Wolfram Group LLC has lost its attempt to grab the domain name wolframventures.com
Here are the highlights:
The Complainant is a provider of computational knowledge and mathematical software with offices in Paris, Tokyo, Lima, Linkoping, Bangalore, Boston and Champaign (Illinois). It has been operating under the name “Wolfram” since 1987. Perhaps, its most well-known service to the general public is the “Wolfram Alpha” search engine.
Amongst other things, the Complainant has registered WOLFRAM as a trademark in both the United States of America and as a Community Trademark:
– United States Trademark No. 3,740,375 registered on January 19, 2010;
– Community Trademark No. 006413397 registered on September 15, 2009.
The Respondent graduated as a chemist from the University of Manchester in the UK in 1999. In 2011 and 2012, he undertook a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Manchester Business School associated with the University of Manchester.
The Respondent registered the disputed domain name on November 13, 2012.
On November 14, 2012, the Respondent incorporated a company in the UK under the name Wolfram Ventures Ltd. This company was subsequently dissolved, apparently without ever trading.
On June 25, 2013, the Respondent incorporated a second company in the UK under the name Wolfram Consulting Ltd.
The Respondent was the sole director and shareholder of the “Ventures” company and is the sole director and shareholder of the “Consulting” company.
According to the Response, the Respondent has carried on a business of management consultancy, including providing consultancy services to venture capitalists and private equity, since completing his MBA. Although he had incorporated the companies mentioned above, the Response appears to state the Respondent was operating as a sole trader under the name Wolfram Consulting until the business began to be carried on through the “Consulting” company during the financial year ending June 30, 2014. Some limited evidence has been submitted confirming the Respondent’s claims to carrying on business as Wolfram Consulting.
It appears that the disputed domain name has never resolved to an active website. It does, however, resolve to a “passive” parking page which, according to a letter from the Registrar includes advertisements placed there by the Registrar without any active involvement by the Respondent.
Under the third requirement of the Policy, the Complainant must establish that the disputed domain name has been both registered and used in bad faith by the Respondent
Generally speaking, a finding that a domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith requires an inference to be drawn that the respondent in question has registered and is using the disputed domain name to take advantage of its significance as a trademark owned by (usually) the complainant.
The Complainant relies on its reputation in its trademark and what are said to be admissions made by the Respondent in communications before the Complaint was filed to show that the Respondent was well aware of the Complainant and its trademark when he registered the disputed domain name.
The Complainant also relies on the dissolution of the “Ventures” company without trading and the use of the disputed domain name to resolve to a “parking” page which has “pay per click” advertisements.
In addition, the Complainant relies on the Respondent’s refusal to transfer the disputed domain name to the Complainant for a sum of USD500 or USD2,000. Instead, the Respondent suggested that GBP17,500 or even GBP200,000 would be required.
According to the Respondent, he registered the disputed domain name as one of four domain names for planned business ventures.
The Respondent says that the disputed domain name and the “Ventures” company were registered as the vehicles for his planned business of providing consultancy services for venture capitalists and private equity. This was said to be a second line to his general consultancy business.
According to the Respondent he initially carried on his general management consultancy business as a sole trader under the name Wolfram Consulting. Although he incorporated the “Consulting” company in 2013, he says he did not start using it actively as his business vehicle until some point in the financial year ending June 30, 2014. He says he dissolved the “Ventures” company as it was not necessary for the scale of his operations and maintaining the company registration was incurring unnecessary costs such as accounting fees associated with annual reporting requirements and the like.
The Panel first notes that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name and both the “Ventures” company and the “Consulting” company long after the Complainant commenced operations under its name and also a number of years after the Complainant registered the trademarks referred to in section 4 above.
In such circumstances, the facts of the registration of these company names or the Respondent’s business operations under the name “Wolfram Consulting” so many years after the Complainant are not in themselves sufficient to confer rights or legitimate interests or to constitute good faith under the Policy.
The Respondent categorically denies that he was aware of the Complainant, its trademark or its services when he registered the disputed domain name and adopted “Wolfram Consulting” for his business.
The Respondent points out that “wolfram” is the Latin or former name for tungsten.
In acknowledgement of this, tungsten is still identified by the letter “W” in the periodic table. The Respondent also points to a number of other companies and businesses which have been registered or operate under the name “Wolfram” and which are apparently not associated with the Complainant. In this context, the Respondent also refers to what he considers to be the very different fields of operation of his business and the businesses of the Complainant and its subsidiary.
As noted above, the Complainant says the Respondent’s actions were done with knowledge of the Complainant and its business. It points in particular to a statement in an email from the Respondent in which the Respondent stated that he was:
“a small businessman who is also – like your founder – a scientist, attempting to make a few small changes to the world around us ….” (emphasis supplied)
This does suggest awareness of the Complainant and its founder.
The Respondent seeks to explain this on the basis that he found out something about the Complainant and its founder through research the Respondent undertook following receipt of the initial approach from the Complainant.
