Legal News

It’s not surprising that Hallmark Licensing, LLC, the company behind the iconic Hallmark brand, would want to have the Hallmark.TV domain name. In addition to owning various Hallmark-related entities, Hallmark Licensing operates the Hallmark Channel, and it uses the brand match HallmarkChannel.com domain name for this line of business. It may not need Hallmark.TV, but I am sure the company  would want to own the domain name.

Hallmark Licensing, LLC opted to file a UDRP complaint to take possession of Hallmark.TV. The decision was published today, and while Hallmark Licensing prevailed, the rationale for why the company prevailed is upsetting to me.

A UDRP was filed against XTM.com at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) by a company called XTM International Inc. The domain registrant did not file a response to the UDRP, but the panelist still found in favor of the registrant. The panelist in the case was Terry F. Peppard.

From what I can tell, this valuable 3 letter .com domain name does not infringe on the complainant’s trademarks with its current usage. When I visited the domain name, I could see a pretty simple landing page indicating the domain name is for sale: “[xtm.com] is for sale:

Many years ago, there was a skit on Saturday Night Live about a fictitious investment firm called Dillon-Edwards Investments. The investment firm had to use ClownPenis.Fart for its website because it was the only domain name left when it launched its website. Have a look at the skit and continue reading below:

A UDRP was filed against the generic SmartWallet.com domain name at the National Arbitration Forum. SmartWallet.com is domain name owned by Andy Booth and his company, Booth, Ltd. After being notified of the UDRP filing, Andy announced he was going to turn the tables and file a lawsuit in federal court.

So you get UDRP’d on your hyper generic domain… Time to turn the tables. https://t.co/rAsmwwuOCG >> federal court

— Andy (@AndyBoothcom) December 12, 2020

It looks like someone has filed a UDRP against GameRoom.com, a domain name that is owned by Facebook. The UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), and it is case #1923613. I spotted the UDRP filing on UDRPSearch.com this afternoon, and I did a search of the NAF website to confirm that this is the domain name listed in the UDRP filing.

A UDRP was filed against the Tecme.com domain name, which was first registered in 2000 – more than twenty years ago. The complainant in the UDRP is a company called Tecme S.A., Argentina. The respondent is a person named Stephen Bougourd, and he represented himself in the UDRP proceeding. The WIPO panelist ruled on this dispute today, and it was ruled in favor of the registrant. In addition, the panelist ruled this was a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). As a result, Bougourd will retain the domain name.