Legal News

An important discussion continues to be had at Mike Berken’s blog regarding companies who participate in their own drop auctions. The short summary is that Mike bid on (and won) 23 drop auctions at Tucows, only to be told later that the names were part of Tucows’ portfolio. Apparently these names were accidentally listed during Tucows’ transition from their auction platform to Afternic’s.
These domain names were taken out of Mike’s account, after he paid for them, and the only compensation he received was an apology and a refund. Nothing was given to Mike to compensate him for his time searching for these domain names and his time bidding on them. Mike is no spring chicken when it comes to the domain industry, and judging by the quality of names Mike has and continues to purchase, these were probably significantly valued domain names.
The conversation has turned into one about ethics, and the discussion moved to whether employees should be prohibited from bidding on their company’s auctions. While I think it is necessary that domain companies hire people who know the domain industry, I think employees should be prohibited from bidding on their own company’s auctions – or on domain names where their company could benefit from the results (ie: registrar who outsources domain drops but profits based on the final sales price).
Denying a company employee access to various stats or proxy bid information for a domain name isn’t the remedy. As long as there is the appearance of a possible conflict of interest, there is a problem. As domain investors, we could be getting screwed without even knowing it.
I think this is a conversation that needs to be had, and all domain auction houses and drop companies should pay attention. Check out the discussion on Mike’s Blog when you get a chance.

TMZ is reporting that Floyd “Money” Mayweather has filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Sports & Entertainment Marketing for publishing an unauthorized fan website on FloydMayweather.net. According to the legal documents filed in the State of Nevada, Mayweather is suing for damages related to cybersquatting, as they used his name and fight footage in order to generate revenue. Mayweather is seeking unspecified damages in this lawsuit.
Interestingly, FloydMayweather.com was just transferred to the Greenberg Traurig law firm on or around May 17, 2008. This is the law firm that is representing Mayweather in the case against Atlanta Sports & Entertainment Marketing.
As foes like Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton know, you don’t mess with “Money” Mayweather!

Shame on Vancouver’s Stanley Park board of directors for trying to use a local entrepreneur’s domain name as a negotiation tactic in a license renegotiation. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, the Stanley Park board of directors seems to be using carriage entrepreneur Gerry O’Neil’s StanleyPark.com domain name as a leverage in their negotiations. O’Neil’s carriage company calls Vancouver’s famous Stanley Park it’s home, and they offer carriage rides in the park, as they’ve done since 1985.
An excerpt from a 2005 letter sent to O’Neil asking him to relinquish his domain name reveals the underlying negotiation tactic:

“We are aware that your current licence [sp] agreement with the board expires on April 30, 2008, and that you will likely wish to negotiate a renewal term in the near future.”

To me, this looks like they are trying to tell O’Neil that they will not look favorably upon his renewal application should he not turn over the domain name to them. Not only does O’Neil have every right to his domain name, he is also an advocate for the park. In fact, in his current license renegotiation, he has indicated that he is willing to pay $200,000 towards improvements in the park over 10 years, while the park only wants a 5 year deal with $100,000 in improvements.
If the Stanley Park board of directors wants the domain name badly enough, they should pay him a fair price. Perhaps they should commit to the $200,000 in park improvements in exchange for the domain name to save O’Neil’s company a considerable amount of money. Had they had the foresight to register the domain name before O’Neil, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.
It’s a shame that another group believes they have the right to a privately held domain name owned by someone else. They are lucky that a park supporter such as O’Neil owns the domain name rather than someone else who could use it for other purposes that might not be in the park’s interest.
Special thanks to DomainReport.ca for spotting this.

The decision has been reached in the LH.com UDRP filing which pitted Future Media Architects up against airline giant Lufthansa. Unfortunately for the Respondent FMA, the domain was ordered to be transferred to Lufthansa, which seems to be a terrible decision, in my opinion. How one company can claim the rights to owning a two letter domain name is beyond me. According to AcronymFinder.com, there are 38 listed meanings for the “LH” acronym, and there are countless businesses who have LH as their initials.
This case is far from over, however, as FMA filed a preemptive lawsuit against Lufthansa in case they lost the domain name via UDRP. It will be interesting to see how this case gets resolved, but as of now, Lufthansa won the first battle for LH.com.
It’s times like these that I wish the Internet Commerce Association had more support and was able to help domain registrants fight large corporate entities. At the moment, we are like a herd of deer being chased down by a hungry lion. The individual chances of one of us getting picked off by the lion are slim in a herd of hundreds of deer, but the likelihood of one deer getting killed is great.
Friends, we need to be like the Water Buffalo in this thrilling video. While the pride of Lions (and even the hungry crocodile) are trying to kill a young water buffalo, the herd returns to save him. As domain investors, we need to put individual squabbles aside and realize that a united and active group of self-protective domain owners can help stave off large corporations. The Snowe Bill was just one thing that threatens our industry. In the months ahead, we will certainly face other obstacles, and it is important that we help each other.
We are a small industry, but we wield tremendous power. Individually, it might be difficult to take on the wealthy corporate powers who want nothing more than to take generic domain names for a song. As a united group, we can stop them. It’s time to stop looking after our individual assets alone and to unify and help protect the domain investment industry.

Domain Name Wire is reporting on two important UDRP decisions that were announced in the past two days. Shoppers.com and Ace.com were both retained by the current owners after large companies filed a complaint for each of these (clearly) generic domain names. It’s great to see good UDRP decisions go in favor of a generic domain owner.
Shame on the legal eagles who thought they could take possession of these two domain names simply because they had a mark for each of these terms. Hopefully other law firms will read up on these decisions before filing a UDRP for a generic domain name.