While having more than a few reservations about the explanation advanced by the Respondent, the Panel considers that it is ultimately not appropriate to go behind the Respondent’s express denials of awareness of the Complainant or its trademark on the record in this case. These proceedings are proceedings on the papers without the benefit of cross-examination and the opportunity to observe and assess witnesses. The claimed derivation of the disputed domain name and the Respondent’s “consulting” trading name are not implausible having regard to the Respondent’s background in chemistry and the existence of a number of other companies and businesses which also apparently base themselves on “Wolfram”. Whether that would remain the case after further forensic examination of the kind available in court proceedings is another matter.
Accordingly, on the record in this case, the Complainant has not established that the disputed domain name was registered in bad faith. The Complaint therefore cannot succeed under the Policy.
on another note, X.org foundation is risking loose X.org:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/16/01/08/2144201/after-years-of-serving-x11-xorg-stands-to-lose-its-one-letter-domain=
they renew x.org yesterday
Is like owning wolfram.com and wolfr.am is not enough?! Surprised the trademark was granted considering it is a common name after all.
I’ve worked with Stephen Wolfram on a project. One of the great minds of our generation, It’s my understanding his company Wolfram Alpha has turned down offers from major players to acquire his company,at at least the computational knowledge engine which I use as much as Google.
Stephen Wolfram is right up there with Larry Page and Timothy Berrners Lee n brilliance,
If I heard Wolfram Ventures, I’d immediately think it was part of Wolfram Alpha, just as if I had heard Dell Ventures or Bezos Ventures or Buffet Consulting, and I’d assume Michael, Jeff and Warren, respectively.
If the respondent’s name is Wolfram or he resides in a town called Wolfram, I’d say “not bad faith”. But Wolfram Alpha is a big-time tecnology enterprise — search, AI, semantics, visual search, and more. Thie app used to be the most expensive app in iTunes at $69 per install, used in the same way by data and reseacrh companies used Bloomberg (another case wherein I’d assume Bloomberg Ventures to be Michael Bloomberg.
Bad Faith — IMO — and I rarely conclude this, unless it’s completely obvious.
Steve, your comments smack of someone connected to Wolfram closely. Are you involved in this and have bad feelings? Read the case. There are dozens of companies worldwide that contain the name “wolfram” as it is a common word in chemistry. Are they all bad faith examples?
Companies have to realise that if they use a common word and are relatively unheard of, then other people can and will use that word in their company names. Compared to the people you mention, Wolfram is an unknown. How many people on the street have heard of them? Hardly any.
Just looking at things like Twitter followings and page hits can be useful and the facts that Wolfram only has a few thousand followers on Twitter and a couple hundred thousand internet users per day, would indicate it is very much not famous, especially compared to the people you mention!
In addition, if you read the full case report, the complainant obviously wanted to grab this domain for a new business idea, not because the respondent was a threat. If you ask me, this was more a case of reverse domain name hijacking. That they offered to buy it proves that.
This was the right outcome. Big companies can not just beat little guys in to submission, just because they thought of a business first.
@David
Wolfram is an unknown? Not in tech and VC circles.
Google has more respect for Wolfram’s search technology than it has for Bing. & Wofram’s computational knowledge engine is poised to overtake Wikipedia by 2017.
Don’t measure a person or company’s worth by Twitter followers. Palantir has been operating with little fan fare for a while, and now it’s a behemoth getting more powerful by the day. The same with Wolfam Alpha.
Stephen Wolfram is not a publicity-hound. Nor are Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison or Jeff Bezos.
Being famous in a niche circle, does not equal fame. The simple truth is that the vast majority of people have never heard of him, whereas they have heard of every other person you;ve mentioned.
“Stephen Wolfram is not a publicity-hound. Nor are Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison or Jeff Bezos.”
Interesting then that he’s the only one to name his company after himself!
My point remains. This was an attempt at reverse domain name hijacking… Otherwise why are Wolfram Alpha not pursuing other Wolfram domains and companies?
To name a few:
wolfram.biz
wolfram.club
wolfram.college
wolfram.consulting
wolfram.design
wolfram.engineer
wolfram.host
wolfram.info
wolfram.koeln
wolfram.lawyer
wolfram.link
wolfram.net
wolfram.ninja
wolfram.onl
wolfram.online
wolfram.org
wolfram.ovh
wolfram.press
wolfram.rocks
wolfram.science
wolfram.site
wolfram.software
wolfram.solutions
wolfram.space
wolfram.tel
wolfram.top
wolfram.ventures
wolfram.website
wolfram.xxx
wolfram.xyz
wolfram74.com
wolfram945.com
wolframa.com
wolframaalpha.com
wolframacoustical.com
wolframadd.com
wolframadler.com
wolframadvisory.com
wolframahlpa.com
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wolframalph.com
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wolframalphabet.com
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wolframalphacloud.com
wolframalphallc.com
wolframalphaomega.com
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wolframalphaplus.com
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LOL. They may have registered these. They haven’t won them through UDRP.
What’s your point? Do you also work for Wolfram?
Many apologies. I thought you meant that these were all the web domains Wolfram Alpha own! I see that there are a lot of them that they don’t! Proving my point!
@David
I don’t know how you define fame?
