Chanel, Inc has become the latest brand holder to skip the UDRP process and head right for federal court. Chanel filed a federal suit in the Florida Southern District Court seeking $100,000 under the ACPA seeking statutory damages of $100,00 per domain and attorney fees as well as counterfeiting, false designation of origin, cybersquatting, and common law unfair competition Here are the … [Read more...]
Police Officer In Jail For Buying Domains Of Police Chief & Pointing Them To Porn
According to turnto10.com the site of an NBC affiliate station in Rhode Island, "A Richmond police officer faces charges after state police said he purchased domain names containing variations of the chief's name which redirected Internet users to pornographic web sites." The domain name involved according to one report were the elwoodjohnson.com and elwoodjohnsonjr.com. "Steven Gravier, 41, … [Read more...]
Right Before Start Of Regular Season, The NFL Gains Control Of Almost 1K Bang On Domain Names
With the regular NFL season looking to kick off in just a couple of weeks the NFL gained control of just under 1,000 bang on domain names yesterday. The domain names were all transferred to the NFL's brand protection company MarkMonitor.com. The domain names had many different owners according to the whois records but many of the records appeared to have just made up information like the … [Read more...]
Louis Vuitton Files Federal Cybersquatting Suit over 98 Domain Names
For the 2nd day in a row a trademark holder has bypassed the UDRP process and went straight to federal court to file a suit over trademarked infringing domains. This time it is luxury handbag maker Louis Vuitton that filed the suit under the ACPA seeking $100,000 in statutory damages per domain, plus the domain and attorney fees on 96 domain names Here are the domain names subject to the … [Read more...]
Adidas/Reebok Files Federal Lawsuit Over 372 Domain Names Under ACPA
Sports equipment maker Adidas which owns Reebok filed a federal lawsuit against the owners of 372 domain names including .com's, .net's .org's .info's .biz and even co.uk and .Eu domain names in the Florida Southern District Court. Adidas is asking for statutory damages of $100,000 each under the ACPA as well as forfeiture of the domain names and its attorney fees. Here are the domains which … [Read more...]
Brand Protection Fail: This Weeks TM Domains Brands Let Drop & Get Registered Boeing; NCAA; ESPN Google AP & More
We have written over the years about brands, brand protection companies and dropping domain names which both brands and brand protection companies continue to miss. Not only do they miss grabbing them but they don't even seem to try. Its pretty interesting sitting on the sidelines every week seeing companies spending $1,500 a pop to file a UDRP on a single domain name (plus attorneys fees) … [Read more...]
WIPO Denies Another Legal Rights Objection To .Music: Community Trademarks Of Objector “Not Bona Fide”
A WIPO panel has rejected another Legal Rights Objection to the new gTLD .Music . This objection was to Famous Fours application to operate the .Music registry and was filed by another applicant for .Music, DotMusic Limited/Constantinos Roussos. The panel basically found that the community trademarks of the Objector were not bona fide: The Objector filed for registration of its .MUSIC and … [Read more...]