The Florida state Senate has passed a bill that would require websites who distribute commercial movies and music to give out the identity of their owners. Bradenton.com posted the news from the Associated Press: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Websites that distribute commercial movies and music online would be required to identify their owners under legislation passed by the Florida Senate. The … [Read more...]
Pirate Bay Faces Court Date On Domain Names
Torrent Freak published an article on the upcoming Swedish court case over whether or not The Pirate Bay will get to keep what are arguably their most important domain names. ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se. What is interesting about this case is that the .se registry is also being sued by prosecutors. They want the domains to be forfeited and not to be allowed to be registered again. From the … [Read more...]
FairWinds Partners: ” Top-Level Domains Owned by Brands Gaining Momentum”
Jennifer Schoelwer wrote an article on the FairWinds Partners blog that delves into gaining momentum for branded top level domains. The article is focused on .brands, not generic strings open to everyone. The article takes a look at French bank BNP Paribas and the steps they have taken to explain their upcoming .bnpparibas to their customers. Jennifer ends the article, "It is clear is that brands … [Read more...]
France Wants Google to Show Them What’s In Their Secret Sauce
The tension between Google and the E.U. continues to persist, now there is talk of a new law in France that would force Google to reveal its secret sauce, in other words show us how your algorithm works. If you think of Google as being dominant in the U.S. it is far greater when it comes to search in Europe. While making up 68% of search volume is the U.S. according to one report, it handles 90 … [Read more...]
Australian Judge releases personal info on over 4700 who allegedly pirated movie
The AP wrote that an Australian judge has apparently agreed to release the names of over 4700 Aussies who downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club. SYDNEY (AP) — Internet providers have lost an Australian court battle to keep secret the names of Internet users suspected of illegally downloading Hollywood movie "Dallas Buyers Club" over file-sharing networks. The Federal Court ruling on … [Read more...]
Donuts’ marketing offensive tops list of most-read stories for March on WTR
Trevor Little wrote on World Trademark Review that Donuts marketing offensive was the most read story for March. From the article: The campaign is aimed at spreading the new gTLD gospel to small businesses in the US. While unlikely to be the turning point in terms of wider public awareness of new gTLDs, the campaign will do no harm in spreading the gTLD message and will be welcomed by … [Read more...]
Move Over Cybersquatting Here Comes Soundsquatting
Tim Lince published an article on WorldTrademarkReview.com that has found a new kind of domain infringement. It is being called soundsquatting and the victims are the visually impaired. From the article: Recent research has revealed the extent of a newly discovered type of domain name abuse. Dubbed ‘soundsquatting’, it is based on homophone confusion of popular domains and the authors of the … [Read more...]