What I do know is Steve Jobs compared Stephen Wolfram to Einstein, Newton, and Feynman. I don’t feel Stephen’s business acumen is on the level of Jobs, Ellison, Page, Bezos or Musk, but many of the technologies used today are powered and/or enhanced by Wolfram Alpha, including Siri.
His algorithms power Bloomberg’s trading platforms. He accomplished more than most by the age of 15, and is the youngest ever recipient of the MacArthur Genius award at the age of 20 or 21.
OK, so he’s not as famous as Kim Kardashian; and I have no idea why his company wished to obtain “Wolfram Ventures”, as I’m not privy to its plans.
I do know some fairly high powered people in Silicon Valley who feel we will be doing more”Wolframing” than “Googling” within 5 years, to find information and for search queries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram
This is amusing… Fame is pretty easy to define. I’m not even entering in to that discussion.
If you’ve read the case, you’ll know why Wolfram Alpha want the name – you either haven’t read it (why comment then?) or are trolling this thread as you are connected to Wolfram.
I’m here because I’m interested in domain names and trademarks, not because of some unknown’s alleged “genius”.
You have mentioned Musk and Bezos… These are interesting.
Musk has a company named after a famous (although dead) scientist and has no connection to that name. Indeed, Tesla was a proven genius. But you have no problem with this?
Bezos is responsible for Amazon. You realise Amazon is named after a rainforest and river in South America? Do you think that every possible web domain containing the word Amazon should belong to them or be available to them? People think of “Amazon” and think of somewhere they can buy pretty much anything… they also might think of a rainforest. Should Bezos have the right to every Amazon containing domain going?
No, don’t be ridiculous.
This case has gone the right way and sets a precedent that companies don’t automatically have a right to a name they haven’t thought of first, just because they have some flakey trademark.
Barring the “some fairly high powered people in Silicon Valley“ that you quote, like the millions of people on this planet – never heard of him!
He will be famous and remembered though for trying to steal a domain name.
You have to wonder if he sought legal advice before embarking on this no-hoper UDRP.
@David
Disney
Dell
Bloomberg
Ford
Gillete
Kellogg
Bose
Philips
and their eponymous founders.
“Unknown” genius? Stephen Wolfram? If you say so.
Tesla – “dead” scientist, indeed, and probably the greatest inventor of the 20th Century, but a terrible business man. Tesla is the hero of Elon Musk and Larry Page (who was determined not to suffer the same fate of Tesla, dying penniless, forsaken and forgotten in a hotel room, while his rival, Thomas Edison, a great inventor but even better business man, accumulated enormous wealth and world acclaim)
I don’t agree with the decision. But I respect it — I’d wager the main point Wolfram Alpha made with the UDRP filing was not to “acquire WolframVentures.com”, but to signal to the respondent: don’t piggyback off “Wolfram Alpha” to raise capital, funding, or engage in the dilution of our “Wolfram” brand — a brand equity valued at over $10 Billion and growing.
And, no, I’m not affiliated with Wolfram Alpha, although I have met Stephen Wolfram and his team, but I worked with Wolfram’s team on an AI project , in conjunction with MIT Media, many moons ago.
I’m not an IP attorney. Just provided my opinion as a layman, not an expert.
I defer to the experts, Michael Berkins, John Berryhill, Ari and other IP mavens, with regard to IP/domain matters.
Why did Wolfram Alpha seek to obtain “Wl
“I’d wager the main point Wolfram Alpha made with the UDRP filing was not to “acquire WolframVentures.com” ”
Nonsense. The complainant’s attorney admitted in the case that they wanted the domain for a new business. They also offered to buy it and just didn’t offer enough.
They decided to chance it and pay a couple of thousand bucks for a udrp to acquire it, rather than pay what the owner wanted. Unlucky. Foolish. Greedy. Call it what you like, but it’s bad business and makes them look stupid.
Would also love to know where you get a figure of $10bn brand equity from. Given that it’s a private company, that sort of valuation is just plucked out of thin air.
@David
“Plucked out of thin air”? There’s a VC database for valuations of private companies and its assets (tangible and non-tangible). But I don’t imagine you’d access to this,.
Makes them look “greedy, foolish.” To whom? Its investors? The users of its products, such as Siri, Bloomberg, Bing, etc? To its supporters? Just about 95% of the Silicon Valley tech community.
I’m certain you few people outside of those involved with Wolfram, the respondent, attorneys for the case, or those persons who came across this post.
“Trolling” this site – no, I’ve been visiting this site weekly since its inception in 2007, a blog which I find very informative.
I respect your opinion about the decision, but I see no reason why you’d wish to denigrate Wolfram Alpha or its founder, Stephen Wolfram, by calling them “greedy” or “foolish”, for making a business decision to file a UDRP against the owner of WolframVentures.com.
C’est tout, pour moi.
I think the udrp gets abused by firms who just want a cheap domain name. I think this is an example of that. The owner of the website had a legit reason for the domain, and Wolfrm went for it via the cheap shot of udrp. Lame imho.
Not something one would associate with an ethical company led by a “genius”.