Above.com Domain Blog: TradeMarks and Legal Archives

All your domains belong to us

By Maxime Grandchamp on May 17, 2010 9:05 PM | No Comments

Some extensions require to be a resident of a specific country or to own a business.
If you don't qualify yourself, it may be tempting to own the domains to use the services of a third party.

However, is it the right choice ? There are two main issues with this approach:

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Is UDRP really fair and unbiased ?

By Maxime Grandchamp on April 28, 2010 5:05 AM | No Comments

The UDRP is the procedure that is used when someone wants to complain about the rights to a domain.
While it was established by ICANN, there are several companies that share the disputes.
Each of those companies select a panel to study each case and make a decision.
However it seems that at least one of these companies may not be totally fair.

Continue reading Is UDRP really fair and unbiased ?.

Disney Domain Dispute

By Brooke Hunter on January 15, 2010 9:55 AM | No Comments

Disney, a major media company, filed a domain dispute case requesting for 41 domain names to be transferred to Disney as they were all very similar to trademarks Disney has registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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Google Loses Domain Name Dispute

By Nancy Bianchi on December 31, 2009 2:38 AM | No Comments

Google, the American public corporation,has lost an arbitration over the domain name Groovle.com.

Google contended in the complaint that the dispute domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.

Small Canadian start-up claims victory.

Continue reading Google Loses Domain Name Dispute.

City of Paris Sues Paris.org Owner

By Andrew McGrath on December 29, 2009 10:34 AM | No Comments

The City of Paris has recently filled a lawsuit against the owner of Paris.org, who has owned the domain since 1995. A UDRP dispute would not be effective, as the domain is not parked or being used in bad faith, so they have decided to take it to French Court.

This is part of the City of Paris' continuing venture to find a court who will grant them exclusive rights to any domain containing the word "Paris." Judging by the results of their previous lawsuits and UDRP disputes, it is not likely that they will be awarded the rights to Paris.org.

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Louis Vuitton Files a WIPO Case For Domain Name

By Brooke Hunter on December 9, 2009 3:02 PM | No Comments

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), in particular Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton or LV for short, recently filed a complaint with WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center for the domain: go-vuitton.com

LV is a large international French fashion and luxury brand, with well know famous Trade Marks. Louis Vuitton specializes in leather handbags, shoes and accessories.

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Are Trademark Typo Domains a good idea ?

By Maxime Grandchamp on December 3, 2009 12:28 AM | No Comments

With the amount of traffic that is generated everyday from people missepelling common brands, it may be tempting to register lots of domains containing words such as startbucks, macdonad or micosoft.
While this strategy used to prove successful when domain names first became popular back in the 1990s, this is now a very dangerous business.

Continue reading Are Trademark Typo Domains a good idea ?.

Reverse domain hijacking

By Andrew McGrath on November 12, 2009 3:50 PM | No Comments

Domain hijacking is the process of transferring ownership of a domain name without the permission of the registrant (domain owner). This is usually done by hacking into their registrar account or tricking them into giving away their password, by pretending to be their registrar.

Reverse domain hijacking is where someone tries to claim the rights to a domain and use legal threats or UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy) action to have a domain transferred to them from the current owner who also has full right to own and the same domain.

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Class Action Suit Filed Against Oversee

By Nancy Bianchi on November 10, 2009 2:20 PM | 3 Comments

A Miami lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against domain name auction site SnapNames.com, after the company announced that a former employee was bidding against potential customers in domain name auctions.

Attorney Santiago Cueto filed the lawsuit Monday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court on behalf of his brother, Carlos Cueto, and others who participated in SnapNames.com's online auctions. The lawsuit alleges that a former vice president at SnapNames.com secretly bid on tens of thousands of domain name auctions over the past four years, leading to falsely inflated prices.

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Evicting Domain Cybersquaters

By Andrew McGrath on November 2, 2009 10:23 AM | No Comments

Do you run a business that holds a trademark? Have you gone to yourbusiness.com, only to find someone else has registered the domain? If the domain is parked or is for sale, this may be what is known as 'cybersquatting'.

Cybersquatting is where someone registers a domain name they know is (or contains) a trademark, with the intent of selling it to the trademark holder at an inflated price. Cybersquatting also includes any other bad faith intent to profit from the use of a domain, containing a trademark. There are practices similar to cybersquatting, such as typosquatting, which is registering variants of popular trademarks or typos of trademarks (hence the name).

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