A new study by DNattorney.com suggests that a handful of domain name arbitrators are appointed to decide a disproportionate amount of cases. The National Arbitration Forum, which is accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a Dispute Resolution Provider. The NAF has administered approximately 10,000 such cases since 1999. The NAF has about 141 … [Read more...]
Kentucky Supreme Court Reverses The Appeals Court On The 141 Seized Domains
The Kentucky Supreme Court today reversed the Kentucky Appeals court's decision that tossed out the seizure order issued on 141 gambling domain names. The 17 page ruling by the Supreme Court today (pdf) was really on a technical issue, that none of the parties that brought the suit against the Commonwealth had "standing". Standing is a legal term that means in very simple terms the only one … [Read more...]
CADNA Heading To Congress To Get Laws Changed
From the Fairwinds blog today: ""CADNA has refocused its efforts on working with members of Congress on these issues and working more diligently toward developing legislation to help resolve the problems. Long term solutions to the Internet’s systemic problems that are within ICANN’s control are unlikely to emerge from within the ICANN community, but rather from the governments and its … [Read more...]
Is Verification Of Identity Going To Become A Requirement To Own A Domain?
A couple of interesting developments on the issue of whether registrars should be required to verify the identity of the registrant of every domain name. First today the authority charged with running the .Ru ccTLD, the Coordination Center for TLD RU, announced that effective April 1, 2010 all registrants of .RU domain names, must file proof of their identities with their registrars in order … [Read more...]
Google Denied Trademark On “Nexus One”
The United States Trademark office denied Google’s application to trademark the name of their new phone ‘Nexus One". Integra, a provider of voice and data services was granted a trademark on the term Nexus in 2008. The Trademark Office said that if it issued a trademark to Google it would confusion as because both companies exist in a similar business channel. """Here, the applicant … [Read more...]
Even A WIPO Panelist Says Even He’s Concerned With Inconsistent Decisions: You Got To Read This Quote
Yesterday in a decision a sole panelist had some interesting words about the WIPO decisions: """This Panel is concerned that if panelists develop their interpretation of the Policy as they go along to meet the needs of trademark owners who are suffering at the hands of domain name registrants, a stage will be reached where they will be acting beyond their remit. At some stage the issue must … [Read more...]
Utah House and Senate Pass CADNA Backed Trademark Bill, Why This Is VERY Bad News For Domainers
The “UTAH E-COMMERCE INTEGRITY ACT” which was just introduced in December of 2009, passed the Utah Senate last month, was voted into law by the Utah House today. When I first wrote about this bill in December, it was meet with the usual domainer apathy I see when I write about something that can have huge negative effects on their holdings. Sine then, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse … [Read more...]