In a unusual case, James Solakian a shareholder who owns 28% of Bible.com filed suit against the board directors of the company alleging breach of their fiduciary duty by refusing to sell the site or run the company in a profitable way and for "failing to profit from the goldmine potential of the domain name". "The lawsuit cites a valuation done by a potential purchaser that estimated … [Read more...]
Vertical Axis Beats Back WIPO Challenge on BabyEssentials.com Despite 8 Trademarks & A Parked Page
Vertical Axis Inc beat back a challenge, from a trademark holder to successfully defend a UDRP on BabyEssentials.com. Its an impressive win since the complainant seems to have mulitple trademarks on the term in several different classes and the domain name was parked. Here are the fact of the case as laid out by the 3 member panel: "The Complainant describes itself as a source of … [Read more...]
Nominet Takes .Co.Uk Gripe Site Domain Away, Gives It To The Trademark Holder But The Site Is Relaunched Hours Later As A .Org
Nominet is the registry for the .co.uk, ccTLD. Nominet has its own procedures to arbitrate disputes between domain holders and trademark holders. In a 22 page decision today, Nominet awarded a domain name used primarily as a gripe site against Ryan Air, a huge carrier in Eurpoe. Robert Tyler, A disgruntled passenger set up a website called IHateRyanair.co.uk "to share travel "horror … [Read more...]
Generic Domain Taken In A WIPO Without A Trademark: ErgonomicDesigns.com
Well last week domain holders got 2 nice WIPO decisions but as we all know how inconsistent these decisions can be. Today come's a sole panelist decision awarding a Generic domain name to a company that doesn't even hold a trademark. The domain at issue is ErgonomicDesigns.com Here are the relevant facts as laid out by the panel: The Complainant is a company concerned with the selling … [Read more...]
WIPO Panel Finds Bad Faith Must Exist At The Time Of Registration
A WIPO case decided today had some good language concerning the issue of "bad faith" for purposes of UDRP's. Although the facts of this particular case will be of little interest to domain holders as it involved parties that had a history together, the decision contains language helpful to domain holders. When I comes to bad faith there is a divergence between panelists, which of course is … [Read more...]
CollegeNet Sues Google Over SpeedBook But Neither Has The Domain
According to TechEye.net, an Oregon company, CollegeNet filed suit against Google, alleging that they infringed on its trademark of the term "Speedbook". "The lawsuit, claims that Google has filed for a trademark of the same term, which is an infringement of CollegeNET's trademark, and that due to Google's stature in the industry this will cause significant harm to CollegeNET's … [Read more...]
ParkingSpa.com Wins UDRP on Thea.Com/Net Despite Trademark & Being Parked
Parking Spa and legendary domainer igal won a three person WIPO panel decision today on the domain names Thea.com & Thea.net. The decision is a good one for domainers since the Complainant is a big corporation with trademark on the term Thea, and the domains were going to a parked page advertising adult dating sites. The panel the parked pages to be "a bona fide offering of goods or … [Read more...]