to the new domain name extensions cautioned brands about this happening, and Forbes has an article covering the problem.

The article, Cybersquatters Rush To Claim Brands In The New GTLD Territories, which was published today on Forbes, highlights a number of domain name registrations that it believes should be considered cybersquatting.

This type of thing happens every day,

Do Not Buy Trademark New gTLD Domain Names

Elliot Silver

February 12, 2014

This advice is going to sound pretty obvious to most of you, but I am going to share it anyway because there are people who are looking at the new gTLD domain names as an opportunity to make money from domain investing. Do NOT register trademark, non-descriptive domain names, and certainly do not offer grey area names to companies that have those trademarks!

Early on when domain names first became commercially available, there were people who registered domain names before trademark holders were able to purchase them. You can read one such instance in Wired regarding the registration of the McDonalds.com domain name. Later on, people registered trademark typo domain names in addition to other TM domain names, and they made money from

Will Google Launch “Google Keep” Without Matching Domain Names?

Elliot Silver

March 18, 2013

Some technology news outlets have reported that Google may be in the process of launching a product or service called “Keep,” and the company doesn’t seem to own related domain names. According to Time Magazine’s Techland, “Google appears to be testing a new service called Google Keep, which could allow users to compile written notes, task lists, web links and images in one place.”

I did a bit of research, and while I am not at all surprised the company doesn’t own Keep.com (it’s owned by a startup called Keep Holdings), they also don’t appear to own GoogleKeep.com. In fact, GoogleKeep.com was registered today and it has a domain name for sale landing page. The domain name appears to be registered

Weather Underground Awarded $3.5 Million in Cybersquatting Lawsuit

Elliot Silver

March 4, 2013

In my opinion, there’s a common misconception that if domain investors own trademark domain names, the worst that can happen is they lose them in a UDRP. Some people think their only potential loss would be the loss of revenue from the domain names. An article in Crain’s Detroit shows that cybersquatting can have far greater consequences, and hopefully it will serve as a bit of a wake up call to those who don’t know that they may be playing with fire.

According to the article, Weather Underground filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Navigation Catalyst Systems Inc., Firstlook, Inc and COnnexus, Corp. Weather Underground was represented by two law firms, Traverse Legal (Enrico Schaefer and Brian Hall) and Hooper Hathaway (Anthony Patti).

The case started out with a winning UDRP filing for 41 domain names, but subsequent research showed that the company believed the defendant owned additional domain names. According to the article, Weather Underground filed a lawsuit and

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Cybersquatting

I Disagree With Boston Business Journal Cybersquatter Characterization

Zions Bancorporation Files UDRP on 10 gTLD Domain Names

Forbes Covers New gTLD Cybersquatting

Do Not Buy Trademark New gTLD Domain Names

Will Google Launch “Google Keep” Without Matching Domain Names?

Weather Underground Awarded $3.5 Million in Cybersquatting Lawsuit

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