Last month, the Walmart.Horse domain name was in the news as the company sent a cease and desist letter to Jeph Jacques, the owner of the domain name. Jacques, replied to the C&D letter, stating, “I would argue that Walmart.horse is an obvious parody and therefore falls under fair use.”
It looks like the company has decided to take further action to get control of the Walmart.Horse domain name. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website, Wal-mart Stores filed a UDRP for the Walmart.Horse domain name. The UDRP is WIPO Case D2015-0714.
When news first broke about the cease and desist letter, articles about it were published in Consumerist, Vice, Fortune, New York Daily News, ArsTechnica, and quite a few other news outlets. In the Vice article about Walmart.Horse, Jacques discussed why he bought the domain name. At the time of the article, Jacques mentioned that he hadn’t heard back from Walmart, presumably after he responded to their cease and desist letter. Judging by the UDRP filing, it looks like Walmart is serious about getting control of this domain name.
It will be interesting to see how (or if) Jacques responds to the UDRP. It can be relatively inexpensive to hire an attorney to respond to a UDRP, but winning might not mean that he is free and clear to keep the domain name if the company decides to continue to pursue it. Should Jacques prevail, it could lead to further legal action from the company.
I will continue to follow this interesting case.
My guess is that Wallmart will win the case and… start selling horses! 🙂
.horse sounds silly when preceded by a brand, don’t it? Well, hello! So do all of the other gtlds. The only ones who hear sweetness are those who work for the registries. Everyone else hears foolishness and stupidity.
There is no need for the new gtlds. They are wasting time and money. After all is said and done, the domain will be unused. Duh!
“I would argue that Walmart.horse is an obvious parody and therefore falls under fair use.”
LOL, what an idiot, but then again the majority of domainers who register obvious TM’s are either idiots who register out of ignorance OR have they no regard whatsoever for protected marks of any kind.
I hope Walmart takes it a step further and makes an example out of him.