legal

Company goes after rival’s “conquest” domain names. DealerX Partners, LLC, a company that helps automobile dealers market to consumers, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain names ConquestAutomotive.com, Conquest.email and Conquest.marketing. In the...

Was this domain stolen? If so, the original owner is having a lot of trouble getting it back. Domain name transfer disputes due to alleged domain theft are usually handled behind the scenes and occasionally in court. That’s why a National Arbitration Forum decision on Syria.net under the...

Blogger and high-profile domain investor Mike Berkens of TheDomains.com has sued Twitter for allowing his account to be hacked and failing to rectify the problem. As industry Twitter users will no doubt already be aware, Berkens’ account @thedomains came under the control of an unknown hacker...

Company left key detail out of cybersquatting complaint against Modz.com. French clothing company Modz, which uses the domain name Modz.fr, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking in its cybersquatting complaint against Modz.com. The owner of Modz.com registered it for...

A UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) against the valuable DME.com three letter .com domain name. DME.com was created in June of 2001, making the domain name 16 years old. The registrant of the domain name is listed as DME Online Services, Ltd., so it would make sense that...

Judge awards attorney’s fees in exceptional case. A federal district court judge has ordered two men to pay close to $65,000 in attorneys fees after filing a lawsuit over the domain name BeautifulPeople.com and other related domains. In 2015 Beautiful People Magazine, Inc filed a UDRP against...

Another valuable three letter .com domain name is the subject of a UDRP proceeding at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The owner of IVI.com is WebMD, a publisher of health news and information. IVI.com was created over 25 years ago, in June of 1992. When I visited IVI.com this...

There’s a peculiar UDRP filing at the World Intellectual Property Organization that I noticed last night. A Whois search shows that Office Depot, Inc. is the current registrant of Viking.com. DomainTools shows that Office Depot has owned Viking.com since at least 2004. It looks like Viking.com...

Company expected to gross $1.5 million per year from website but now only makes hundreds. Michael Gleissner is keeping his lawyers busy. I’ve written about Gleissner many times due to his questionabletrademark and other activities. This time one of his firms, Bigfoot Corporation, is suing...

A UDRP was filed against the IMI.com domain name a little over a month ago. The decision was just published on the NAF website, and I am shocked that it went in favor of the complainant, despite the fact the respondent did not file a response to the UDRP. The complainant in the UDRP is a...

PCO.com owner doesn’t defend its property but panel makes the right decision. A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has denied a UDRP cybersquatting complaint brought by PCO AG of Kelheim, Germany against the domain name PCO.com. Panelist Adam Taylor made the correct decision even...

Domain name registrar Namecheap has dropped its lawsuit against Tucows. Namecheap has historically been a domain name reseller using Tucows’ Enom platform. Namecheap is now registering domain names under its own registrar accreditation and asked Tucows to transfer the four million domains it...

A UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) against the valuable IMI.com domain name. IMI.com was created in March of 1994. The domain name is currently registered to a California-based company. Using the DomainTools Whois History Tool, I can see Whois records since 2000. The...

In May, I wrote about Mike Mann’s sale of WashingtonJournal.com for $75,000. It was notable because Mike had reportedly acquired the domain name for just $350, and the ROI was outstanding. According to UDRPSearch.com, a UDRP was just filed against WashingtonJournal.com. I did a Google search...

Liquor company says that Rufino.com is a typo of its Ruffino brand. A Texas man who owns 60,000 domain names has sued Fortune 500 liquor company Constellation Brands, Inc in an effort to overturn an adverse Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) decision. Constellation Brands...

The company behind the Stone Island clothing brand, Sportswear Company, has recovered hundreds of domain names that were hosting websites selling counterfeit versions of its products. The domains, which numbered in the hundreds, belonged to various China-based registrants. The majority resolved...

I think it is important for domain investors to follow UDRP proceedings. Not only can it keep investors abreast of current UDRP filings, but reading decisions can give insight into how panelists make their decisions. I am a regular user and fan of UDRPSearch.com, and I just learned about another...

It’s not every day that a domain name owned by a major corporation becomes the subject of a UDRP filing. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, a UDRP was filed against LALA.com When I did a Whois search on this seemingly generic (and certainly valuable) domain name, I did a...

Unsurprisingly, Rightside has been sued after announcing its planned sale to Donuts. The lawyers are circling. Seattle law firm Breskin Johnson & Townsend PLLC has filed a lawsuit(pdf) on behalf of Rightside (NASDAQ:NAME) shareholder Susan Paskowitz challenging the deal Rightside struck to be...

Simply put if you are a serious domain investor, you need to know trademark law as it relates to domain names. I’m not telling domainers to go to law school. I’m also not telling domain investors to self-represent themselves and not seek out legal advice from established attorney’s who...