CyberKing
Domain Investor
From DNN -
BuyDomains said it registered AcademyOnline.net as a generic domain name, not because of the sports retailer.
BuyDomains, part of NameMedia, has successfully defended a UDRP brought by Academy Sports + Outdoors against the domain name AcademyOnline.net.
The company successfully argued that the domain name is made up of two generic words and that the parking page for the domain, which includes links such as “Art Academy” and “Police Academy Online,” was used in its descriptive/generic sense.
There was one wrinkle to the case that could have hurt BuyDomains. Academy said that it received an unsolicited email offering the domain name for sale. Given that Academy keeps its domain names at Network Solutions, this is likely one of the registrar’s promotions sent to owners of similar domains to purchase a domain through the Afternic network. Afternic was previously owned by NameMedia until it sold the company last year.
It’s worth noting that both AcademyOnline.com and AcademyOnline.org are in use by other companies.
Academy has had some difficulty in trademark protection activities of late, thanks to the generic nature of its name. It recently lost a Legal Rights Objection against Donuts’ application to run the .academy top level domain name.
BuyDomains said it registered AcademyOnline.net as a generic domain name, not because of the sports retailer.
The company successfully argued that the domain name is made up of two generic words and that the parking page for the domain, which includes links such as “Art Academy” and “Police Academy Online,” was used in its descriptive/generic sense.
There was one wrinkle to the case that could have hurt BuyDomains. Academy said that it received an unsolicited email offering the domain name for sale. Given that Academy keeps its domain names at Network Solutions, this is likely one of the registrar’s promotions sent to owners of similar domains to purchase a domain through the Afternic network. Afternic was previously owned by NameMedia until it sold the company last year.
It’s worth noting that both AcademyOnline.com and AcademyOnline.org are in use by other companies.
Academy has had some difficulty in trademark protection activities of late, thanks to the generic nature of its name. It recently lost a Legal Rights Objection against Donuts’ application to run the .academy top level domain name.
