Legal News

It looks like a UDRP was filed against https://t.co/1tWA9dHQ5m and https://t.co/wlPCjHdTyN at NAF. Both domain names are registered at CSC and owned by IBM. pic.twitter.com/aE6xTXYG2F

— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) March 4, 2025

A week and a half ago, I noticed a UDRP filing that appeared to be pretty egregious. A company filed a UDRP against ResourceInteractive.com and Resource.com at NAF. I think Resource.com is a 7 figure descriptive one word .com domain name. Both of those domain names have long been owned by IBM, a $225+ billion publicly traded company.

The UDRP decision was published this morning, and in an unsurprising decision, the panelist, Ivett Paulovics, ruled in favor of IBM. In addition, a Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) finding was made. Incidentally, IBM’s counsel did not even request this finding, so it was as clear cut of an RDNH as they come.

The Gong Show was a television talent show on ABC in the late 1970s. Contestants would perform a variety of acts while being judged by a panel of celebrity guests. If a judge found an act particularly bad, they could hit a large gong, abruptly ending the performance.

It’s too bad there isn’t a gigantic gong at the World Intellectual Property Organization! A UDRP was filed against Gong.com at WIPO. It is case #D2025-0500. Without doing much research, I think this UDRP should be a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH).

First and foremost, “gong” is a descriptive term. A gong is a large, flat, circular percussion instrument, typically made of metal, that produces a loud sound when struck with a mallet. That, alone, in my opinion, should be enough to doom this UDRP. However, there is more…

Artificial Intelligence can be a time saver. For domain investors, it can make it easier and quicker to create marketing copy to help promote a domain name. Over the last couple of years, domain name sales platforms and domain investors have utilized AI tools to help generate sales copy for their domain names. This can be risky, as attorney John Berryhill noted on X today regarding some Atom.com landing pages he found:

The hazards of AI-generated domain landers… @atomHQ Anyone want to guess why this name would be associated with bricks or “building something”? pic.twitter.com/ACvcWO03cR

— John Berryhill (@Berryhillj) November 29, 2024

When I have a legal question regarding domain names, I usually discuss it with attorney John Berryhill. My feeling is that I would rather pay for John’s legal expertise than to wing it. The domain industry is fortunate that John regularly offers insights and wisdom on public venues like Namepros and X at no cost.

Yesterday morning, a Namepros member asked a question about sending outbound emails to sell a one word .io domain name. Doing outbound marketing to prospective buyers can be risky, particularly when there is limited usage for the term that makes up the domain name. Quite a few factors can make outbound marketing efforts more risky than others, and understanding the risks and how to mitigate them is important.