A UDRP was recently filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the LeanIn.com domain name. I think this is going to be an interesting proceeding to track because of the complainant as well as the fact that the “lean in” term could be considered a heavily used generic term, in addition to its trademark(s). The case is WIPO Case D2019-0213.
John Berryhill is almost always the attorney of record on the domain registrant’s side of a UDRP. I think he is one of the best domain industry attorneys, and I look to John when I need legal advice regarding my company’s domain names. In fact, John is the 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award winner for his efforts in championing the rights of domain registrants. It’s no surprise that John won his latest UDRP case, but what was a surprise to me is that he represented the complainant in this UDRP.
We are in the third week of 2019, and it looks like we just had the first UDRP filing for a valuable three letter .com domain name (LLL.com). According to UDRPSearch.com, a UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) for the RDW.com domain name. This UDRP filing is case #1824259.
We are a couple of weeks in to 2019, and it looks like we have our first notable UDRP filing. A UDRP was filed against TheSun.com at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This UDRP is WIPO Case D2019-0084.
TheSun.com has a creation date of April of 2001, making it nearly 18 years old. The domain name is parked at Uniregistry, with a wide variety of seemingly generic links. There is a message that says “Lease this domain” at the top of the page. Clicking the link brings me to a page within the Venture.com website where the domain name is offered for lease for $10,000/month:
I was looking at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website today, and I saw that the organization added 2019 to its UDRP cases search page. This should mean that the organization closed out the 2018 year for UDRP filings, allowing me to compare the number to the prior year.
In the 2018 WIPO UDRP case list, the most recent UDRP filing is listed as case D2018-2952. I believe this means that there were 2,952 UDRP filings for the year. The latest UDRP filing was for Similac.Top. The UDRP was filed by Abbott Laboratories.
In the 2017 WIPO UDRP case list, the last UDRP filing of the year was listed as case D2017-2603. The final UDRP of 2017 at WIPO was against graingeronlinesafteymanager.com. The UDRP was decided in favor of the complainant, W.W. Grainger, Inc.
It looks like Kanye West and Mascotte Holdings, Inc. have filed a UDRP at the World Intellectual Property Organization to try and gain control of the Yandhi.com domain name. The UDRP is WIPO case #D2018-2788.
From what I understand, Yandhi is the title of Kanye’s next album, which has apparently been delayed a couple of times. Yandhi will be a follow up to his hit album, Yeezus (West Brands LLC owns but does not use Yeezus.com). The Yandhi name was announced in a Kanye West tweet this past September:
— ye (@kanyewest) September 17, 2018
The Yandhi.com domain name was registered on September 16, 2018. Because the domain name was
