Facebook RSS Twitter
Home Legal News Page 48

Legal News

RDNH Finding in AirZone.com UDRP

Elliot Silver
-
1

Nat Cohen’s Telepathy won a UDRP that was filed against AirZone.com, a domain name the company registered in 1999. The three member panel also found that the complaint to be Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). The UDRP was defended by domain attorney Zak Muscovitch of DNAttorney.com.

There were several factors that contributed to the decision. Among the factors that stood out the most for me:

  • Telepathy registered several (keyword)Zone.com domain names on the same day and at around the same time, showing that the company didn’t target the complainant.
  • Telepathy owns a variety of generic domain names, such as this one, which are owned legitimately and without the purpose of infringing on the trademarks of other companies.
  • Complainant made an offer to buy the domain name
  • There were several purchase offers from a variety of companies, which showed that there are many entities that could use the domain name and that the complainant’s brand wasn’t targeted by the owner.
  • Complainant filed the UDRP 12 years after submitting its purchase offer and apparently never contacted the domain owner at any point in between.

From a domain investment standpoint, the panel’s finding in the section regarding registering and using the domain name in bad faith is what

Read More

Versailles.com and VisitVersailles.com Subject of UDRP Filings (Update)

Elliot Silver
-
2

Two geographic domain names have become the subject of two separate UDRP proceedings at the World Intellectual Property Organization. A UDRP was filed against Versailles.com (WIPO Case D2017-1016), and a UDRP was filed against VisitVersailles.com  (WIPO Case D2017-0985).

Versailles.com and VisitVersailles.com are owned by two different registrants, which is why there are two separate  UDRP filings. Versailles.com was registered over 20 years ago (back in  1996) and is owned by someone in Houston, Texas. VisitVersailles.com has a creation date of September of 2006, although the domain name had been registered and expired prior to that. This domain name is owned by a registrant in Laredo, Texas.

When I visited Versailles.com this afternoon, the domain name resolved to a default  GoDaddy landing  page. When I visited VisitVersailles.com this afternoon, I was forwarded to a “coming soon” landing page on a different website (likely the owner of the domain name).According to NameBio, Versailles.com was acquired at auction for $35,000 back in 2009. Based on DomainTools’ Whois History tool, it appears that the domain name changed hands since the auction, although that is just a guess.

The complainant in both of these UDRP proceedings is

Read More

ATC.com UDRP Won by Domain Owner

Elliot Silver
-
2

In late March, I wrote about the ATC.com UDRP filing.  ATC.com had been created back in 1990, and the complainant owned the domain name for many years. The decision was just made, and the domain owner will retain this valuable domain name. The  ESQwire.com  law firm defended the domain name on behalf of the owner.

The primary reason for the decision going in favor of the domain name owner was that the three person panel found that the “Complainant has failed to establish sufficient trademark rights to the letters ATC.” Because of this finding, the panel did not have to decide whether or not the domain owner had rights or interest in owning the domain name, nor did the panel need to consider whether the owner had registered and used the domain name in bad faith.

In looking at the decision (which should be published publicly soon), it appears that the panel declined to consider Reverse Domain Name Hijacking for this UDRP proceeding. Since it  does not appear in the decision, I  do not know why it was not considered. Based on the fact that the panel found that the complainant didn’t even establish trademark rights to the three letter combination (not even considering that the owner reportedly registered the name back in 1990), it seems like RDNH should have been at least been considered and discussed.

Even without

Read More

Legal Threats Are Unwise in a Negotiation

Elliot Silver
-
2

It is unfortunate, but I regularly see UDRP filings that involve seemingly generic / descriptive .com domain names. This is only part of the issue because there are a lot of situations that are resolved privately. I have one piece of advice for  people trying to get generic domain names from domain name owners – making legal threats is unwise.

I am fortunate to not deal with legal threats on a regular basis. I  attribute this to the descriptive nature of my domain name  and the relative size of my portfolio. When a legal threat is made or implied though, I immediately cease a friendly discussion and turn things over to my General Counsel and sometimes outside legal counsel. This isn’t good for anyone.

If a trademark owner or their representative is

Read More

James Fenwick Retains Fenwicks.com After UDRP

Elliot Silver
-
1

I recently reported that the 1996-registered Fenwicks.com domain name was the subject of a UDRP proceeding. Of note, the domain name appeared to be owned by the same person, James Fenwick, for many years. It was surprising to see a UDRP filed against a domain name with those circumstances.

Yesterday afternoon, I saw that the status of the UDRP had been changed to “Terminated.” A Whois search showed me that the domain name was still owned by the same registrant as before, so it did not appear that the owner lost or sold the domain name. I reached out to Mr. Fenwick to see what happened with the UDRP and find out if he was able to reach a deal with the complainant. Mr. Fenwick was kind enough to reply and share an update that he  allowed me to share publicly:

“I retained Stevan Lieberman who successfully assisted in showing that my right to the domain name extended over the past twenty-one years.

Given the evidence the complainant decided to withdraw. And no, I did not sell the domain name even though a purchase was offered by the complainant.”

Mr. Fenwick also mentioned to me that

Read More

“Allegations of Theft are Outside the Limited Scope” of the UDRP

Elliot Silver
-
1

A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization for 74 domain names. When I saw the filing, I thought it was a bit strange since the domain names didn’t seem to have much in common. This was peculiar since it would mean the complainant would need to prove the domain owner was cybersquatting on a variety of terms and/or marks.

The decision was published on the WIPO website this morning, and it appears that the complainant filed the UDRP because of an alleged theft of the domain names. According to the decision, the complainant contended “that the Respondent registered the disputed domain names in bad faith as the Respondent hacked into the Complainants’ GoDaddy accounts and changed the registrant information for the disputed domain names to the Respondent’s personal information without the knowledge or consent of the Complainants.”

Unfortunately for the complainant in this UDRP case, the sole panelist (Linda Chang) ruled in favor of the domain registrant, who did not file a response to the UDRP. In the discussion, the panelist was

Read More
1...474849...94Page 48 of 94

Recent Posts

Icy Studios Upgrades to Icy.com in 7 Figure Acquisition

Elliot Silver - 0
The valuable Icy.com domain name has reportedly been acquired for a 7 figure sum. Manik Kundra, who founded a company called Icy Studios, announced...

.Com Doesn’t Matter in Some Countries

Elliot Silver - 6
If you've been fortunate to spend time traveling to other countries, you'll quickly learn that .com is less important to businesses in some countries....

Saw.com Announces $100 Million in Domain Name Deals

Elliot Silver - 1
The Saw.com domain name sales brokerage and sales platform announced a milestone this morning. The company surpassed $100,000,000 in domain name deals. I presume...

That Company May Cease to Exist

Elliot Silver - 1
I received a strong offer on one of my one word .com domain names last week. I declined, but in the process of doing...

Auction Platforms Shouldn’t Benefit from Default Bidders

Elliot Silver - 13
If the winning bidder for a domain name auction does not pay and the auction platform offers the domain name to the next highest...
© Important Notice: Unless explicitly stated, Top Notch Domains, LLC does not endorse any advertiser on this website. Advertisements and links may take visitors to external websites. Top Notch Domains, LLC is not responsible or liable for products, services, or content found on any other website. See the DomainInvesting.com disclaimer for additional details and information as well as this website's Terms of Use. Copyright © 2007-2025 - DomainInvesting.com | Top Notch Domains, LLC