A St. Louis company Bing! Information Design filed suit this week against Microsoft for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, over Microsoft’s used of the term "Bing" as its new search engine. Bing! Information Design is a small, privately held information graphics and multimedia design company and use's bing.biz at its web address. The company says it has used the mark … [Read more...]
Kentucky Files New Motions In Domain Seizure Case, To Add New Parties & Amend Its Complaint
According to the pokernewsdaily.com, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed a motion today "to add parties to its case and amend its original complaint." In September 2008, the Commonwealth seized 141 domains and several hearing and appeals later the battle goes on. The Supreme Court of Kentucky heard oral arguments on the case in October and the decision is expected shortly. (You can read … [Read more...]
Here We Go Again: Utah Introduces Its Own “Snowe” Bill To Take Your Domains Away: The Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act
Senator Stephen Urquhart a state senator in Utah, and Chairman of the Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee, is sponsoring a law called the "UTAH E-COMMERCE INTEGRITY ACT" which among other things "prohibits the registration of domain names under certain circumstances, commonly referred to as cybersquatting and provides civil and criminal penalties for violation. The bill … [Read more...]
In The Trademark World You Might Not Be Able To Do Business Under Your Own Name: The Case Of Larry Flynt
An interesting trademark case was on trial this last week in LA. The trial pitted family members against each other. On one side you had Larry Flynt, one of those people that really needs no introduction and his company Larry Flynt Productions, and on the other side two of his nephews who of course also have the last name Flynt, and set up their own production company using the name Flynt … [Read more...]
Making New Law? WIPO Decision On DotHomes.com: “A Trademark By Itself Is Not Enough” If A Domain Is Used For A Site Rather Than A Parked Page
In another example where WIPO panels seem to be making new law, given different legal rights to domain holders that park their domain rather than developed them, we have the case of the domain name; dothomes.com The Complainant owns United States of America trademark registrations for DOTHOME (filed on April 26, 2007 and issued on August 11, 2009) and for .HOME (filed April 25, 2007 and issued … [Read more...]
The UK Takes Down Over 1,200 domains related to “Scam Shopping” Sites, On Request Of The Police
According to numerous reports today, Nominet the body responsible for UK domain name registrations the equivalent to VeriSign for .com domains, " took down 1219 .co.uk domain names at the request of the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU)". As a result, all the sites have been taken down at the registry level to prevent re-registration. The websites associated with the domain … [Read more...]
Even After Lawsuits, Advertising.com Is Still Being Called Ad.com By The Mainstream Media
After the mess caused by AOL's claim to Ad.com a domain they do not own and the lawsuits that followed, I was surprised to see an article out today on MediaPost.com entitled: "Report: AOL To Pull Premium Advertising From Ad.com" The article then goes on to talk about how AOL's "will stop selling premium inventory inventory through its Advertising.com ad network in an effort to boost … [Read more...]